I am having a hard time comprehending some of the ways technology has transformed our lives. Back in the seventies, I spent some time in recording studios, and getting a song onto vinyl (!) was always a major production.
The other day I put up a link to this little song we did, and how it came about was nothing like what used to happen in the seventies. It all happened on this wise. I read a tweet from Iowahawk, the right-wing tweet-bomber, and it reminded me somehow of the connection between the old song 16 Tons, and the national red ink ocean of 16 Trillion. So I, quick, modified the lyrics to 16 Tons, and emailed them to my friend Tim Bushong in Indiana. He has a swell recording operation that you should check out here. I asked if this is the sort of thing he might be interested in helping out with. Why, shore.
I then recorded a rough idea on my iPad with Garageband, and emailed it to him. He laid down the foundational tracks, and emailed it back to me. I got my iPad out again, hooked the headphones up to my laptop, and while listening to what he had done, recorded the rhythm guitar and the vocal tracks separately, and emailed them back to him. He then mixed the whole thing, added piano as an afterthought, why not, and emailed it back to me. I asked my daughter Bekah to make a logo for the Jenny Geddes band, which she did in nothing flat, and I signed up for Noisetrade, uploading the whole deal, trying hard and not very successfully to not be hugely pleased with myself. As Mary Poppins would say, spit spot.
If Christians are given the eyes to see, and the heart to understand, technology has the capacity to outrun the state. But that is a post for another time.