A Fabulous Creation
How the LP Saved Our Lives
David Hepworth
- _________‘Hepworth’s
- knowledge
- and
- understanding
- of
- rock
- history
- is
- prodigious
- …
- [a]
- hugely
- entertaining
- study
- of
- the
- LP’s
- golden
- age’
- The
- Times
_________The
- era
- of
- the
- LP
- began
- in
- 1967,
- with
- ‘Sgt
- Pepper’;
- The
- Beatles
- didn’t
- just
- collect
- together
- a
- bunch
- of
- songs,
- they
- Made
- An
- Album.
- Henceforth,
- everybody
- else
- wanted
- to
- Make
- An
- Album.The
- end
- came
- only
- fifteen
- years
- later,
- coinciding
- with
- the
- release
- of
- Michael
- Jackson’s
- ‘Thriller’.
- By
- then
- the
- Walkman
- had
- taken
- music
- out
- of
- the
- home
- and
- into
- the
- streets
- and
- the
- record
- business
- had
- begun
- trying
- to
- reverse-engineer
- the
- creative
- process
- in
- order
- to
- make
- big
- money.
- Nobody
- would
- play
- music
- or
- listen
- to
- it
- in
- quite
- the
- same
- way
- ever
- again.It
- was
- a
- short
- but
- transformative
- time.
- Musicians
- became
- ‘artists’
- and
- we,
- the
- people,
- patrons
- of
- the
- arts.
- The
- LP
- itself
- had
- been
- a
- mark
- of
- sophistication,
- a
- measure
- of
- wealth,
- an
- instrument
- of
- education,
- a
- poster
- saying
- things
- you
- dare
- not
- say
- yourself,
- a
- means
- of
- attracting
- the
- opposite
- sex,
- and,
- for
- many,
- the
- single
- most
- desirable
- object
- in
- their
- lives.This
- is
- the
- story
- of
- that
- time;
- it
- takes
- us
- from
- recording
- studios
- where
- musicians
- were
- doing
- things
- that
- had
- never
- been
- done
- before
- to
- the
- sparsely
- furnished
- apartments
- where
- their
- efforts
- would
- be
- received
- like
- visitations
- from
- a
- higher
- power.
- This
- is
- the
- story
- of
- how
- LPs
- saved
- our lives.
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