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How Many Of You Collect Records?


Kramer Ferrington III.

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I don't mean "how many of you own a lot of records" because you listen to a lot of music. I'm talking about actual collecting. White labels, unusual covers, rare pressings and so on?

 

Personally, I couldn't care less about whether I have a band's song on a cheap "greatest hits" compilation or on a rare pressing exclusively for their Sth. African fan club.

 

But what about the rest of you?

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I don't actively collect records like that, but through the years, I've ended up with a few things that have become collectors items.

 

I have an first run copy of Steve Vai's "Flexable", which came out in 1984 when I was at Berklee. In the package with that record was an order form for the 10" "Flexable Leftovers" EP, which I also own a first run copy of.

 

Some ten years ago, I saw the Leftovers EP behind the counter in a used record shop with a price tag of $50. (!) As far as I know, there was only on pressing of the EP on vinyl. The material later showed up on a CD re-issue package of the Flexable record.

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Originally posted by Billster:

I don't actively collect records like that, but through the years, I've ended up with a few things that have become collectors items.

Yeah, it's different if it just happens. I asked because I was rereading a novel called "High Fidelity" over the w/e and was struck by what a weird little world record collectors live in. There's records I've bought over and over but I've never bothered with rare editions or going to record fairs and all that.

 

It all sounds really fetishistic, 'cause it's not about the music but about the bits of vinyl themselves. :confused:

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Back in the day I would get a lot of things sent to me... records that were pre-release, with no artwork (white covers), "DJ Only" copies (which went out to show producers and others in the industry, too.), limited releases... test pressings.... they were all free. Somewhere I still have a pink vinyl "Pink Parker", probably a Stones and Pink Floyd white covers, and a few other things like that; but I gave most of it away years ago. What I have left is still in the attic of my house. But I made a rule in about 1978, after filling a couple of rooms with albums.... nobody needs to own more than 16 feet of albums. I started giving them away then. Same with CDs... I have between 1000 and 1500 CDs left, after my old lady and I split up, and she took half of what was there.

 

Having recently moved into an apartment, I see how much space these things take up; so I'm looking to load them into hard drives, and get rid of them. I've been giving them away too, because I don't need to have them all. Many were free, many I got for one song that I liked. My goal is to cut down to about 6 or 7 hundred good CDs, dump them to hard drive, put the CDs in storage and get all that clutter out of my living room.

 

Funny, but in the studio I do not keep CDs that I make. I don't have collections of past work. I don't warehouse work that I have done. There would just be too much of it. At home it seems to be a different story. That is what happens when you love so many different styles of music. I've been dumping CDs all over the place... taking the hard core stuff to the local convenience store, the jazz and folkie stuff to the building management, pop/rock to the Benedum and classical to Heinz Hall. Get that stuff to people who will play it and appreciate it. I've done the same thing with books and guitar amps, and I'm starting to clean out the guitars, too.

 

Possesions are the chains with which we bind ourselves.

 

Bill

"I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot."

 

Steve Martin

 

Show business: we're all here because we're not all there.

 

 

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Originally posted by bpark@prorec.com:

My goal is to cut down to about 6 or 7 hundred good CDs, dump them to hard drive, put the CDs in storage and get all that clutter out of my living room.

Well, I only have about 450 CDs ALL UP but I think getting a HD MP3 Player was wonderful. I love the fact that I can call up anything with just a couple of clicks instead of that mood breaking rummage through a bunch of jewel cases. I used to waste a lot of time trying to decide which CDs I was going to take to work and all that. Now I just take the lot.

 

Mind you, I'm not sure if creating playlists is as much fun as finding new ways of arranging a CD or record collection. I prefer ordering them by style because you have to bridge industrial and classical music and so on. That's interesting and challenging and ultimately pleasing. It also highlights areas that you may be "lacking" in. Why are there no records between Woody Guthrie, say, and Johnny Cash?

 

My wife, OTOH, just goes for alphabetical order. That's no fun at all.

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I'm not a collector per se, but I have been buying music regularly for so long I've picked up a few collector's items!

 

And I've never understood "completists" who must have absolutely EVERYTHING that (say) Miles ever did or the Beatles, even if it's bootlegs and outtakes...

 

To Mr. B. Park: I rarely give anything away, but am starting to run out of room in my apartment. I agree that there are diminishing returns with these things.

