The Day the Music Burned

Y'all oldtimers will remember how I big-upped a synthpop "one man band" called Language, really a project by percussionist and singer Steven Hale that also included Gang of Four lead singer Jon King's sister Debbie and Eddi Reader, before she went on to fame in Fairground Attraction ("Perfect"). They were very short-lived, releasing one EP and a few singles, all produced by Alan Shacklock (chosen because he produced Junior's "Mama Used to Say", which Hale was a huge fan of). In fact, I almost reverted back to one of my old display names for the summer, "Goodbye Indian Summer", which was the name of the first Language song I ever heard, before choosing this one. Language were an A&M recording act, and after seeing how A&M were one of the impacted labels I PMed Mr. Hale (a FB friend of mine) to ask if he'd ever heard anything about this and if he knew where his masters were. Of course he didn't know a thing about what had happened and I have yet to hear back from him after PMing him a link to this article. This could be an example of one of those lesser-known artists impacted by this fire, a recording artist that would have been best served by a remaster because of how under-appreciated they were and how much better their music would sound if it were remastered in crystal clear digital sound. I'm really hoping Mr. Hale comes back to me saying that the masters are located elsewhere, because it would be a real shame if they ended up being lost to the flames. Also, while you're at it, look up "Goodbye Indian Summer" and "We're Celebrating" (and the music video for "Touch the Radio Dance", which was once displayed at MoMA) because Mr. Hale's music was really, really good.

Hmmm....

It appears that the Steve Hoffman Forum thread on Jody Rosen's The Day The Music Burned was pulled from the site today after it reached 67/68 pages.

— Stephen Thomas Erlewine (@sterlewine) June 19, 2019

they knew too much?

couldn't let it get too nice

Steve Hoffman himself now in undisclosed location.

i assume someone made safety copies of him in case he can't be found.

They did, but apparently that copy has after the fact harmony overdubs by the Picks, so it's just not the same.

What an unimaginable loss

I’d been keeping up with that thread, more-or-less, and Hoffman only chimed in to say, “Should we keep the thread going or not?” It seemed like there were potential legal issues for Steve in keeping it going (or so Steve thought). In the years after the fire and before the Times piece, threads about what might’ve been lost in the fire were routinely deleted.

Really? Insane. I'm surprised the users didn't start a new board over that.

Thread is still there in the ‘Off Topic’ section at time of posting.

Of course it may now be a back-up copy rather than the original master.

lmao

original timestamps lost forever

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-universal-music-fire-lucian-grainge-memo-lawsuits-20190618-story.html

Genuine contrition, or damage control?

At least UMG is up 2 something kewl:
https://youtube.googleblog.com/2019/06/youtube-music-and-universal-music-group.html

xpost -- gotta be the latter.

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/vivendi-universal-music-group-fire-noise-arnaud-de-puyfontaine-1203248649/

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/universal-music-fire-zero-impact-on-company-value-1203249173/

https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/childs-play-review-1203248744/

(Just seeing if you’re paying attention with that last one)

Chucky, firestarter.

seems like UMG is basically legally backed into a corner here where they have to deny deny deny now; even a well-meaning and more circumspect upper management can't realistically take steps to retroactively address this. In a saner world, this is where the government would step in and have library of congress or smithsonian start a taxpayer backed archiving process but i'm not holding my breath.

it appears that thread just got moved to Off Topic and not deleted on SHF for whatever weird reason.

Could somebody link that Hoffman thread? I don't know their site that well, particularly when it comes to them hiding/burying stuff.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-day-the-music-burned-article.849828/

you have to be logged in to see the other forums.

In a saner world, this is where the government would step in and have library of congress or smithsonian start a taxpayer backed archiving process but i'm not holding my breath.

Ppl keep saying this, but I still don’t get what is being suggested... The gummint’ can’t force UMG to hand over their tapes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain_in_the_United_States

(yes, they can, and they should)

Good luck extending eminent domain to recordings; I’ll be watching the cases with interest.

it won't happen, but stop being so obtuse. of course the govt can seize private property.

I don’t think I’m the one being obtuse here, lol

My suggestion is that the government bails these guys out and BUYS the masters at an obscene premium (with 50-70% to be divvied among artists) but with limited reproduction rights. Effectively a national archive.

Cheap at a billion and better use than another stealth bomber but certainly not a priority for this administration.

xxp

fair enough, I just think there's plenty of existing precedent for this kinda thing as forks notes, but that assumes willing parties on all sides which is not exactly the case here from what I see

and on the legal side I guess this is more related to forfeiture, ianal

or yeah, what forks just said as well

And here we go.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/21/business/media/universal-music-fire-lawsuit.html

yay!

(?)

Oh it's a definite yay, believe me.

BREAKING: Class action complaint against Universal Music Group filed in U.S. District Court in L.A., in response to 2008 fire that destroyed master recordings. Plaintiffs: Tupac Shakur’s Trustee, Hole, Soundgarden, Steve Earle, Jane Petty (Tom Petty’s ex-wife). pic.twitter.com/5zrNSunFYs

— Jody Rosen (@jodyrosen) June 22, 2019

Interesting list of initial artists... makes me realize that those Hole and Soundgarden albums never have been reissued. (OTOH, the 2010 deluxe ed. of Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes was supposedly “Digitally remastered from the original analog master tapes”... of course that’s just one Petty album.)

There's deluxe Soundgarden reissues of Badmotorfinger and Superunknown.

... although maybe not from the original tapes.

Re:Tom Petty--I wonder if this is why they stopped his reissues with Long After Dark?

xp Really (re: Soundgarden)? I had checked on Amazon before posting (maybe not very well?)

Yup.

https://www.discogs.com/Soundgarden-Badmotorfinger/release/9434237

https://www.discogs.com/Soundgarden-Superunknown-Super-Deluxe/release/5790240

Both appearing in the last five years.

Yep, found it now on Amazon. $249.99 (Prime eligible!)

You think they may have an email trail of the band saying, “Why don’t we use the original masters?” and the label saying, “Uh, we’ll use a better-sounding tape...”

XP There are less-deluxe editons out there as well. A Superunknown double-disc was among the last domestic releases in that line.

FWIW, I have the single-disc Damn The Torpedoes from 2010, and it sounds great!

So are the plaintiffs suing for damages or do they want to void their still-existing contracts or are they demanding a return of the masters or all the above? Or is it not clear as of yet?

i mean, i see the damages listed but i'm curious if they can argue for breach of contract? do record contracts promise to maintain viability of masters in any way?