I have a fair amount of friends that come over and they always want to hear something that is a recent purchase. After that I have them pull whatever suits their fancy and that inevitably leads to a trip down memory lane. I thoroughly enjoy having what is normallly a solitary experience be more social just because of this rediscovery. Left to my own devices I would not be listening to as much great music of past purchases. |
Absolutely. I still have every record that I have ever owned including LP's from the forties on up, and a lot of 45's that I bought as a kid when I couldn't afford an LP. Everything is represented in this collection from way back when including classical, country, pop, rock, folk, jazz, progressive jazz, and, yes, even disco. I work with several young, budding audiophiles who are amazed at the musicianship they hear on the pop music of that era compared to what they hear today. No matter what the critics say, there was a lot of important music recorded during the sixties and seventies and it has helped define what is popular today. Also, much of it is fun to listen to. Isn't that what this hobby is about? |
I've got well over 4,000 LPs, and while (needless to say) some get listened to more than others, every weekend I find myself browsing the shelves and picking out one or two I've not listened to in quite a while - - years, in most cases. Like Jependleton, I still have every LP I ever bought -- going back to 1962. |
I wish all the albums I've ever owned were still in good shape, but there's a lot I didn't know when young. Generally though, I love to hear it all -- old, new, slow, fast. It depends on the mood. Like you, I listen a lot more to the older stuff when friends stop by. There's nothing like dancing to some oldies! |
Great thread. I find myself getting into ruts and playing the same few records all the time. I like Lugnuts idea of having friends pick out what records to play. I'll probably hear some syuff that I havn't listened to in years. |
I'm with you Lugnut... it's more fun to hear whatever someone visiting wants to hear. Strange things happen. I have a large vinyl collection (records everywhere), many from my youth and it is surprising sometimes to find out that that great record were listening to is not from my friends bag this time but off of my self! Opps! There are very few genres of music that we dont like. I was raised on classical, Motown, jazz, psychedelic, folk, rock, blues, you name it. It keeps life interesting, dare I say, life is a gumbo (God bless) and why not our musical tastes? I despise listening to just the stuff that sounds audiophile and makes someones system sound good. That said, there is a lot of great sounding vinyl out today and Im glad I never got rid of any of the old Lps. As Bigjoe pointed out its a delight to pull out the old stuff for a spin and it does hold up quite well indeed. Cheers! |
R F,i agree that listening to only audiophile approved stuff just for the sake of it sucks,for me anyways,im not really sure how i ended up pushing most of my collection aside but im very happy that im listening to it all again.
lugnut,we listen alot with friends but they have never asked to pick the music,most of the time they like what we listen to but its a damm fine idea,im gonna leave the whole collection out & have them pick instead,sounds like a good way to keep in touch with alot more of the music. |
Bigjoe, Nice thread! I agree I to have dug back into some of the older music again such as; the 1st Blue Oyster Cult, Who's Next, Arageddon to name a few, and I greatly agree that that was innovative music from back then. Now my tastes has changed to softer music but as I listen I stll enjoy it all. |
spent sunday morning with "atom heart mother" and "the sopwith camel" on vinyl. reading the paper doesn't get much better than that. |
That's almost reason enough to get a sea of CD magazine changers or a hard disk player. That way you can easily force yourself to listen to to stuff (especially B-sides) to albums that you have forgotten. Just put the "whole thing" on shuffle.
As for me, I still listen to a lot of stuff of my youth. But even at 27, there are some titles that still haven't gotten play in a while. But every once in a while I do queue them up.
For the most part right now I'm trying to make my way through the 100s of classical records that I haven't yet heard, yet are taking up most of the floor space in our basement. |
I do the same--heavy rotation plus "an oldie"--
But, when I just want to listen, what I do is go to a marker that I keep in my collection (like a book mark) and listen & move the marker... it helps me rediscover a lot of the one-offs and things I probably wouldn't listen to regularly.