 

One thing I sometimes ask myself before buying: do you have any other material by this artist? Yes. How long has it been since you listen to the OTHER CD? Oh six years or so! Do you really need two or three more CDs by an artist you haven't listened to in six years!

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Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

And I've never understood "completists" who must have absolutely EVERYTHING that (say) Miles ever did or the Beatles, even if it's bootlegs and outtakes...

I know... a 14 CD box set of everything Dylan did in 1965? Just in 1965? :P

 

Mind you, I've pretty much run out of Gram Parsons records to buy. No big achievement though. There's only about seven of them.

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Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Originally posted by bpark@prorec.com:

My goal is to cut down to about 6 or 7 hundred good CDs, dump them to hard drive, put the CDs in storage and get all that clutter out of my living room.

Well, I only have about 450 CDs ALL UP but I think getting a HD MP3 Player was wonderful. I love the fact that I can call up anything with just a couple of clicks instead of that mood breaking rummage through a bunch of jewel cases. I used to waste a lot of time trying to decide which CDs I was going to take to work and all that. Now I just take the lot.

 

Mind you, I'm not sure if creating playlists is as much fun as finding new ways of arranging a CD or record collection. I prefer ordering them by style because you have to bridge industrial and classical music and so on. That's interesting and challenging and ultimately pleasing. It also highlights areas that you may be "lacking" in. Why are there no records between Woody Guthrie, say, and Johnny Cash?

 

My wife, OTOH, just goes for alphabetical order. That's no fun at all.

I have a 30GB Creative Zen Jukebox MP3 player. I've stored most of my music in WIndows Media format because you get better quality than MP3 at lower bit rates, hence more storage space. I have about 7250 songs on it and it is completely full. I still have a lot of bootlegs, downloaded sonmgs and my own music that can't fit. At some point I will need to move up to a 60GB model.

 

As far as listening, I usually set it to random play and let it surprise me. That way I get to hear a lot of music that I had on CDs that I just never got around to listening to. I find that the player has very good taste most of the time. :-)

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Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

And I've never understood "completists" who must have absolutely EVERYTHING that (say) Miles ever did or the Beatles, even if it's bootlegs and outtakes...

 

To Mr. B. Park: I rarely give anything away, but am starting to run out of room in my apartment. I agree that there are diminishing returns with these things.

 

I was a completist for some artists, which contributed but was not the cause of the glut of stuff. In terms of giving it away... I got my moneys worth, everything in life is not based upon money, and to give music away is something that I find almost noble or (forgive the hyperbole) holy in some way. Sharing something meaningful to me brings me more satisfaction than selling something meaningful to me, because the act of commerce somehow degrades the art (in my mind, I know.... perhaps not in yours.)

 

Now, my house was starting to take on a decidedly John Foster Kane apperance. Among the mics, amps, recording gear, books (lots and lots of books) guitars, drums, odd percussion, mic stands, paintings, posters, backstage passes Tshirts, albums, CDs, and other junk and supporting stuff that one collects after a lifetime of being in music and production plus the normal life stuff... I mean, it's just stupid.

 

Bill

"I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot."

 

Steve Martin

 

Show business: we're all here because we're not all there.

 

 

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I don't collect rare releases but I probably have a few. Over the years I have collected around 500 LP's, even more 45's, and over 1000 CD's. I had about 20 75 rpm records back in my college days. They were stored at my parent's house. One day I went by and my mom decided to have a yard sale. My 75's were included in the items. They were in the sun and had warped from the heat. :cry::evil::mad:

 

Robert

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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i gave up on records (reluctantly) and gave them to a good friend of mine who will cherish them for eternity.

i had lots of albums with grafiti written on the inner section. do any of you have grafiti "scratched" into the record at the center?

i assume this was done at the time of pressing by bored employees.

my Dreamboat Annie (Heart) album had

" beauty rescue us" on one side and "fingers in the butter" on the other side.

i was going to keep all my albums with grafiti but lost interest.

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Originally posted by Guitar Zan ta Claws:

i had lots of albums with grafiti written on the inner section. do any of you have grafiti "scratched" into the record at the center?

i assume this was done at the time of pressing by bored employees.

I think you could actually ask the pressing plant to scratch stuff on the vinyl. I seem to remember some acquaintances of mine doing that on their single. Don't know how it would work on larger orders though.

