DM's Beatles forums
Other music forums => Various Artists, Lyrics, Discographies => Topic started by: oldbrownshoe on January 21, 2014, 06:10:50 PM
-
David Hepworth came up with an interesting observation having seen the film 'Inside Llewyn Davis'.
On entering a girlfriend's flat the camera focuses on hundreds of LPs and, as David rightly points out, people (let alone young people) simply didn't own hundreds of LPs in 1961!
Indeed, circa 1961, I doubt whether The Beatles, who lived in a country with fewer LP releases anyway, owned more than 30 LPs between them.
In 2014, however, we seem swamped with music.
Which brings me to my current predicament.....do I actually need (I mean really 'need') four John Lee Hooker compilations and a 4-CD box set?
I'm coming to the conclusion that, together with trimming the Bob Dylan section of the collection to 'three' (as it is, the only one I ever actually 'play' is 'Nashville Skyline'), just the one 24-track comp. on Ace of John Lee might suffice.
-
I don't consider myself a completist at all so I definitely don't see the point in getting every single compilation, every single boxset, every single crappy-sounding bootleg or even multiple formats and re-issues of the same album.
But as far as different music goes, I'm all for it. I think people who focus only on 5-10 bands (not to mention one band) completely miss the point - there's so much good music out there worth exploring that it's mind-blowing. I honestly try to keep an open mind and give a fair listen to each artist, regardless of the genre or decade. I suppose at one point I'll end up owning thousands of albums and I can't say it's something that worries me in any particular way.
-
I don't consider myself a completist at all so I definitely don't see the point in getting every single compilation, every single boxset, every single crappy-sounding bootleg or even multiple formats and re-issues of the same album.
But as far as different music goes, I'm all for it. I think people who focus only on 5-10 bands (not to mention one band) completely miss the point - there's so much good music out there worth exploring that it's mind-blowing. I honestly try to keep an open mind and give a fair listen to each artist, regardless of the genre or decade. I suppose at one point I'll end up owning thousands of albums and I can't say it's something that worries me in any particular way.
That's a good point. I'm also not a completist. The Beatles are my favourite band and I'm very familiar with their music, so I quite like having some demos or alternative versions etc, since its very easy for me to compare and contrast and I find exploring how songs are structured and develop is interesting. But I don't see the need to have 17 different takes of Wild Honey Pie.
And keeping an open mind on different bands/artists is also rewarding. There's a lot of newer artists I like a lot. Mainly in the Indy/alt genre. Some I've discovered on my own. Others my daughter, who is a Beatles fan herself so we have compatible tastes, introduces me to.
So I probably have way too much music in the sense that I'll barely get to listen to most of it. But it's nice to have the options for when current listening gets a bit stale. I don't have too much in the sense that I have Beatles Barkers clogging up my CD rack.
-
Here's a hypothetical:
If all new music was stopped from, say,10 years ago, then nothing in musical history would change. It wouldn't be a big deal artistically because we are prolly in the lowest ebb of musical talent right now.
It is worse than 10 years back. In my opinion, there's an irony right now - you need less 'talent' that ever before but it's actually harder to become a 'star'.
I love the fact that my favorite band is the greatest in history. It means I can comment on lesser music. I don't do it in a bad way and have to hold my tongue sometimes. But the current state of the industry now is absolutely woeful and controlled by no talented people.
Rant over
-
Here's a hypothetical:
If all new music was stopped from, say,10 years ago, then nothing in musical history would change. It wouldn't be a big deal artistically because we are prolly in the lowest ebb of musical talent right now.
my 20 year old son would vehemently disagree with you, he would say you have absolutely no idea what your talking about. ha2ha
The OP has a good point here, about 10 years ago, I started trading albums, I had cyber friends all over the world from a music forum, I would send a person my list of albums, they would pick say 20 albums off mine and they would send me 20 (all copied onto blank CD's) I have built up a library of thousands of albums, I have Rock albums that were made in the most obscure places in the 60's & 70's up to present.
But, you know what, I said to Mrs nimrod the other week, I was probably happier when I was 19 and had 30 or 40 LP's
You'd have to ask a psychiatrist why that is :-\
-
my 20 year old son would vehemently disagree with you, he would say you have absolutely no idea what your talking about. ha2ha
And I would agree with him, Kev. ;)
Oh, the old "Today's music is sh*t. Back in my day..." routine. Heard it a million times before. Not impressed at all. I also don't see how it's relevant to this topic.
-
And I would agree with him, Kev. ;)
Oh, the old "Today's music is sh*t. Back in my day..." routine. Heard it a million times before. Not impressed at all. I also don't see how it's relevant to this topic.
