So Much to Say by Nikki Van Noy

Author:Nikki Van Noy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2011-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Napster and independent websites weren’t the only places leaking The Lillywhite Sessions. Once again, bootlegging reared its ugly head, with sellers on eBay and other online auction sites selling the CDs, sometimes under false pretenses. For example, a fan was offered the chance to purchase a pen on eBay for $20. Oh, and as a bonus, you got a burned CD of The Lillywhite Sessions thrown into the deal.

No matter what side of the debate fans fell on, at the end of the day there was no way to get The Lillywhite Sessions back. Not only were they part of the fan knowledge base at this point, but the leak was so big that it permeated the mass media. In the end, major media outlets joined fans in the sport of comparing Everyday and The Lillywhite Sessions. So widespread was Lillywhite distribution that even mainstream publications such as Entertainment Weekly published reviews of the album that wasn’t. Entertainment Weekly for its part, incidentally, graded the album an A minus, dubbing it “the biggest phenomenon since Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes ” and speculating that “If unauthorized downloads counted as sales, it probably would have gone gold, maybe even platinum, during its first couple of months on the free market known as Napster.”

Regardless of what fans and critics had to say in praise of The Lillywhite Sessions, the fact remains that the band simply did not intend to have the music distributed in its current state. Not only did they not release the album, but it’s clear from the songs’ unmixed quality and Dave’s sometimes clearly off-the-cuff, mumbled improvisations that The Lillywhite Sessions did not represent a finalized, polished product. In an April 17, 2002, interview with Rolling Stone, Matthews said, “When they first got out on the Web, it was like walking into a gallery and there’s a crowd of people standing around looking at an unfinished painting and judging you for it. I can’t blame the fans for wanting to hear the thing, but it can’t fix the feeling that you’ve been robbed. There was an ugliness to it that left me feeling violated.”

Not only did this period mark a pivotal point in DMB’s history, it’s also indicative of the climate of the music industry at the time. With the Internet’s great strides, the powers that be struggled to deal with rapidly changing technology and the greater (and often illegal) accessibility and distribution of music, most notably through Napster. Truly, The Lillywhite Sessions was a product of the time and doubtless schooled many music industry insiders on the potential pitfalls of increasing digital accessibility.

With the Everyday/Lillywhite Sessions debacle still going strong, DMB commenced its summer tour in support of Everyday with a hometown show at UVA’s Scott Stadium in Charlottesville on April 21, 2001—just a day after the ten-year anniversary of the full band’s first public appearance at Charlottesville’s Earth Day Festival. This marked DMB’s first return to Charlottesville since the Crash album debut at Trax in 1996. Despite the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.