 

 

Guitar55: I have the 20Gb model and I'm running short on space too.I'm also thinking of getting the 60Gb version so I don't have to worry about diskspace for the next few years. :cool:

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I don't collect but I still have all my old Hendrix albums boot and non,one album is the

coca cola looking cover that says injoy Jimi

that I think is worth a little money but I would never sell it.

http://fdata.over-blog.com/0/06/21/63/thumbs/hendrix/enjoy.jpg

The story of life is quicker then the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye.
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Do you guys like any labels in particular? I'm not referring to the music, just to the actual paper circle that sat on the record.

 

I quite liked the old "Vertigo" one with the hypnotic swirly thing, the original "Virgin" with the two naked girls sitting back to back and the "Reprise" one, with the paddle steamer.

 

There's some cool ones here.

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Although I don't give a lot away, I have quite often taped CDs and cassettes for friends, or made collages for them.. I'm not selfish that way!

And I buy CDs for family for birthdays and holidays fairly often... or movies, since they love those, too!

 

I get a kick out of providing sheet music and instructional material to people that are interested, too! And if they return the favor, hey, I'm not proud!

 

The idea being a "share the wealth" program - and compared to musicians even a century ago, we have an INCREDIBLE treasure available to us... especially with the Internet being out there!

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Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

Although I don't give a lot away, I have quite often taped CDs and cassettes for friends, or made collages for them.. I'm not selfish that way!

Please don't draw any inferences, you've simply made me think...

 

I have a friend that always gives me .MP3 compilations for my birthday. I really don't know what to make of it. On the one hand, he's a notoriously cheap bastard, so I can see how the idea of copying 50 albums onto a CD appeals to him: it costs practically nothing.

 

On the OTHER hand though, he actually puts some time into doing it, so it's a more "heartfelt" present than if he gave me a bottle of whatever or a card. Sure, all he does is drag and drop a bunch of files but it's something. I suppose.

 

The real bugger is that, over the years, I've given him a bunch of CDs I didn't like and wanted to get rid of, and now I've got them all back as .MP3s.

 

I really don't have the heart to tell him. :D

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Well as stated before im only 18, so i dont actually own any records myselfs. BUT a month or so ago i decided to go through some of my dads old ones (only has about 30) and pick out some of my favorite albums to put on the walls. I got a pretty much mint "The Wall" "Wish you were here" "Physical Graffiti(?)" and "Zeppelin IV" out of it which was pretty cool. Im getting record frames for them, and im gonna hang them on the walls in my room, think it will look pretty cool.

 

Oh I also found a pink floyd "A nice Pair" which is there first two albums. While this is not rare itself, this one doesnt have stickers on the cover...ill explain:

On the front and back of the jacket there are two pictures of things that were later ended up being covered up by stickers that said like "Great buy!" or something. The first was a picutre of a dentist office, it had the doctors name on the front and i guess advertising in europe for that is illegal so he complained to the band about it or something and they went and put a sticker over it. O the back is a naked chic and they put a sticker on her later too.

While i dont actually knopw if its worth somethig its cool to know you cant get it like this anymore.

To Bill and anyone else throwing theres out: I would be happy to take some off your hands, i cant pay much but i could cover shipping, though you said you had a lot and i think i would want a select few; if you rinterested please PM me.

Heres some im lookin for:

Pink Floyd Ummagumma and any others other than the wall and wish you were here.

Beatles Abbey road or White Album

Kinks

And im really looking for a Smashing Pumpkins "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" though i doubt any of you will have it.

 

Thanks guys

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Originally posted by RyanVollmer:

While i dont actually knopw if its worth somethig its cool to know you cant get it like this anymore.

There's lots of artwork things that have never been "translated" onto CD, aren't there?

 

There's the spinning cover on Led Zep III, the way you can change the people at the windows in "Physical Graffiti", the 3D cover on "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (the Stones turn their heads and Jagger opens up his arms), The "zipper" on the original "Sticky Fingers"...

 

I wish someone would do something clever with CDs but nobody does.

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Speaking of covers, one of my favorites was Santana's Abraxas. ;)

I still have about 3000 LP at home, mainly from the 70's and the 80's and -yes- I have been a collector, meaning that once I discovered someone I liked I had to buy everything I could find of him.