I think like most people I have a natural culling process. I used to own heaps of stones, who, Dylan, etc albums. I found that over the years fewer of these artists albums were being played. So although I still have the music, most of what I listen to is on iTunes playlists and there's a definite whittling down of these artists to more core tunes I enjoy. Only the Beatles have survived any substantial culling. And with later releases like Live at the BBC actually expanded. In place of the older artists are the newer ones I've got to like over the past ten fifteen years.
I still have massively more music then I did as a youngster. And I had a lot of albums. It's salutary to cast an eye over the "times played" column of iTunes. Hundreds of songs in the 0 or 1 or 2 plays over the past six or seven years. I suppose if I ever had to get rid of music I'd know what to target. But with computer storage getting bigger and bigger I doubt I'll ever see the need. Lots of songs will just sit fallow. Or I might find a late life surge in interest of Australian Crawl or Icehouse. Not holding my breath though.
-
I do believe that you can have to much music. I feel I have to much now and that prevents me from really digging into some stuff. I honestly feel rushed when I listen to new albums, because there's always another one right behind it to listen to also. So, my point being, if something doesnt grab me right away, I more often then not, pass it by and move on to something else. Everybody knows it takes 5 to 10 good listens (sometimes more) for stuff to sink in.
-
I'm not a completist either, I'm a selectionist. I think that's the key to enjoy many bands without amounting an absurd quantity of records. I always tend to prefer original albums, but in some cases I'm ok with just a compilation album. I've never cared about demos or second versions of songs, I prefer to leave room to other music.
-
Really interesting comments.
The bizarre thing about my own current 'trimming' is that I'm sure it will result in me listening more to, say, John Lee Hooker rather than less. Hey, I'm listening to him right now!
There was a brilliant magazine/CD collection that came out about 20 years ago called 'The Blues Collection' and you used to be able to get each issue from your local newsagent.
Now each of those guys, from John Lee to Jimmy Reed to Little Walter, had a distinct style, so much so that I believe you only really need one CD from each one. I mean, a 10 CD box set of Bo Diddley would drive you bonkers surely. Knock off those recorded after the 60s (post 60s production never suited the blues), fill in the gaps (the Collection never had an entry for Charley Patton for example) and, voila, that's your blues collection.
Probably not the place to mention it, but my Beatles solo collection amounts to 'Wonderwall Music', 'Electronic Sound', 'Plastic Ono Band' and 'McCartney'. I just can't imagine a time when I'd suddenly HAVE to listen to a Paul LP from 1986. It might happen, but only in the way that Arsenal 'might' win a trophy, i.e. highly unlikely!
-
The bizarre thing about my own current 'trimming' is that I'm sure it will result in me listening more to, say, John Lee Hooker rather than less. Hey, I'm listening to him right now!
I agree, less quantity leads to more listening.
I did my own trimming some months ago; I selected 40 artists, and I ended up selecting only 1 album from half of them. I only kept a quite complete discography of my very favorite artists.
This is my list of artists and the number of albums I selected from each one (I put between brackets the number of compilations).
1. The Beatles - 15(2)
2. The Who - 10(1)
3. Bob Dylan - 9
4. The Rolling Stones - 9(1)
5. The Byrds - 8
6. The Kinks - 7(1)
7. The Doors - 6
8. Jefferson Airplane - 6(1)
9. The Beach Boys - 5(1)
10. John Lennon - 4
11. Love - 4
12. Jimi Hendrix - 3
13. The Band - 3
14. Buffalo Springfield - 3
15. The Yardbirds - 3(1)
16. Traffic - 3(1)
17. Grateful Dead - 2
18. The Flying Burrito Brothers - 2
19. The Zombies - 2(1)
20. Spirit - 2(1)
21. Paul McCartney - 1
22. George Harrison - 1
23. The Bee Gees - 1
24. Gene Clark - 1
25. Moby Grape - 1
26. Pete Townshend - 1
27. Poco - 1
28. Quicksilver Messenger Service - 1
29. Steppenwolf - 1
30. Cream - 1(1)
31. Simon & Garfunkel - 1(1)
32. The Animals - 1(1)
33. The Association - 1(1)
34. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 1(1)
35. Donovan - 1(1)
36. The Hollies - 1(1)
37. The Lovin' Spoonful - 1(1)
38. The Mamas & The Papas - 1(1)
39. Strawberry Alarm Clock - 1(1)
40. The Turtles - 1(1)
-
Throw in the same amount of blues, modern jazz, folk and film soundtracks, and that looks almost exactly like my collection!
Funny how compilations for some acts are almost redundant (The Doors, Love, Dylan) whereas for an act like The Zombies you almost have to include a compilation.
-
You know, British bands usually released several essential non-album singles, while American artists tended to include their singles in their albums.
