Another year.

Harry

Charter A&M Corner Member
Staff member
Site Admin
It's late August and my thoughts turn to a pivotal event in my life that happened now 22 years ago. Sometime earlier, in about 1996, we had a home computer and had just installed Windows 95 on it. We used it to work on Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets and to watch flying toasters or Captain Kirk on an After Dark screensaver. The term "online" was still just a special case of the computer world. We had one of those 300-baud modems where you dialed a phone number and stuck the receiver down on a cradle after the irritating tone appeared.


Like so many others of the day, I signed up for an AOL account. They sent their software on CDs seemingly every other day with a new offer for X00 free hours of online time. Going online back then was a different experience. After dialing, I'd land in AOL's little world of online stuff, but it would be a little while longer before I found the way to the actual World Wide Web.

I recall there was a couple of Web search engines available other than AOL's own. One was AltaVista and another was WebCrawler. These all predated Google. Searching one day in the spring of 1997 on one or the other of those, I entered "Herb Alpert" and saw a site listed of Rudy's A&M Corner. Clicking on the link, I was taken nowhere. I don't know if the Corner was down, the search engine gliched, or my X00 free hours were up. But I moved on to something else.

In August of that year, we took a weekend trip up to Vermont and New Hampshire, stayed at a B&B and then started for home, stopping in Hartford, which is where we heard the news about Princess Diana. After arriving home, I again did a "Herb Alpert" search on one of the search engines and found Rudy's A&M Corner again. This time I got through to the discographies on the site and a Fan Contact page. It was a page where a user could sign a guestbook and see all of the others who'd signed up too.

There, I saw names like Steve Sidoruk, Mike Blakesley, Richard Warner and other stalwarts like our Mr Bill, along with others who were around here in the beginning and have moved on in life I suppose. Once I found my may to the A&M Corner Forum, I was hooked. Literally. For the next 22 years, I've made this the first stop every day, with frequent stops during every day. Early on, there was so much to learn. I knew almost nothing about so many A&M artists, but knew a lot about others. We shared our discoveries, our knowledge, and how we acquired it.

CDs were the format of the day, and all of us were eagerly awaiting any news of discs from our favorite artists. Japan was a great source of product, but this was before much in the way of online ordering, so we relied on sites like Thoughtscape Sounds and Dusty Grooves to import the Japanese discs and sell them to us. Meanwhile, we relied on our trusty vinyl to get us through our music needs.

True story: today, I walked by a calendar on our fridge and the date hit me: 2019! Really? Isn't that the year that BLADE RUNNER takes place? Well, they say time flies when you're having fun, so I must be having fun with all of you out there in Internet land that the days have flown by.

Harry
...older, not necessarily wiser, online...
 
Very touching, Harry. Your write-up actually madce me tear up a bit!

I discovered the Corner around the same time. Hard to believe Julius's visit to the corner before he passed was 20 years ago! I think Steve S is the one I've known online the longest, having chatted about Herb Alpert on the old Prodigy service in the early 90s.

And I'm pleased that I have met so many others in person (including Steve) over the years. Rudy and his family visited me and Mrs Bill in San Diego the same day Julius popped in. Our kids were toddlers (or in utero in his case) then and now they're either in college or in their careers! Now that I live in Texas, Capt B and I have chatted about getting together but it hasn't happened yet. And I need to make a long weekend run to Tennessee to visit LPJim -- our "number obsession" is a strong bond and I look forward to seeing his collection. And meeting you at WDW was a great time. I only wish it was while Mike B was in town!

I may not post as often anymore, but I still pop in frequently, chiming in only when I feel like I have something of substance to offer. I'm in need of updating the AOTW image file and my own IRS Corner... Finding the time (and updating it technologically) is another matter!

--Mr Bill
 
Wow... now THIS one took me back in time! Great visual recap Harry!!

Reminds me of the early days back in around '93ish on the Prodigy network. Back then forums were referred to as "bulletin boards" if I recall, and I can remember connecting with other Carpenters die-hards in far off states (everything seemed much farther away and spread out in those days) to try and obtain some rarity that one simply could not find any place else. You'd pay some ridiculous amount of money to score a bootleg copy of audio or video on a cassette/VHS analog tape, usually a tenth generation re-dub just to have something that very few people had. AND you would wait patiently for two or three weeks for the process to unfold - your money being sent via "snail mail" to the other party, then the anxious anticipation of that package to arrive back to you in the mail with the goods.

Ahhhh... the good ol' days... :)
 
Yep. Money orders were the currency of the Internet, even when eBay got started. You'd contact the seller after you won an auction and negotiate the payment, usually money orders. Then you'd run to the bank or financial institution, pay for a money order and mail it off. Weeks later, you'd get your item in the mail. Thank goodness they came up with PayPal.
 
Back then forums were referred to as "bulletin boards" if I recall, and I can remember connecting with other Carpenters die-hards in far off states (everything seemed much farther away and spread out in those days) to try and obtain some rarity that one simply could not find any place else. You'd pay some ridiculous amount of money to score a bootleg copy of audio or video on a cassette/VHS analog tape, usually a tenth generation re-dub just to have something that very few people had. AND you would wait patiently for two or three weeks for the process to unfold - your money being sent via "snail mail" to the other party, then the anxious anticipation of that package to arrive back to you in the mail with the goods.

That reminds me of my first experience with A&M "collecting." I'd only ever had one copy of the TJB's Warm.... an 8-track tape, and I had lost that. All that remained was a few of the songs on a "best of Herb" cassette that I had compiled. Needless to say, it sounded like crap. Sometime in the early '80s, I saw an ad (either in Billboard or Rolling Stone, I can't remember) offering a record-searching service. You would send in your list, and they'd come back with their search results and prices -- no obligation. So I thought, what the heck....I'll try for a copy of Warm, which I figured was probably next to impossible. After a couple of weeks I got a letter back....they'd found a near-mint copy of Warm, and I could have it for the low price of 40 bucks, plus shipping.

