Ive never met a person who didnt at least listen to music. Ive rarely been in a restaurant that didnt play music of some kind in the background. Some of that music was even recorded at this historic studio...RCA Studio A, currently known as Bens Place. Im with Ben Folds on this one. I hope this can continue to be a recording studio for years to come. It deserves to be preserved and I feel Nashville owes it that. Progress can be a tricky thing. We can rationalize doing a lot of things in the name of profit and can have the right to do so legally, but this doesnt always make this progress the right thing to do. Progress is best suited I believe when it not only makes life easier financially moving forward, but it also remembers the things that make life worth living. We hail soldiers, veterans and war memorials as sacred tenants of American freedom - and truly they are and they should be. But, music helps to make that life afforded by that freedom worth living. I know this by interacting with soldiers in Iraq while playing music for them, regardless of my stance on the war they are engaged in. So, I too, plead with Nashville, realtors, and to whomever may end up owning RCA Studio A to remember its legacy. There are fewer and fewer places like this left in the world. As long as there are instruments being played, spaces like this will be needed to capture them. I feel that new music should reverberate off these walls as the music of Elvis did. I also urge music lovers and music listeners to remember that the music that you are hearing took money to make it. Even though it flows freely like water these days, often times many people sacrificed time and money to make it something that you can hear and enjoy. Most musicians, song writers, and artists are not rich, even some famous ones, because they have put love of music over love of money. I urge us all to consider that when we buy a gallon of gas for $4, a loaf of bread for $2, that a $0.99 for a song on iTunes seems really reasonable on that scale even though most will baulk at the price of it. That kind of progress leads to historic studios becoming IRS offices. Ouch.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:41:52 +0000