Every CD I own . . .

ICBM

Octahedron said:

I really find it annoying that iTunes and Discogs both order by first name instead. So I decided to just get over myself finally and put all of my CD collection into alphabetical order by first name. 

It looks really different now, when you look at the CD cases' spines... The "J" section of my collection expanded very suddenly. Now having all of the Joes together (Joe Satriani, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Perry) and the Johns (Mayer, Butler etc) all in one place.

I did that for the same reason - it tripped my OCD badly at first but I got used to it. Although I did lose a Jimi Hendrix CD for a long time until I found it accidentally filed under H .

If you're *really* determined you can tell iTunes how to sort things properly using the 'sort as' boxes… but I have to admit that going through my entire library to do that sounded like the greater of the two evils.

Paul_C

CD#6 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

A classic. Apparently.

I like Van Morrison a lot but this was hard work - according to Wikipedia:

"Except for John Payne, Morrison and the assembled jazz musicians had not played together before and the recordings commenced without rehearsals or lead sheets handed out."

Well to me it sounds like some of them were playing along to a different backing track in places and there was one point where I wondered if somewhere in the process of re-mastering for CD the left stereo track had slipped out of sync with the right, so much so that it was really hard not to skip to the next track.

Some of the songs are ok but others just seem to be everyone noodling away with no regard for what anyone else is doing.

Maybe I should pick up an old vinyl copy to see if my CD version is part of the problem, I doubt I'll be rushing back to this for a while.

CD#7 Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind

This is much more like it, great tunes and a group of musicians all playing for the songs, not just mucking about. I haven't bought the most recent album because they were so good around this time and I fear that time might not have been kind to them (this may not be true but I'm scared to find out).

You don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing!

TTony

Paul_C said:

CD#7 Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind

This is much more like it, great tunes and a group of musicians all playing for the songs, not just mucking about. I haven't bought the most recent album because they were so good around this time and I fear that time might not have been kind to them (this may not be true but I'm scared to find out). 

Another fan here.  I've got a lot of his CDs, from the strong stuff in the 70s, through the "less strong" stuff that followed.  Likewise, I've not bought the re-formed GP&tR CDs, but I have listened to excerpts.  Better than the "less strong", but not up there with the energy of Heat Treatment / Howlin' Wind / Stick to Me.

EricTheWeary

TTony;1004477" said:

Paul_C said:

CD#7 Graham Parker - Howlin' Wind

This is much more like it, great tunes and a group of musicians all playing for the songs, not just mucking about. I haven't bought the most recent album because they were so good around this time and I fear that time might not have been kind to them (this may not be true but I'm scared to find out). 





Another fan here.  I've got a lot of his CDs, from the strong stuff in the 70s, through the "less strong" stuff that followed.  Likewise, I've not bought the re-formed GP&tR CDs, but I have listened to excerpts.  Better than the "less strong", but not up there with the energy of Heat Treatment / Howlin' Wind / Stick to Me.

Completely passed me by for years but when I was trying to put together a band couple of years ago our bassist, for two rehearsals, was a big fan and kept on asking to do Graham Parker songs and I liked the things he suggested . So, where does one start with GP?

ICBM

Paul_C said:

CD#6 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

A classic. Apparently.

I like Van Morrison a lot but this was hard work - according to Wikipedia:

"Except for John Payne, Morrison and the assembled jazz musicians had not played together before and the recordings commenced without rehearsals or lead sheets handed out."

Well to me it sounds like some of them were playing along to a different backing track in places and there was one point where I wondered if somewhere in the process of re-mastering for CD the left stereo track had slipped out of sync with the right, so much so that it was really hard not to skip to the next track.

I tried listening to this too - 'classic' and all that. I found it disjointed, rambling and his voice mostly sounds like a sheep being tortured. I suspect it's "of its time" and you may need some sort of enhancement to really "get it" . But then I don't like Van Morrison anyway.

BigMonka

This thread reminds me of this scene from High Fidelity where he reorganises his record collection into the order he bought them

TTony

EricTheWeary said:

So, where does one start with GP?

@EricTheWeary - always "start at the beginning".  His earlier stuff is the better stuff, so those 3 albums that I mentioned are probably the best starting point.  

Worth checking Amazon to see if there's any 5-for-a-tenner style bundles going - as long as any bundles includes those 3.

EricTheWeary

TTony;1004560" said:

EricTheWeary said:So, where does one start with GP?





@EricTheWeary - always "start at the beginning".  His earlier stuff is the better stuff, so those 3 albums that I mentioned are probably the best starting point.  

Worth checking Amazon to see if there's any 5-for-a-tenner style bundles going - as long as any bundles includes those 3.

Cheers. Probably a streaming thing rather than a cd thing due to pending financial issues in the Weary household but I can piggy back my son's subscription to Google Play.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Paul_C said:

CD#6 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

A classic. Apparently.

