The Day the Music Burned


Probably many of you have read this by now, but The NY Times put out an article recently on the 2008 Universal fire which was kept under wraps for obvious reasons: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html?action=click&m...

So much musical history was destroyed and will never be recovered - the first generation masters are the musical event - everything else is at best a good facsimile.  Makes one question the quality/genealogy of the music that is being put out there.  After all, for most audiophiles, the foundation of our hobby is the music and pursuit of good sound.  Be curious to get others opinions on this topic.

Happy listening!

Gorm
gormdane
Unfortunately because that thread title mentioned Elton John and Nirvana it was all too easy to overlook. The full extent of the loss is incalculable.


"Among the incinerated Decca masters were recordings by titanic figures in American music: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland. The tape masters for Billie Holiday’s Decca catalog were most likely lost in total."

"The list of destroyed single and album masters takes in titles by dozens of legendary artists, a genre-spanning who’s who of 20th- and 21st-century popular music. It includes recordings by Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, the Andrews Sisters, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward, Sammy Davis Jr., Les Paul, Fats Domino, Big Mama Thornton, Burl Ives, the Weavers, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Bobby (Blue) Bland, B.B. King, Ike Turner, the Four Tops, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Sonny and Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart, Cat Stevens, the Carpenters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Al Green, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles, Don Henley, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Iggy Pop, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Barry White, Patti LaBelle, Yoko Ono, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Police, Sting, George Strait, Steve Earle, R.E.M., Janet Jackson, Eric B. and Rakim, New Edition, Bobby Brown, Guns N’ Roses, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Sonic Youth, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hole, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, 50 Cent and the Roots."


Unfortunately the other thread turned into a political rant on the journalism of the NYT. ☹️ 

The loss of history is incalculable.  Technology these days allows us to get something almost as good as the master, which for me still is THE musical moment.

gormdane


Thank you for posting. It is criminal in the ways that music was stored.

I did not recall reading how the fire started? Or why for that matter?


Happy Listening!