OOOH.

You’ll be sorry.

What you like today is not what you will like 5 or ten or twenty years from now.

What you don’t like may not always be the same.

I’ve been listening to music for 40 years and have gone through many stages.

You may not like that Charlie Rich album today, but in another ten years you may be buying the Bear Fanmily complete recordings at 475.00.

There is NO way to predict what you will like in the future.

Culling recordings is something I’ve done 20 times in my life and each time it seems like the right thing to do.

It never is.

Who would have guessed that one day I would wake up with SIX WHITE HORSES playing in my head, (by BLOND a swedish group from the late sixties), and I would have to go crazy until I found it again.

I’ve found myself disliking albums for the small reason of wanting to hear punk and putting on a country rock disc.

Keep listening and even though it will do no good, keep your stuff.

I listen to muisc from 8 to 12 hours a day and I wish I had more time to listen.

— john auker    2005-12-28 22:14    #

Perhaps you’re right, I might regret it in 10 years. But right now it seems to make sense.

I’m not getting rid of things on a whim, or based on the mood of the moment. I’m just trying to be honest with myself, to not own something just for the sake of having more.

More than anything, though, I’m enjoying the process of forcing myself to listen to every single piece of music that I have. I’m keeping most of it, just trimming here and there. After I get through the CDs, I’ll tackle the vinyl. Then I’ll take on the cassette tapes. It’ll be years before I’m done, but in the end I’ll have a deeper understanding of what I like and why. I won’t have something just cause somebody told me I would like it, or I bought into the hype about it, even though it doesn’t move me.

But you’re right, my tastes will change. Maybe I’m deluding myself into thinking that at age 32 I’m self-aware enough to get to some truth about my core tastes, to know what I absolutely don’t need in my life. And maybe once I buy a house and have enough space to store all this stuff, I’ll change my mind about the importance of collecting for the sake of collecting, who knows…

— dave heaton    2005-12-29 13:39    #

I agree with John above, Dave. I am also doing what you are doing: going through my entire collection more or less alphabetically. (I’m at Bongwater, by the way, after about four years of this activity.)But I haven’t gotten rid of anything as a result, even stuff people have given me that I wouldn’t have bought myself. For me, it’s all part of the mystery of identity and taste. The best reason to chuck stuff is the storage issue—I unloaded a lot of vinyl in 1976 when I moved from Wisconsin to North Carolina (and had to replace much of it because of subsequent regrets). I guess all John and I are saying is to be careful. Miscalculations can prove costly!

— Bob Mielke    2005-12-29 15:01    #

Always good to hear words of experience, to keep me in check. I’ll tread carefully…

— dave heaton    2005-12-29 16:13    #

I can relate to what you said about not only wanting to hear more, but “hear better”. About a year ago I upgraded my stereo system (new speakers, receiver, subwoofer) precisely for that reason. When I listened to music at home, I wanted it to be a more involving experience, instead of passively listening while doing things around the house. It’s been a lot of fun to go through my music collection and hear little subtle things in recordings I’d never noticed before. Hearing all the different instruments more clearly in a song has also given me more of an appreciation for good musicianship and how each individual part contributes to the whole. It’s also reinvigorated my love of music, so that at age 40 (and well over 2,000 CDs) I now seem to buy more music (new and old) than ever.

— Mark    2005-12-29 17:55    #

That’s interesting…when I wrote that I was thinking of ‘hearing better’ in more of an intellectual way, like really trying to understand what’s going on and why it affects me. And I’ve never been much of a tech-guy, in terms of having fancy equipment or anything. But just today I was listening to something on my ipod and heard a detail in the background that I’d never heard before, so I definitely know what you’re talking about. I’ve only experienced it through headphones, and don’t find having headphones on to be all that comfortable, so now you’ve got me wondering whether I should upgrade my stereo speakers (especially since I’ve had the same ones for like 15 years or more).

— dave heaton    2005-12-29 18:18    #

Storage.

Something as wonderful as music shouldn’t be controlled by something as boring as where to put them.

Unfortunatly most of my purges have been about where to store them or even, on occasion when they get numerous, find them.

I never know when that one moment will come up in a song that lets me touch the mystery, so I am reluctant to rid myself of any chance that I might miss that.

For the most part that hasn’t changed, but with each new play that possibility is there and every once in awhile the music goes from great to sublime and I would give anything for that feeling.

By the way I’m up to H in my LPS.

Just finished listening to THE HOODS-GANGSTERS AND MORTICIANS. A great album that I had forgotten. Why that one survived my great 95 purge, ( I had convinced myself that I was only going to listen to jazz), I’ll never know, but am I glad I kept it.

Peace.

— john auker    2005-12-29 18:41    #

Sometimes you can’t always pinpoint exactly how a record affects you. It may not say anything especially profound or insightful about your life, but it still may be a great, well-played and sung record that you can listen to over and over. Often it’s just as simple as a great melody, harmony, chorus, or hook that just floors you. Luckily though, I find that most bands/artists that put a lot of care and thought into writing songs and music will often have interesting things to say too, and that’s just icing on the cake!

