This is a really interesting short video. Aside from the fact that this collection is a cultural treasure, it raised some questions for me as I watched.
Here’s a man that, by his admission, gave his life to music and to archiving it in this way. He’s a purist. He has refused to follow the current cultural trend towards superficial, “fast food” music production. And no one cares. His collection is worth over $50 million and he can’t sell it for $3 million. He’s gone blind and he has to close his music store and retire. All he has to show for his years is this priceless archive of musical history.
I found it sad for two reasons. One, the idea that a man as passionate as this gave his entire life to the pursuit of something so fragile and temporal. Two, the idea that America really has lost it’s soul and sense of history. And I’m not just talking about music.
What do you think?
The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.
Last summer during our visit to Concord someone told me how the town tore down a historic downtown building in order to build a new jail. They started demolishing the historic structure at 1 am so as not to attract attention and the deed was done by sunrise. The townspeople were outraged but of course it was too late to do anything. I wish we’d have a better sense of history to keep our historic architecture around.
As far as this vinyl record guy…i guess my take is that it’s nice to know there’s an “expert” somewhere out there who knows all there is to know on something like vinyl records. Maybe the Smithsonian will end up buying his collection!
I don’t know. Old objects can collectors items and very rare. Maybe he didn’t want to give away something he might regret.