February 03, 2005

Bootlegging Steve Taylor

UPDATE: Let me add this important qualification and clarification to what I've written here and in the comments to this post: I have no clear understanding as to what the law allows or prohibits in this circumstance (see Steve Taylor's comments below). But let me say that I do not advocate breaking the law, nor do I advocate getting for free what the record companies and Steve have a right to generate revenue from. If you can find Steve's albums in a record store, then buy it and delete and destroy any copies you have downloaded from the site linked below. Nothing of what I say here should be construed as an invitation or exhortation to violate any person's or business' right to legitimately market and sell a product.

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Back in the day, a youngun in high school, and fresh from a life-altering repentance and rededication to my Christian faith, I was a Steve Taylor fan. So bootleg* sites like this one do my heart real, real good.

Who could forget the classics Lifeboat (with the inimitable Mrs. Aryan), I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good, and Jesus is for Losers? (Oh, and the The Lament Of Desmond R.G. Underwood-Fredrick IV is none too bad 'tall, nope.) [Note: All links open in MP3.]

Listen and learn wisdom, y'all.

*For those of you ethical watchdogs out there that are concerned with my advocation of seemingly illegal activity, I offer this quote from Mr. Taylor himself, at the June 2003 Cornerstone festival:

One of the problems with the record industry is, in my situation, I've had albums on three different labels. I have no control over what happens to those albums or how and if they get re-packaged or released. I've made attempts to try to license them back from labels to try to put