I’m not much of a tech-guy either (I don’t even own an iPod—-gasp!)…my old 15-year-old stereo speakers were just too big, boxy, and boomy, and I just wanted something a bit smaller with more clarity and sharpness. And while I love them, with my active life a majority of my music listening is still done on computer speakers, in the car, and through headphones as well!

— Mark    2005-12-30 15:59    #

Big and boxy are exactly the right words to describe my old speakers…

But yeah, I’m with you on the multiple methods through which I end up listening to music. And with the multiple ways and reasons for music to be affecting. The mystery of it all (what john referred to above when he talked about never knowing when a song’s going to grab you) is such a big part of what I love about listening to music. The records where I can easily put into words everything I like about it are seldom my favorites. The best are always those where there’s a certain something that I can’t quite get a grasp on, no matter how many words I write about it.

— dave heaton    2005-12-30 18:07    #

Why do you feel the need to “defend” your ownership of recorded music? My theory has always been that if I spent money on an album, it must have meant something to me at that point in my life – even if my life has drastically changed since the time I bought the album. I don’t think many people buy music for the sake of having a collection or for impressing other people (although people do seem to love telling me how many songs are on their iPods). I have an entire room in my house devoted to CDs & LPs, and there are only a handful of people who have ever even seen my collection. As mentioned above, there are always times when I go back to listen to something that I haven’t heard in years. Since storage space isn’t an issue in my case, I’ll have this collection to my demise (and somebody will find some cool stuff at my estate sale).

— Bill    2005-12-30 21:38    #

Storage space is always an issue in my apartment (Bill I’m jealous of your room of music, I hope to have one someday), but I think it’s about more than just that. I’m not big on having an excess of posessions in my life, but trying to live simply inevitably comes in conflict with the fact that I have thousands of CDs, LPs, and cassettes, and that my music love (and related music-writing hobby) lead me to acquire more nearly every day.

A CD or LP is of course more than just a posession, but only if I’m actively engaging myself with it. Having something around that I’ve never ever listened to makes me wonder why it’s even there. The extra, unlisted-to music risks becoming just another posession that I don’t need, like a fancy gadget that I dont use or clothes I never wear.

Going through all my music piece by piece is making me figure out what the deal is with those recordings I bought but never ever listen to, while also (and mostly, I should add) reminding me of things that I love but have neglected. I end up getting rid of very few, actually – I dont want to over-emphasize the streamlining, because it’s the process of examination that’s been the best part about it.

— dave heaton    2005-12-31 14:43    #

Hey, Dave . . . I think you are on to something here. Your evaluation process will indeed make you more aware of why you like certain types of music, and should help you fine-tune your collection to make it more meaningful. Why do so many of us reap benefits from making “best of” lists and mixes year after year? I look forward to reading your future columns on this subject.

I have been doing something similar, but not as extensive as what you plan. I plan to purchase an iPod in the next month, and will not be able to store my full collection on it. I will carefully listen to both new and old material, and “cherry-pick” only those songs that I feel are the “best of the best”. I’m sure that I will be adding/deleting to the iPod frequently.

— Mike Clarke    2006-01-01 13:29    #

One of the things I do is move the cds or albums in stages. So I’ll have a couple of boxes of cds that I have moved to make room for newer stuff.

YOu don’t get rid of them, but let them sit for awhile ( it’s been a year or 2 for some of them) and then you take a handful out and put them in your player and all of a sudden you’re going “what was I thinking!?” “This is great!”\

The moving process should be as gradual as you can make it, though even after I have decided I don’t like something for the second time I still put it back in the box in case I’m just not in the mood for that particular disc.

The Ipod is a great idea as both my daughter and nephew have them.

Back your stuff up.

My nephew’s computer crashed with everything and he had almost 11,000 songs on his.

Now he has to reload everything before he can upload anything new.

My daughter took the hint and started backing up the next day.

— john auker    2006-01-02 00:41    #

Dave – Good to see you writing up at Big Takeover.

All the suggestions above are great. Over the holidays, I pulled out several crates of 78rpm vinyl I have, some holiday records and otherwise (Burl Ives, Folkways stuff, etc.). Amazing stuff on some of them. From Adam and the Ants to Tony Bennett to Crass to new downloads off the coolest blogs, it’s a living.

Oh, and I was creating some of my own stuff too – check the new songs (and old covers) at http://www.purevolume.com/dfactor when you get a chance.

— Dfactor    2006-01-04 18:33    #

Very perceptive intro, Dave. It seems very personal, too. I feel very much as you do: the goal has been to search, find, discover and again again AGAIN. It’s next to impossible to develop the depth of connection with recently acquired albums as I have with my earlier albums-there simply isn’t the time to dedicate so many spins to any one album. Anyway, let me know how your strategy works out. I might be inspired to follow your lead (actually, I have already started the massive pruning process). Thanks for bringing the angst and possible remedy of the situation to the surface.

— ari abramowitz    2006-02-09 23:52    #

cool site

— Peter Jones    2006-08-29 05:25    #