The Day The Music Burned

June 11, 2019 2:22 PM

A fire that ripped through the Universal Studios Hollywood 11 years ago this month apparently destroyed around 500,000 song titles. Masters from the likes of Coltrane, etc. are gone forever "Eleven years ago this month, a fire ripped through a part of Universal Studios Hollywood. At the time, the company said that the blaze had destroyed the theme park’s “King Kong” attraction and a video vault that contained only copies of old works. But, according to an article published on Tuesday by The New York Times Magazine, the fire also tore through an archive housing treasured audio recordings, amounting to what the piece described as "the biggest disaster in the history of the music business"."

The losses include masters (released and unreleased) from the likes of Billie Holiday, Chuck Berry, Duke Ellington, Captain Beefheart, Sonic Youth, Tupac, the Roots, and hundreds if not thousands more.

posted by gtrwolf (1 comment total)

Still trying to absorb this news myself, but to quote one of the interviewees: "What the [expletive] was anybody thinking putting a tape vault in an amusement park?”
posted by gtrwolf at 2:22 PM on June 11, 2019