IVIV p.34

[Keith]

On Sep 4, 2009, at 9:54 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

"his head between the speakers"....

More discussion on TRP using an image that REALLY
comments of the future (after IV): loss of music
as a group--or public-- experience to an atomised one with
Walkmans to Ipods, etc...?
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For me reading this in IV took me right back to my parents'
living room floor where in the late 60s I spent hours with
my head between the speakers marveling at the wonder of
stereo sound and the music of Hendrix, Cream, Jefferson
Airplane, etc etc. I would take the covers of double
albums like Electric Ladyland, Wheels of Fire, or The Live
Adventures Of Michael Bloomfield & Al Kooper and stand
them next to the right and left sides of the stereo console
(at that time most stereos were in cabinets that had built
in speakers facing straight outwards) so that the sound
bounced off the album jackets and directly into my ears
enhancing the stereo effects. My dad used to get pissed
seeing me blissing out for hours on end to that incredible
music, saying he'd be glad when the "new wore off" of that
early stereophonic reverie. Still hasn't. So, it never
occurred to me that Pynchon was referring to the loss of
music as a group experience. For me, he was just capturing
the bliss of the early sonic delight of stereophonic sound.

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