I like Van Morrison a lot but this was hard work - according to Wikipedia:

"Except for John Payne, Morrison and the assembled jazz musicians had not played together before and the recordings commenced without rehearsals or lead sheets handed out."

Well to me it sounds like some of them were playing along to a different backing track in places and there was one point where I wondered if somewhere in the process of re-mastering for CD the left stereo track had slipped out of sync with the right, so much so that it was really hard not to skip to the next track.

I tried listening to this too - 'classic' and all that. I found it disjointed, rambling and his voice mostly sounds like a sheep being tortured. I suspect it's "of its time" and you may need some sort of enhancement to really "get it" . But then I don't like Van Morrison anyway.

I listened to that last year, just because it's one of "those" albums everyone goes on about and I'd never heard it.  The thing which struck me most was that every track feels like it's about 10 minutes long even when it isn't.  It's OK, but I'll never listen to it again.

Paul_C

Squeezing Out Sparks is probably his high point for me (maybe because it was the first one I heard, but also it sat the closest to all the other music I was listening to at the time).

CD#8 Meshell Ndegéocello - Bitter

Fewer grooves and a bit more introspective than some of her stuff, but none the worse for that. I do like a bit of Meshell, though for me she's one of those artists who's more of an occasional special treat rather than something to be heard every day.

goat

Paul_C said:

CD#6 Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

 

I really like Astral Weeks but the production is pretty grim IMO. Maybe try It's Too Late to Stop Now which has great versions of some Astral Weeks songs and sounds fantastic.

andyp

Interesting thread! I'm going to follow your blog too.

My wife hated it when she first moved in with me as I had my CDs on bookshelves in the living room. I must've only owned about 300 at the time I guess. Gradually that was eroded and the CD player went into the loft then when we moved house a couple of years ago, the CDs all went onto a iTunes stored on a networked hard drive and stuck in boxes in the loft. It was done quickly though so it's not in any order and whenever I find myself up there looking for something it takes ages to find it. I listen to them via Sonos now though so actually listen to much more music in the house than I have for years.

I still buy 2-3 CDs a month at the moment and guess I must have 600-700ish now. I listen to lots of stuff on Apple Music then buy the stuff I like best. I now fire them onto iTunes as soon as I get them, copy to my phone for listening at work and keep the CD in the car for a few weeks. Then they go in the boxes in the loft.

I really need to sort the boxes out. Argh.

My mate next to me at work has a full room for his CDs and Vinyl. He reckons he has well over 15,000 pieces of music (CDs, Vinyl, cassettes)...!

Philly_Q

andyp said:

My mate next to me at work has a full room for his CDs and Vinyl. He reckons he has well over 15,000 pieces of music (CDs, Vinyl, cassettes)...!

Blimey, I can't compete with that.  I reckon I have somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000.  Then on top of that a similar number of DVDs and Blu-rays.

andyp

That's a lot like! I've got a few DVD etc. too but I feel better now that I've not been too bad with spending on my music and film.

I just asked him to check I was right. His immediate response was "ehhhh...15,664... with a few dozen lying around that I've still to add to the database".

Philly_Q

I haven't got a database.  I'd like to say it's because I'm not geeky enough.... but in fact it's because I never thought of it until it was already far too late to start.

TTony

Philly_Q said:

I haven't got a database.

I used to have one - it'll be years out of date now though.

Built in MS Access, half as a means of keeping track of the 000s of CDs and half as a means of learning how to use Access, many years ago.  Album title, artist, number of tracks, length, source, cost, year, and a few other details too.

Pretty much all my CDs are now in MP3 format on the NAS, so I could re-create an artist/album/track db pretty quickly from any of the tagging/cataloging programs ...

andyp

I don't have a database either. I tried a few options over the years for my paltry collection but could never be arsed keeping it up to date. Now they're on iTunes in lossless I can see the list any time I want to I guess. Somehow I still know exactly what I've got if I see a CD in a shop or online.

I really like that people still buy CDs, I'm 36 and thought I was part of a dying breed. Although I'm loving being able to stream stuff, it now means I buy more actually as I know it's good before I part with the cash. The days of taking a punt for £10-15 in Virgin Megastore are long gone.

Paul_C

CD#9 Boo Hewerdine - Harmonograph

This is a collection of songs written both alone and in collaboration with other people that had their first airing played by other acts and until this album had not been recorded by Boo, including Patience of Angels, which was originally a single from Eddi Reader. Boo's got a wonderfully delicate voice and there are some great songs on this.

lasermonkey

I must have 2000+ CDs by now. All arranged alphabetically, then chronologically within the artist's section.

I am aware that's quite sad.

ICBM

lasermonkey said:

I must have 2000+ CDs by now. All arranged alphabetically, then chronologically within the artist's section.

I am aware that's quite sad.

Mine are arranged alphabetically by artist and then album title. It may seem sad, but it's essential. When I wanted to lend one to a friend the other day it took me ten seconds to find it, as opposed to ten minutes.