Please Describe your Music Collection

One of the better parts of the forums is reading about other people's systems, but I think it would be even more interesting to hear about people's music collections. Format, type of music, size, how stored, favorite artist, worst purchase, first purchase, ect. Whatever info about your music you want to volunteer. Think of it as a musical biography.

Here's some of my music info:

The collection consists of approximately 2200 records. 300 are CDs and the balance are vinyl. I've transfered about 35% of the collection onto hard disk as part of an iTunes driven digital jukebox. The albums are stored in a separate room on Intermetro modular metal racks. They're alphabetized by artist, but I have separated out the few classical records. By music type approximately 45% is pop/rock and 25% is jazz. The rest is pretty evenly distributed between blues, classical, country, reggae and R&B. I do not have any Broadway musicals.

My earliest musical recollection is my mom listening to William B. William's "Matinee Ballroom" on the radio. Also alot of early exposure to 50's "oldies" and Brill Bldg. pop. However, my first record purchases were the first Manfred Mann album (yes, the one with "Do Wah Diddy") and the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go". I still have each album although they are in very poor condition. I still listen regularly to the Supremes, its a truly great record. The guts of my collection is the standard baby boomer Motown/British Invasion/San Francisco Psychedelia/Funk/Punk/Jazz-Fusion/New Wave/sensitive singer-song writer cannon. I'm a pre-grunge kind of guy. My big heroes are Bob D., Beach Boys, Smokey Robinson, Elvis Costello, Little Feat, Steely Dan, Joni, Los Lobos and Jimi.

Starting in high school I started getting exposure to jazz and quickly took a liking to McCoy Tyner, Miles, and Coltrane. Also purchased virtually everything by Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin. I dived pretty hard into the ECM and Blue Note catalogs.

During college the most popular records were Pink Floyd's "DSOTM" and Steely Dan's "Royal Scam". Around this time I also developed a serious interest in electric blues. Over the years I've become a big fan of B.B., Albert and Freddy King, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy.

As a adult my tastes haven't so much changed as solidified. Over the last few years I'm only buying 50-70 records a year. I can't explain why, but I'm not as quick to explore new music as when I was younger. Despite this I still developed a liking for raggae (primarily Steel Pulse, but some others), Mozart, early 90s Brit pop (Lush, Cocteau Twins, etc.), Dwight Yoakam and anything by V.M. Bhatt. As time goes by I've also found that I appreciate Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong (particularly as a vocalist) even more.

I once recieved a great compliment from a friend. He was looking thru my collection and said, "You have a great collection, even you failures are interesting." As he said this he was holding a copy of Rick Wakeman's "Journey to the Center Of the Earth". Sorry Rick, it's probably my worst purchase.

Tell me about yours.