Example: through Al Kooper's "Live adventures" I discovered this young white guitarist called Mike Bloomfield and so began collecting everything I could find of him, even when he was still playing with the Electric Flag.

Same thing with Peter Green: discovered him through John Mayall and then had to buy everything with his name on.

Speaking of that era, does anyone here remember Shuggie Otis? I spent hours dreaming to play a red 335, like he did on the cover of his LP.

Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
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I remember hearing Shuggie Otis many years ago and thinking he was a good blues player, especially for someone so young.

 

So many talented players, so little time! There are usually at least 5 or 6 CDs I want to get, but sometimes I stay away from music stores 'cause I haven't really listened to the ones I got two weeks ago! Especially if it's music in a style I am trying to learn! Do you guys know what I mean??

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Originally posted by Dreamer:

Speaking of covers, one of my favorites was Santana's Abraxas. ;)

I still have about 3000 LP at home, mainly from the 70's and the 80's and -yes- I have been a collector, meaning that once I discovered someone I liked I had to buy everything I could find of him.

Example: through Al Kooper's "Live adventures" I discovered this young white guitarist called Mike Bloomfield and so began collecting everything I could find of him, even when he was still playing with the Electric Flag.

Same thing with Peter Green: discovered him through John Mayall and then had to buy everything with his name on.

Speaking of that era, does anyone here remember Shuggie Otis? I spent hours dreaming to play a red 335, like he did on the cover of his LP.

OH YA for sure! Suggie is one of my all time favorite blues players! I don't think I have everyting by him but it's gotta be pretty close
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Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

There are usually at least 5 or 6 CDs I want to get, but sometimes I stay away from music stores 'cause I haven't really listened to the ones I got two weeks ago! Especially if it's music in a style I am trying to learn! Do you guys know what I mean??

You bet... :rolleyes::cry:
Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
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Originally posted by Kramer Ferrington III.:

Guitar55: I have the 20Gb model and I'm running short on space too.I'm also thinking of getting the 60Gb version so I don't have to worry about diskspace for the next few years. :cool: [/QB]

Vince,

 

There are "unsupported" ways of upgrading the hard drive in a Zen. Look HERE

Dennis

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Originally posted by Dreamer:

Speaking of that era, does anyone here remember Shuggie Otis? I spent hours dreaming to play a red 335, like he did on the cover of his LP.

No... but I did spend a lot of time wanting to meet the black amazon on the cover of Abraxas ;)

 

How long have you lived in Rome?

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Ah... the black amazon... :love:

I have been living in Rome most of my life (at least since the age of 5). Now, don't ask me when was that... :o

Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
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Here is what I could find:

 

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000CG8HY.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

 

But, of course, nothing can compare with the Black Goddess... ;)

 

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000062FL.01._PE33_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
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Next question, for those of you who have favorite classical pieces, or even favorite songs:

 

Is there any PIECE you will buy several copies of, or song you like enough you will buy a CD if it's on it?

 

For me, there a couple of classical pieces I have different versions of, for example: Bach's Goldberg Variations I have on harpsichord by Wanda Landowska, on piano (the video) by Andras Schaff, the string orchestra version by David Sikorsky (probably my favorite!) and the guitar version (with overdubs) by Kurt Rodarmer. All great version of a fantastic piece, but I ain't running out to buy 2 dozen other versions!

 

And I have been known to take a tune I love, say, "Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk, and make a collage of several different versions... because I want to hear musicians I love (Wes, Trane, Bird, Grossman/Renbourn etc.) take on a tune I love.. and enjoy how their different musical personalities come out..

 

But there's not that many pieces and/or tunes I feel that way about; or I'd have no time for anything else, or money either....

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Originally posted by Eric Iverson:

Next question, for those of you who have favorite classical pieces, or even favorite songs:

 

Is there any PIECE you will buy several copies of, or song you like enough you will buy a CD if it's on it?

That happened a lot to me, especially talking of classical music: I had a friend who really helped me to develop an ear and a taste for different renditions of the same composition by different players or conductors.

Speaking of songs, there are still songs I really love and I like to collect as many renditions of them as I can: in the past there were times where I actually did buy a CD just for one song.

Of course, speaking of jazz, different artists give not only a different rendition, but a different improvisation as well and that's useful also for learning purposes.

Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
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