| Author | Message | ||
     Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 518 Registered: 05-2005 |
Robert's article in this month's Monthly got me thinking. I'm guessing most of us around these parts have way more than 30 albums. (Hell, our Go-Betweens related collections probably stretch way beyond that number!) But what would some random stranger think of the 30 albums lying closest to my stereo right now? http://www.themonthly.com.au/spin-it-30- albums-robert-forster-4150 | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1444 Registered: 10-2008 |
I don't get it. There have been hundreds of truly great albums released, so this woman with 25 records only has a small percentage of these great albums. I'm probably missing the point, but its a good soundbite I suppose. Similar to Eno's thoughts about only having a dozen records in your collection, and if you want to add a new album you must get rid of one of the dozen you already have. Still probably missing the point (and being a bit tipsy), why is Robert advocating choosing inferior Dylan albums over Blonde On Blonde or Highway 61? I don't get that at all. Its all subjective, but he's also picked the wrong albums by Talking Heads and Joy Division (brilliant albums though both his choices are). Actually, its not even clear if its his own collection or a friends. Its a good selection of records I guess, but there is too much great music excluded from the period that Robert chooses, so I'm afraid I can't buy into it. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4110 Registered: 05-2005 |
Just read that article earlier in the magazine. Having spent much of last night having a blast listening to albums I loved 20 years ago (Matthew Sweet, U2, Tin Machine, Sugar) and having earlier in the day given a huge bag of CDs and DVDs to a charity shop, I can empathise with the less is more thing. But I can see Kevin's point too. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2765 Registered: 03-2005 |
I think I get Robert's concept. My first big musical love was the Rolling Stones in the 60s. I loved them pretty much all the way through their British Decca contract and still found about 1/2 of "Sticky Fingers" appealing and bailed on them with the critics' darling "Exile on Main Street." But out of 13,000 songs loaded onto my iPod, the only Stones album I've installed? "Metamorphosis"--the collection of odds and sods and particularly Andrew Oldham's ersatz Phil Spector productions with bizarre items like "Heart of Stone" decked out with pedal steel guitar and female backup singers. The Stones themselves were pissed when this was released and in retaliation they refused to assist Decca in compiling some of their excellent released-only-on-bootlegs early recordings. I've heard all the other records a zillion times and will happily listen again maybe once in a decade. But "Metamorphosis" takes this group I loved so much and presents them in an odd way, emphasizing the substance of the songs. Of the non-Spectorish things, the stark naked "If You Let Me" just knocks me out. It's obviously an outtake from the "Between the Buttons" era and is probably missing some fills and it's terrific--because it picks up the essence of that era of the Stones (Dylanesque) and yet isn't over-exposed. Bowie is a good subject as an example. Once he became a star he was massively exposed over here in the States. My favorite period of his is the always-overlooked Ken Pitt period when he recorded for Pye Records and then British Decca. That's literally the first Bowie stuff I owned and for a long time it was the ONLY Bowie stuff I had. If you really like a particular artist you'll be able to find the essence of the artist in almost anything he or she does. At that point, I think you'll often find yourself favoring a less-exposed work that contains all the elements that you love but maybe not in such a picture perfect way and maybe not so obviously. But it will still be obvious to you because you really like that artist. That's what happened for me when I pulled out Magazine's "Secondhand Daylight" a dozen years ago or so and realized that it was probably now my favorite, however immediately brilliant both "Real Life" and "Correct Use of Soap" are. Robert also says something about looking at someone's recent purchases for the best read-out on the person's tastes. That makes some sense but speaking just for myself I tend to go through phases. I've learned to restrain myself from doing big purges because many times I'll eventually circle back around to music that fell out of favor with me. In recent times I've been heavy into French music which opens a whole new vista for me. It will undoubtedly remain a part of the miasma forming my musical sensibility but surely something else will step in to take center stage in the near future. Cutting ourselves down to 30 records, what a nightmare. I had two older brothers who were music-mad so I started much earlier than Robert seems to have done. I have to pull 30 out of a pool of music stretching over nearly 50 years. But it sounds like a fun thread. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1445 Registered: 10-2008 |
Trust Randy to get (nearly all of) the title of the new Fall album into a post :-) I had never even heard of the word before and had to google it. I can find great value in the latter works of favourite artists. My favourite (at least sometimes anyway, it can rotate with Exile) Stones album is the soon to be rereleased Some Girls, and my favourite Lou Reed album is New York. On a more recent note, I have found the latter work of Talk Talk to be mind blowing, and have been playing constantly for a month. Their early work is not to my taste. Same with David Sylvian/Japan - couldn't stand the early stuff - ditto Bowie up till Hunky Dory. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1446 Registered: 10-2008 |
Oh, and I have fallen in to the trap that Randy has avoided many times by having to re buy albums that I had mistakenly thought I was bored with and sold years ago. In fact, never mind exist on just 30 albums. I'm the guy that record companies just love, I'll buy all these 20/30/40 Anniversary reissues, and in some cases I'm sure I've bought certain albums about 4 times when you include the original vinyl. Actually it gets crazier than that, I re bought all the Bowie RCA cd's that I had previously replaced with remasters, and then in the case of Station to Station also bought last years box set!! I have put Roberts article out to a few other music message boards I frequent, and not surprisingly(given these people are like us and are music fanatics) they are not really buying in to it either. | ||
| Burgers Member Username: Burgers Post Number: 34 Registered: 05-2005 |
Nonsense, albeit fairly well-written nonsense, from Robert. The Beatles. FFS. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4114 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, that's beautiful writing. It could easily have graced the pages of Word magazine (the best music writing these days is mostly in Word in my opinion). | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2767 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks Padraig, however much I don't think I deserve it! Kevin, trust me, I've fallen into the same trap enough times. My last and worst case of scrapping music was when I gave away a bunch of great collectible LPs after I got the respective CD versions. I wanted to cut down on the clutter in my small house. It's been a long time now since I did that--maybe about a dozen years--but it still stings. And, like you, I still end up re-purchasing things whenever I think a new issue will be better sounding or has some added rarities. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 358 Registered: 02-2007 |
Robert has always liked Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" mayb cos he covered one of these (cant remember which) on NY Girlfriend. But really to put this on the list has no basis other than idiosyncratic personal taste. Which I spose in the end is what its all about really. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1448 Registered: 10-2008 |
Thats a polite way of putting ir David. As I said above I put the article out for discussion on some other websites, some of the replies were pretty crude. Lets just say they didnt agree with Robert! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1621 Registered: 08-2006 |
Maybe I misread the article, but I thought Robert kinda thumbed through his record collection, landing on his choices more or less at random, no? I didn't get the idea his picks were his 30 favorite albums, or his opinion of the 30 "most important." That said, if I had to trim down my collection, "Nashville Skyline" or "New Morning" wouldn't be bad Dylan picks. I think they're great, and I play them as much as "Blonde on Blonde" or "Highway 61," both of which I spun to death a long time ago. |