Master recordings from thousands of artists lost in fire

[BIuebird]

Some truly gutting news!  The fire actually happened 11 years ago, but was only brought to light today. 

Master tapes from thousands of musical artists lost in a fire at Universal

Master recordings of over 500,000 songs were lost in the fire.  From the article, "The list of destroyed single and album masters takes in titles by dozens of legendary artists, a genre-spanning who’s who of 20th- and 21st-century popular music. It includes recordings by Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, the Andrews Sisters, the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers, Lionel Hampton, Ray Charles, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward, Sammy Davis Jr., Les Paul, Fats Domino, Big Mama Thornton, Burl Ives, the Weavers, Kitty Wells, Ernest Tubb, Lefty Frizzell, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Bobby (Blue) Bland, B.B. King, Ike Turner, the Four Tops, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Joan Baez, Neil Diamond, Sonny and Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Captain Beefheart, Cat Stevens, the Carpenters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Al Green, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, the Eagles, Don Henley, Aerosmith, Steely Dan, Iggy Pop, Rufus and Chaka Khan, Barry White, Patti LaBelle, Yoko Ono, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Police, Sting, George Strait, Steve Earle, R.E.M., Janet Jackson, Eric B. and Rakim, New Edition, Bobby Brown, Guns N’ Roses, Queen Latifah, Mary J. Blige, Sonic Youth, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Hole, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Tupac Shakur, Eminem, 50 Cent and the Roots."

[eloneen]

BIuebird Wow! How terrible! 

[orioles70]

BIuebird - let's hope that Jeff has copies of his masters squirreled away all over the world (or at least in London, Hamburg, Paris, Rome
Rio, Hong Kong, Tokyo, L.A., New York, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo AND Shard End)

I read the article in the NY Times - it was hard to decipher how much of what burned was one of a kind versus one of many copies. For sure it points out that music like everything else is at risk of being lost.

[dillwyn]

that is heart breaking .. i thought some of the elo master tapes were already lost OOTB? ...maybe my memory is playing tricks

[tightrope]

I've had the same concerns with Jeff living and recording in LA. One can only imagine the stuff he has tucked away there.

[BIuebird]

Yes, it's very worrisome! I follow the official R.E.M. page on Facebook, and apparently the artists weren't even notified that this happened! Worried fans were asking what was lost and the band has no idea because they were never notified. It totally blind-sided them when it came out today. How horrible for all of them, I hope none of Jeff's work was lost either.

[Helmut83]

Many old time legends on that list (alongside a few crappy acts).

[queenofthehours]

This is so sad. The news shouldn't have been kept from everyone.

So when music people have used the excuse "the mastertapes are missing" during the last few years, what they really meant was that they have gone up in flames?