YouTube, Another WTF Here …
Well, YouTube used to rock. I could find anything and everything I used to listen to as a kid there on that wonderful website. From obscure old silly songs, like “Run Joey Run” , ” Billy Don’t be a Hero” , “Phantom 309” and many more from my past long gone but not forgotten … I had about 100 songs saved on that site for my listening pleasure. I even had old Saturday morning cartoons from the seventies in my YouTube favorites. Remember “The Valley of the Dinosaurs”? I had it saved. I hadn’t seen that since it was on for the first time. What about “The Land of the Lost”? Not the stupid nineties version but the real McCoy from the 1970’s. I could watch my first TV crush Holly Marshall with her Dad Rick and brother Will all over again and reminensce about how I, as a 10 year old boy would someday go rescue her from those Sleestaks … It may seem corny now but back then it sure seemed real to my small mind. Now Holly is all grown up and well, I don’t want to rescue her anymore but back to YouTube. I had my memories right there at a click of the mouse and I could escape at anytime. Youtube was great and growing. And like all things Internet, as soon as something is taking off, the powers that be step in to ruin things. YouTube was pressured by recording companies about copyright infringements and such and a bunch of legal stuff that I guess is way over my head so all the cool stuff I couldn’t fnd any where else is slowly going away. These days my YouTube favorites have a lot of “Video no longer available” in place of the videos. It’s a sad day. I would have gladly paid a fee to keep them. But they were heavy handed instead. As Don Henley from the Eagles has said, “As the Lawyers clean up the details” , “This is the end of the innocence”. Why does it have to be this way? I waited all my life to find these lost treasures. There they were, “were” being the key word here. It sucks. Once again my past memories will just become that. Memories again without being able to keep them fresh. Oh, I will cherish them but it sure was cool to be able to see and hear those old favorites of mine that I could no longer find. Some of the songs I looked for and tried to find for years. Long before the Internet. Record stores were worthless. YouTube helped me and countless others. Too bad it is slowly getting snuffed out. So as my last line for this story will be … Record companies … as the hippie movement said to the establishment … “Fuck off and die”. that being said, I’ll miss my YouTube.
chuck gee
