Great disappearing record collection

Along with my books, a bunch of records arrived here last week, including the vinyl I purchased back in the 80s. I’ve not hooked up my turntable to my desktop Mac yet, so I’ve no way of digitising my albums; plus a few things have gone missing. So I thought I’d see if could get these missing greats on mp3 download anywhere. I was listening to a lot of African music at the time, which if you remember was undergoing a wave of popularity as a refreshing change from the plastic pop we were being served as a musical staple at the time.

Philip Tabane and Malombo: Malombo

Out of print, no downloads available

Tabane is now an honorary Doctor, awarded for his contributions to South African music. He plays a mad combination of traditional African, jive and jazz, producing especially powerful live performances. Yet his albums (one of which I’ve lost) are almost all unavailable. If you’re a fan, a concert from the 1980s is about to be released in South Africa as a DVD.

Bhundu Boys Shabini and Tsvimbodzemoto

Out of print, no downloads available

One of John Peel’s favourite bands, Bhundu Boys produced two albums before being signed to Warner, with less satisfactory results. Neither of the African albums, Shabini and Tsvimbodzemoto – yes, they are the decent ones – are available. Yet they are a seminal band for the UK’s understanding of African music.

Touré Kunda: Karandindi

Out of print, no downloads available

These funksters played a sort of ultra-trendy 80s Afro-poptrash rather like an even more poppy Salif Keïta. Touré Kunda toured with Carlos Santana. The very trashy album I have, Karandindi is not available, although there is a ‘best of’ compilation. I’d have thought Karandindi would be ideal for remixes, DJs and others looking for a bit of 80s irony.

Sidiki Diabaté, Toumani Diabaté: et al: Ba Togoma

Out of print, no downloads available

Toumani Diabaté is of course very famous among African music afficionados, but this first recorded appearance, recorded with his father’s ensemble, is not available, and seems almost forgotten. Calm, unaffacted traditional griot music if you can find it.

I could go on, and on. The point is, though, this is the digital age, distribution is no problem, there’s almost certainly a market for this material, but there’s no means of getting hold of it. Why is that? From what I know, it’ll be a combination of unclear rights, lack of interest from the commercial rights owners and even a desire not to flood the market with old material.

I am sure these albums are far from the only items to be unavailable, but they illustrate the cultural deficit that results from failures in our copyright system. Copyright-protected recordings cannot be distributed without the permission of their rights-holders, who will nearly always be the record company. Swathes of culture are placed off-limits. People cannot easily learn from, experience, or reuse these works, yet none of this is technologically necessary. Where we may have understood back in the 80s that reissuing old vinyl on tape or CD would be expensive and difficult, this is simply no longer the case.

On one level, this lack of availability is a personal inconvenience, but on another, we are being denied access to large chunks of world culture. To make matters worse, the industry continues to lobby for an extension to copyright term for sound recordings.

Currently, once we reach the 2030s, these recordings would enter the ‘public domain’ and once again be available for republishing and distribution by anyone, albeit with small royalties to be given to the songwriters, who are paid via collecting societies. (You don't have to ask the songwriter if the record can be distributed, but they do have to be paid.)

But, under plans promoted by record companies that may soon become law, copyright term could be extended to 70 years, pushing the date back to the 2050s for our 1980s records to become available again. 

Reunited with my books

When I moved to London, I arrived with very little of my stuff, as I didn’t have anywhere permanent to live: and as a result my books have been in boxes for a serious while. I’ve just got them back. Here’s a few of the things I’ve been living without:

Steve Bell’s If... from the early and mid-80s. 

Steve Bell needs no introduction, but these early volumes were very influential for me. Do cartoons change politics? Maybe not, but they can certainly turn the unpalatable into genuine entertainment. Didn't you realise how much you’d miss Norman Tebbit once he left the front bench?

Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future: Rogue Planet

These almost cinematographic drawings fascinated me as a child. Frank Hampson’s vision of the future as seen by a 1950s Briton is both retro and compelling. Stunning architecture too.

Egil’s Saga and Njal’s Saga

Iceland is best known for bank failures and fish, and Magnus Magnusson best known for Mastermind; but Magnusson is also a translator of these early medieval sagas. Their form is prose in chapters, much like a novel. The stories are exciting and bloody, yet these fishermen, farmers and raiders are poets and philosophers too.

Caradoc Evans: My People

Dear old Caradoc’s books were burnt by his outraged fellow countrymen for insulting the religious, non-conformist communities of Wales. His portrayal of Welsh-speaking Cardiganshire as vindictive, petty and impoverished with chapels leaching off their congregations is sharp and entertaining.

Montaillou

In 1318, the Inquisition comes to a small French town to rid the locals of the rather sensible-seeming Cathar heresy, in which good and evil are balanced forces. Ambitious inquisitor Jacques Fournier makes an impressive effort to interview everyone to understand their attitudes and beliefs, before executing those who do not repent.

Later, the fellow becomes Pope Benedict XII, and his detailed notes are preserved for posterity. 1970s historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie creates this picture of French peasant life from the notes, including their affairs, alliances, betrayals and beliefs, much of it in the words of the heretics themselves.

Your Money or you life

Jaques Le Goff illustrates the power of ideas to constrain and transform, by detailing the medieval Church’s attitude to usury. As time belonged to God, interest charged on money was theft of that which belongs to God. So usurers were doomed to Hell as thieves. Le Goff argues that the invention of purgatory, as an escape from the inevitability of hell, eased the transition to capitalism, as it allowed userers to hope for something other than eternal damnation.

Don't look to me for elucidation, though, read the books yourself! Ask me if you want to borrow them.