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Analogue Man, Retired. (Simon Yorke)

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Simon Yorke writes: "I’m sorry chaps, but I just can’t do this anymore. My analogue fingers seize up, I have forgotten how important tasks were once accomplished, I now require football-stadium lighting in order to see, I often need to take a pee before the glue has set, and farting has become dangerous. Oh, and: What did you say? There is no glory in any of this. For a man who used his hands to build things for over forty years, and no longer can, the frustration is depressing."

"Analogue man has thus been relieved of his duties via a combination of physical malfunction and his inability to be successfully digitised. The world he knew and understood has been transformed into a world he struggles to relate to. Creativity cannot occur without empathy, without the sense of belonging, and it was the creative drive that kept him going. They admire his creations still, but have no appetite for more; technology has rendered analogue man ‘a thing of the past’.

In his place has become the digital man/woman, the technologically-dependent, now-automated biological entity. And whilst he understands the principles of digital audio, he cannot relate to it. Somehow, he feels his innate biology is being cheated. Thus, analogue man is out-dated and unwanted; he doesn’t fit in anymore, doesn’t tick all the necessary boxes, questions things, doubts official narratives and is inclined to be stroppy.

Stroppy man made some interesting machines – machines which delighted the minds of other men, got them dancing, weeping or archiving – which he would not have achieved had he followed the diktats of his ‘superiors’ and the servile unquestioning they demanded. Many of those machines are still at work, still enriching the souls of those open to enrichment, still transcribing discs from ancient times. And, one day, a small boy will watch this record-playing process with awe and wonder, and be beguiled forever. He be blessed.

Analogue man is troubled by the children of the digital world. The young females, in particular, who now seem incapable of being, without a hand-held gadget to guide them. They live in a land of pixelated, narcissistic make-believe which has robbed them of their original selves. Pre-programmed and, as Menken observed, “ready to gulp down ready-made ideas”, they are lost to humanity. Also, their music is crap.

Analogue man thus expires."

Courtesy of Mono & Stereo

All the best in your retirement Simon. May your record playing machines live on forever...
 
Enjoy your retirement Simon. The owners of your machines are indeed blessed. A wonderful eulogy to the passing of a time, when things took a bit longer and people reflected on their experiences with some wisdom and restraint.
 
I wish him well in his retirement, but I'm afraid that 'bitter' is indeed what I take from that.

I would not preclude a degree of bitterness being an understandable reaction to what this man is going through.
"There but for the grace of God go I..." as the now deeply-unfashionable saying goes.

And he does have a point or two, eloquently expressed.

Good luck, Analogue Man.
 
We all have to bow out sooner or later. The best footballers in the world have to accept that their skills will decline and that by 35 a fitter, stronger player 15 years younger will overtake them. For the rest of us it takes a little longer, but the day will come. I now have to ask 20-something s how to do things on computers, I used to be the 20-something who knew. My skills are now in making things happen rather than doing them myself. That's life.
 
How old is Simon?


I had a tad of sympathy for him (lots for his feeling unable to carry on making stuff) until this video and the poster on the wall and looking frankly more than a shade 'on something' (maybe unwell however?)
It can be hard for older brains to keep up, and each generation has those who prefer how things were.
Anyway. He made some decent kit, so retire and go dance about. I'd ease up on the stimulants but whatever ;)
 
Analogue man is troubled by the children of the digital world. The young females, in particular, who now seem incapable of being, without a hand-held gadget to guide them. They live in a land of pixelated, narcissistic make-believe which has robbed them of their original selves. Pre-programmed and, as Menken observed, “ready to gulp down ready-made ideas”, they are lost to humanity. Also, their music is crap.

 
Its a funny and self deprecating monologue, I enjoyed it..fair play to him to bow out in such a way. We can't all keep up with the pace of a changing world, and nor should we be expected to.

I think the only questionable elemt was 'the young females, in particular who now seem incapable of being, without a hand-held gadget to guide them,' when in reality, it's probably more accurate to state 'young people'... who need their oled screened saviours.
 
I confess I'd never heard of him before.

Why would you? :)

Simon Yorke only designed and built 7 or 8 special custom turntables exclusively for the Library of Congress in the USA. That's no mean feet to even be considered for the contract. Here is Simon and one of his LOC Record Playing machines:

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These had to be capable of playing all record formats as well as all turntable speeds. Note the extra long transcription tonearms.
 


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