Stephen McBride ([email protected])
Fri, 18 Sep 1998 19:17:35 +0100
However, at Christmas 1966, the Beatles released a compilation
called "Oldies but Goldies". This was in the era when the band
were releasing two LP's a year, and had no new product to give
Parlophone. Hence, an album of previous singles, and one track
previously unreleased in the UK (Larry Williams' "Bad Boy"). This
was in the shops before the beatles had released arguably their
best work, namely "Sgt. Pepper", the White Album and "Abbey
Road". Parallels for we U2 fans to be cognisant of perhaps?
Incidentally, in the UK at any rate, it was also common practice to
release EP's with about four LP tracks at intervals in between
albums. Now this could be regarded as a cynicalmoney making
move. however, a friend of mine now in his late 40's tells me that
during the 1960's, the cost of LP's was prohibitively high for the
likes of teenagers, and this was often their only chance of getting
to hear album tracks.
Again, there is a parallel. A Best of/Greatest Hits/Whatever from
U2 is allowing teenagers especially the chance to hear some of the
bands earlier work, without having to shell out large sums of cash
on every CD.
Finally, a controversial point, just to start debate! :))) And I do
mean this good naturedly! A lot of people have been accusing U2
of selling out, and of ripping off the fans who made them wealthy.
OK, how many of us own at least one bootleg? If you do then you
are ripping off U2!! Bootlegs are theft! The band doesn't receive
any royalties from the pirating of material to which they own the
copyright, and frequently, the manufacturers of bootlegs charge
criminally high prices for inferior sounding material that the band
would never dream of releasing - because it sounds sub-standard.
Don't get me wrong. I own a few bootlegs for the thrill of hearing
the band live. Bu in buying them, I am, strictly speaking,
encouraging theft from U2! the fact is the band have indicated they
have no objection to fans owning such material. So let's hear no
more about how they are ripping us off!! I've followed them since
1978. I've yet to be ripped off. You don't like a "Best of"? Is
anyone forcing you to buy it?
Stephen
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Fri Sep 18 1998 - 11:21:51 PDT