-
I have over 3,000 CDs and over 2,000 vinyl records (don't worry, I'm pretty satisfied with what I got now and don't buy that much anymore). But I don't think it's too much. Of course there are albums that I own that I wouldn't really miss if I got rid of them, but not a whole lot.
-
I have over 3,000 CDs and over 2,000 vinyl records (don't worry, I'm pretty satisfied with what I got now and don't buy that much anymore). But I don't think it's too much. Of course there are albums that I own that I wouldn't really miss if I got rid of them, but not a whole lot.
HaHa
Bloody hell Joost, that's more than I had - note I say HAD - when we moved into e rental house and a year later moved again into a house we built, it drove me crazy to have boxes and boxes of LP's, CD's, cassettes, so had this huge project, I digitalised the lot and sold them off, I now have only about 20 LP's (ones I couldn't sell) and some CD's (mainly box sets) all the rest are on 4 x 3 terabyte hard drives, connected to my PC, Im loving this as I don't need any storage space and I can play a track of any random album almost instantaneously.....if I buy an album now, its digital.
Im into minimalism these days ;)
-
Yep, I can quite appreciate the idea of minimalism.
I'm going much the same way, although, as I have never really liked box sets, I found that they were the first to go.
Also, I'm not going the digital route but, when it comes to the LPs and CDs that survive the cull, I just want a shelf where every item has a purpose and a realistic chance of being played!
I reckon that I'll be on 200 LPs, 200 45s, and 300 CDs when the job's done i.e. more than enough.
As for selling the stuff, all of it's going to the charity shop as I just haven't got the patience to go on eBay etc.
The only artist with three or more albums to their name (actually three) to so far have survived intact is Nick Drake.
As a present to myself when it's all done I might get rid of all the Beatles CDs (apart from 'Yellow Submarine', 'Abbey Road', 'Let It Be' and the BBC stuff) and buy the mono box.
-
Im into minimalism these days ;)
I have a sort of vision where I'll have a minimally furnished apartment and on the shelf will be a kindle for books and an iPad for music and pictures. With a computer somwhere for storage and back up.
My wife thinks its soulless but my kids will appreciate the ease of packing up when I croak.
-
As for selling the stuff, all of it's going to the charity shop as I just haven't got the patience to go on eBay etc
it was very easy mate, 1 free add on Gumtree
350 LP's for $900
220 CD's for $500
one bloke came and bought the lot, I think he had a shop
-
HaHa
Bloody hell Joost, that's more than I had - note I say HAD - when we moved into e rental house and a year later moved again into a house we built, it drove me crazy to have boxes and boxes of LP's, CD's, cassettes, so had this huge project, I digitalised the lot and sold them off, I now have only about 20 LP's (ones I couldn't sell) and some CD's (mainly box sets) all the rest are on 4 x 3 terabyte hard drives, connected to my PC, Im loving this as I don't need any storage space and I can play a track of any random album almost instantaneously.....if I buy an album now, its digital.
Im into minimalism these days ;)
I've always wanted my music materialized in something, I don't like to have my records on a virtual space. But the advantage of having everything digitalized, that can be located everywhere, is unquestionable. So now I put my music in DVDs or pen-drives; at least there's something where the music (and only the music) is contained that I still can have in my hands.
-
As a present to myself when it's all done I might get rid of all the Beatles CDs (apart from 'Yellow Submarine', 'Abbey Road', 'Let It Be' and the BBC stuff) and buy the mono box.
But then you won't have "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", "Old Brown Shoe" and the single version of "Let It Be"!
On the other hand, Mono Masters includes mono versions of the four new songs in Yellow Submarine, so you wouldn't need to keep it, unless you still want to have the instrumental tracks of Side 2.
-
Those tracks I've got on 45 and, anyway, I'm hopeful someday Apple will put out the 44 sides on a 2-CD set.....at least that would be a better concept than 'Reel Music', 'Beatles Ballads', '20 Greatest' and even '1'.
Mind you, I don't think I'll get rid of my 'Rarities' LP. Oh, and I'll keep the CD 'deluxe' version of the Tony Sheridan/German recordings.
-
I have a sort of vision where I'll have a minimally furnished apartment and on the shelf will be a kindle for books and an iPad for music and pictures.
I could actually achieve that now, my Samsung tablet has 15 gig HD which I could fill with books and pictures and it takes sd cards so I could buy say 25 or so 32 gig sd cards and put all my music on those, each sd card could have different years and very minimal :)
My laptop in my music room, so there ya go, just one tablet for eveything
-
Better back up that tablet if you do, Kev. ;)
-
Better back up that tablet if you do, Kev. ;)
;)