I went to a Henry Rollins talking gig in Boston the other night. At the gig, they were selling his newest recorded spoken word CD's, Talk Is Cheap Volume 1 and Talk Is Cheap Volume 2. They are each 2 discs of Henry speaking, recorded on his 2001 tour. They aren't available anywhere but at his shows (I should know, I check his website like somepeople check the time).

I'm not going to review the discs right now, I may get to that later. What I want to do is share some of the insight in the linear notes from the first volume. From the horse's mouth:

I reckon ten bucks is a pretty good price. The Price can also be an indicator as to how much CD's really cost to make and could possibly raise questions as to why they can be so expensive in stores these days. And talk is not exactly worthless, but should not be overpriced.

By the way, one dollar from the sale of each CD is going to Hollygrove in Los Angeles, CA. Soooo, that's 9 dollars for each 2 CD set OR 18 dollars for 4 CD's. I think that is an awesome price. How much did you pay for that last boxed set you bought with 4 CD's? Sixty, seventy dollars?

I also think this is indicative of where the artists could go on their own. Sure, sure they wouldn't have that huge conglomerated marketing machine standing behind them to push the hell out of the record. However, I believe that the records will sell on their own virtue and the shows will sell on the value of the music.

The price of these CD's just point the reality to me. Here's an artist, self-promoting and selling a CD only at his shows. (I'm sure it will eventually be available at his website) Here's a guy who does 100+ gigs a year and affords to keep doing it. A new record every few months, a tour every couple of weeks. He's living the rock 'n roll dream. The Rollins Band records are put out on a slightly larger scale, hitting your local record store, Amazon.com, etc. where the price is jacked up. However, on the website, they are available for between $10-$20. The higher priced ones are two CD sets. Even some of the two CD sets are only $12.

Never mind the content, since I know not too many people are into the Rollins Band or even Henry's spoken word stuff (you SHOULD check it all out, though.... I highly recommend all of it) To me, the simple price of these records speak volumes about what the music industry is doing to us, the consumer. What a sad state of affairs.