It seemed like a lot of cash, but my tired cassette sounded SO bad, and I liked those songs SO much, that I sent in the money and got my record, which I still have today. It sounded really good except for one annoying sccrrrraatttch that comes up right during one of the quiet parts of "The Sea Is My Soil." But it was still magnitudes better than anything I'd heard to that point.

It was another 10+ years later when I hooked onto the internet and one of my first searches (via either Yahoo or AltaVista, I'm not sure which) was for "Sergio Mendes" and "Herb Alpert" -- I'm not sure what order I searched them in, but it led me to A&M Corner, where one of my first actions was to fire off a note to Rudy saying I didn't agree with his review of Sergio's Stillness album. To my astonishment he responded right away with "Well, go ahead and write another one and I'll put it up." Which I did, and I think it's still there to this day.

Thus followed a lot of years of discoveries, friendships, a few online fights, and best of all, a re-awakening to the music I'd always loved but had sort of marginalized until the discussions on the Corner led me to dig further into the details buried within the songs.

It's been a great ride, as Herb likes to say!
 
Although I was late to all things online I'm reminded of my first visit to this forum and I couldn't resist signing up and here it is almost 8 years later and I'm still here contributing as best I can and most of the same people who were here then are still here and many more have joined us since then and Rudy and Harry ( and others) are the ones who were here long before any of us and they deserve a lot of respect and honor for their dedication to this site and keeping it real and yes I used to pay by money orders for years long before Checks and Debit cards but I digress This site is still a joy and delight to visit regularly Blessings to you all.
 
I also knew @Steve Sidoruk from way back--we were both on CompuServe, and hung out in the Music/Arts Forum. I eventually became a sysop there, part of the jazz community (with sysop Les Line, who was originally from a small town in Michigan but lived and worked as a writer/editor in New York), but quit CompuServe the day that AOL took it over. I was also a regular on the Consumer Electronics Forum, which split into Audio and Video forums at some point. I still know a few acquaintances from those days, including the founder of enjoythemusic.com (an audiophile site) who I run into at AXPONA frequently. I also made some good friends at CompuServe, including a couple who would go on to be long-time friends and clients of mine. When CompuServe reconfigured their services, I signed up for their "OurWorld" web site hosting service, which was very limited but no cost (beyond my usual monthly fee), and launched the first of my sites in 1995. I had a little A&M section on there, basically a list of TJB albums. I later got a dial-up Internet provider with some free web space, moved the site over and at some point in 1996, I added a guestbook. 1997, a buddy and I got a "real" web hosting account and I was able to move the guestbook over, then found a script to run an early text-based forum, which grew into what it is today.

I sort of remember when Harry (and possibly Mike) contacted me, I think within a week or so of each other. I had been on vacation in Minneapolis, and returned home to find their postings for the A&M section. That was just prior to Labor Day; I think the day we returned was the day that the infamous Princess Diana accident happened, as that's all we saw on the news that evening.

And yeah, 1998...visiting with Mr Bill and found out after I got home that both Julius Wechter and Carol Kaye had visited. I also had touched based with Pete Jolly around that time by email but sadly, scheduling prevented me from visiting one of his Friday or Saturday night gigs. (He may have been communicating through his son Greg.) Drummer Claudio Slon was also a regular around here until he fell ill and passed away.
 
Great memories for sure and a reminder of how much has evolved in the online world in 20 years. Got started collecting many things A&M in childhood, when I got hooked on the basics (TJB/BMB & B'66) in middle school. Took the inner sleeve advice about "other albums you may enjoy" literally and watched the home collection grow more diverse and prolific. Thought surely by now I'd slow down, but continuing to follow so many artists means I might need to add on to the house soon.

I relied on 'Discoveries' and 'Goldmine' magazine ads to fill holes in the collection, posting "want lists" not only to find albums but make contact with others of like interests. In the late '80s I found Steve S. through his A&M fan network and corresponded via snail mail. He put a lot of work in compiling its news letter and sent me a large data base of releases in numerical order. To this day I consider it the definitive list and rely upon it to refresh the memory. Another early contact from snail mail days was Marty Pekar of N.Y.C. Through his "steal a record" auctions I acquired the bulk of non- album A&M 45s I needed and through mutual interest in the label learned he produced the never released 'Children of God' album (SP 4231). That was the day of bidding by post card and waiting for another to learn I'd won. No correspondence meant I hadn't, but such was the system.

A list of other artists who've dropped by or had family members find the Corner would be too long to list. Before social networking the Corner was the 'go to' place for spirited debates on current events. The late Wendell Johnson was especially lively in that department. An offhand comment about someone's favorite album could also spark some lively conversation. Some sacred cows got kicked but that has been part of the fun.


Many sites are no longer active since social networking has become so impervious, but there's still a need for an online place geared toward specialized interests. I've learned the hard way not everyone I've known since elementary school wants to discuss my favorite obscure A&M artists. It's their loss, of course. But this illustrates there's a solid present and future for an "oasis" like the Corner.

Many happy returns.

JB
 
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Many sites are no longer active since social networking has become so impervious, but there's still a need for an online place geared toward specialized interests.
I've found that is true for many topics. Some keep saying forums are dying (or dead) because everyone turns to social media first, yet the sites I am involved with (even as a visitor) are mostly thriving and growing. Anyone starting a forum today is facing a rough uphill battle, but anything that has been established for a while will continue doing well, if they are properly managed.
 
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