I couldn't wait until the year 2000...
Flying cars, lasers, and computers!
At my (public) middle school, "Patrick Henry Jr. High", we were lucky enough to have a Computer Lab equipped with some first generation calculators, and a Teletype Model 33 ASR teleprinter keyboard with punched tape reader and punch. We wrote programs using the BASIC programming language, and literally fed them into the Model 33 where it communicated with a mainframe computer off campus, and we waited for the results to return.
In 1982, Ira Ingber and I read "The Soul of a New Machine", by Tracy Kidder, and were inspired by this true story of the new computer pioneers. Their work resonated with our work as we toiled for hours in the darkness of the recording studio, and experimented with the new ways of music production using the MIDI protocol, and synthesizers.
One musician who was on the leading edge of these techniques was Paul Delph, and we were blessed with his sonic contributions to many of our songs. All the sounds (including drums) you hear on this track were created by Paul, except for the usual blazing guitars of Mr. Ira Ingber.
Ira and used to halfheartedly joke that in the future, we would be able to record an album on a watch.
Thirty-one years later the technological contributions of countless pioneers have brought some amazing benefits to our lives; I am writing this blog on my back porch with an iPad2, and the iPhone 5S can run 64 tracks of GarageBand.
But dammit: where's my flying car?
One musician who was on the leading edge of these techniques was Paul Delph, and we were blessed with his sonic contributions to many of our songs. All the sounds (including drums) you hear on this track were created by Paul, except for the usual blazing guitars of Mr. Ira Ingber.
Ira and used to halfheartedly joke that in the future, we would be able to record an album on a watch.
Thirty-one years later the technological contributions of countless pioneers have brought some amazing benefits to our lives; I am writing this blog on my back porch with an iPad2, and the iPhone 5S can run 64 tracks of GarageBand.
But dammit: where's my flying car?
The Soul of a New Machine
You've got the data all behind you
You took the phone apart when you were just a child
And now all the lessons have been learned
And your imagination runs wild
Stuck in a windowless pit with the micro-kids
In silent darkness invented codes reveal
Secret veins of distance and time
And your imagination runs wild
The moon controls the tides
Synchronized program at the core of memory
The moon controls the tides
What controls the logic in the soul of a new machine
Even the experts stare in wonder
Is this mechanism corporeal
It has the human touch concealed
Cause your imagination ran wild
The moon controls the tides
Synchronized program at the core of memory
The moon controls the tides
What controls the logic in the soul of a new machine
I can't stop I can't sleep
I can't taste the food that I eat
Alone with my madness
Just like a man in love
Britt Bacon: vocals
Ira Ingber: guitars, bgs
Paul Delph: Prophet 10 keyboard
Written by Britt Bacon and Ira Ingber
©1982
Source: 1/4" analogue tape 30ips
Source: 1/4" analogue tape 30ips
