Culture, Not Commodity

One of the things that Live! Music Review helped institute in the public perception was the idea that music had more value in its cultural relevance than in financial rewards - financial rewards which were, more often than not, reaped by music industry executives instead of the actual creators. Soon, even the mainstream press was giving bootleggers a sympathetic ear. Music critic and historian, Dave Marsh, probably put it best when interviewed for an article in the Orlando Weekly:

 "That’s precisely the problem," says Marsh. "To the RIAA this stuff is just property, where to the rest of us it’s culture," he says. "Anybody who would reduce Bob Dylan live in Manchester in 1966, or Bruce Springsteen at the Bottom Line in 1975, or various blues and gospel records which for years could not be had in any other way, to the same level as ... Triscuits is a person who ought to be fired summarily if the industry in question has any self-respect. Of course, it hasn’t," he adds. "It has a gaping need for profits and doesn’t know the value of its own commodities. That’s one reason why viewing it as a commodity is a disaster." 

Marsh was responding to this quote from Frank Creighton of the anti-piracy division of the RIAA: "People decide when to release it, how to release it, what price they’re going to release it at, etc., etc. Nobody’s sitting there screaming at the fact that Triscuit has not come out with a new cracker yet -- hasn’t released a sour cream and onion cracker."

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/getting-the-boots/Content?oid=2265184

An Influential 1990s Fanzine Returns

(by Bill Glahn)

























It's been more 20 years since Live! Music Review printed it's last magazine. Times have changed. Some changes were apparent 20 years ago. Like the impending doom for print publications in the Internet age - that was already apparent. A small family operation couldn't go on publishing and lose a couple grand a month. The kids had to eat.

Some changes were unimaginable. Like a pandemic of Covid-19 spreading across the globe, with even the world's richest superpower unable to stem the tide of new infections. The politics of that fiasco are divisive, but not altogether unavoidable. Music and music industry malfeasance will continue to be the focus of Live! Music Review in its new incarnation.

In the last 20 years I have also become a grandfather 5 times. That's the most beautiful part. I've quit drinking. That's a good thing, too. I've stayed in contact with a lot of old friends and lost touch with just as many.

As a grandfather, I have an obligation to protect my grandchildren. So, I take "stay at home" very seriously. Which brings us to this relaunch of L!MR. I've got time on my hands and sanity to maintain.

I'll be reprinting some original content from the old issues. But beyond that, I'll be recruiting some of your favorite past writers and approaching some new ones as well. There will be links to articles on the state of the artists, clubs, and concerts - a source of much debate in the ongoing attempts at reopening the economy. And, as in the past, we'll be reporting on new circulating bootlegs (mostly vinyl these days), fan CD-Rs, and downloadable MP3s. (We won't be hosting any, but may provide links to sites that are.) We'll also post YouTube links that you may have overlooked, artists that are doing "stay at home" concerts on Facebook.

It may not look a lot like the print editions and the topics may have changed, but it will be approached with the same "take no prisoners" attitude. L!MR's time may have passed at the beginning of the millennium, but its time for a reboot has arrived. Onward.

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