My collection isn't as extensive (2500 CD, 600 vinyl), but it probablys gets completely heard every 3-4 years. |
My musical tastes have changed slightly over the years--that sometimes happens as you age and expand your musical palate--and I find myself listening to more classic R&B/soul (Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, etc.) and a wee bit more classical. But, otherwise, I stick to the stuff that got me through my youth and twenties and thirties--stuff like the Stones, Elton, Beatles, Big Star, Fleetwood Mac, Ramones, Badfinger, etc. I have almost 3,000 CDs (and counting), and I regularly listen to only a mere fraction of those. Maybe my collection would benefit from a little culling, but I can't stand selling any of my CDs. I keep expecting to listen to all of them eventually. Maybe, it's a pipedream, but it wouldn't be the first time I had one of those. :) |
Hooper, I implore you to consider, if you ever rid youself of some of that old stuff, one day you may regret it. And regret falls hard on an avid collector. In my case its all pretty much vinyl and all those old psych rock and folk Lps (of my youth) are growing to be worth a fortune on ebay and the like. To think about the chance that I would have cleared them out years ago and now be looking to replace them would be fiscally if not logistically impossible. Im glad it never came to that and I hope it never does. Musical tastes are not exactly evolutionary; I find them to be kind of convoluted in that we keep coming back around to where we started. For me Fairport Convention, 13th Floor Elevators, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Bevis Frond, The Kinks, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Zappa, The Animals, The Byrds, (somebody stop me!) just to name a few, are all still very relevant today and fun. Enjoy! |
I try to listen to todays pop and rock music but always go back to King Crimson and the like for their far superior music. I think todays musicians try so hard to be different they forget their roots. |
R_f_sayles:
Your advice is duly noted and appreciated. Some of my CDs are pretty valuable--though not as valuable as equivalent LPs in mint shape--and I have no real plan to get rid of them. In my impetuous and drug-addled youth, I used to turn my CDs over regularly because I was disappointed at how large and unwieldy my collection was getting. Now that I own a house, those concerns are mitigated somewhat, but I wish I had some of those discs back. When I see how much they're commanding on eBay, I almost puke. |
What feels most comfortable to me is rock and heavy metal (old heavy metal, which by todays standards is more like easy listening). The new metal has just become rediculous kid stuff (to me anyway, IMHO), but getting into classical and jazz for the last several years makes it hard to go back to the 12 bar blues over and over with usually mediocre lyrics. It's just monotonous and boring compared to more complex and disciplined music. I do go back and just enjoy it, but it gets old quick now. |
Robm321
thats exactly how I feel.
I grew uplistening and loving led zep, stones pink floyd but after getting into Miles davis, Beethoven I get bored of the old stuff pretty quickly.
It makes me wonder how the original band members feel about there
own stuff. |
I don't know... I've been listening to "classical" music since I was a child. I have an aunt that was a piano recitalist and great musical mentor and have enjoyed classical works immensely thoughout my life. And yet I can honestly say that every time I hear the 13:06 minute version of Red House from Hendrix in the West (1972) it gives me shivers. Nothing else does that to me in that particular way. Of course there are about a zillion other pieces of music that move me equally in their own way. Take as an example Ali Akbar Khan's -Indian Achitexture this 2Lp set on Waterlily Acoustics records is an education in (Hindustani) classical music and an excellent meditation. This one always brings me down to earth after a tough week. Bottom line, there is just so much great music out there, I could never limit my listening to a single genre. Enjoy! |
Someone mentioned a cd changer. I have a Pioneer 100 disc player(they have 200 also). It may not be audiophile, but it still sounds really good to me. It's the greatest thing for discovering songs you maybe forgot about. I find myself running to see what album a song is off of. It's like listening to the best radio station ever, with great sound. It's over a 1000 songs chosen randomly by the player. You keep putting different cd's into the changer when the mood shifts. You never know what's coming up next. Great for parties! Maybe a dac connected to the transport would help too. |
wow,some of the stuff i found in my collection really needed to stay buried,last evening i was listening to the allman bros when i stumbled on somthing i had not heard in years,dr timothy leary's (the incredible lightness of being molecular)wow what was i thinkin when i bought that mess,i guess it sounded better when i dropped acid but sober that album is a mess.
im still lookin for an album i have by charles manson that i know i have but havnt seen in years,i think the album was white too,my kids have been trippin out on some of the old 60's stuff ive been diggin up. |
