The Cyprus Avenue Preservation Project
Edit: January 23, 2020. Sadly, Bill Shapiro has passed. In the time since I first posted this, I managed to capture as many playlists as I could. They are in a Github repo here. I’d still love to fill this out even more or find ways to make these playlists more portable between streaming platforms.
If you live in Kansas City and love music, then you know who Bill Shapiro is. Bill has hosted Cyprus Avenue on KCUR since October 1978. The man is a brilliant musicologist and I’ve enjoyed listening to his show since I moved to KC in 2000.
Cyprus Avenue is ending its 40-year run this year. Bill estimates that he’s produced nearly 2,000 episodes. That’s over 20,000 carefully chosen tracks that showcase studios, artists and themes. I’d hate to see all that work just evaporate into the ether.
So, I want to start a project…
Musical discovery algorithms are pretty great. Pandora and The Music Genome Project have made it incredibly easy to find new music based on what you want to hear. But it’s still no substitute for personal taste.
If you’re old like me, you might remember making mix tapes and laboring over which tracks to include and how to sequence them.
So what does a mix tape have that an algorithm doesn’t? An opinion. An algorithm just wants to make you happy. It’ll try its hardest to play you something you want to hear. A mix tape creator is going to play you something they want you to hear.
Bill didn’t just play songs. He described the world in which they were created, the backgrounds of the people involved and why he felt each track was important. Bill has opinions.
I want more people to hear what Bill wanted us to hear. For better or worse, most of that “hearing” is happening on Spotify. So here’s what I’m going to try to do. I’m going to try to capture Bill’s shows as Spotify playlists. As many as I can.
I’m going to set something up to catalog these so you don’t have to rely on Spotify search. But for now, enjoy the first three. Only 1,997 to go.
Big City Music from a Small Town Studio
Sturgill Simpson is Back
Jimi Hendrix: People, Hell & Angels
If anyone has any connection with KCUR or Bill and have access to playlists that aren’t on the KCUR website, I’d love to hear from you. chris@the816.com
