Last night I bit the bullet and put our fine CD collection into alphabetical order. I am aware that makes me a geek of the highest order but, really, I wanted to find the CDs I was looking for and the alphabet is a useful invention for such sortings. I didn’t quite go as far as the main protagonist of High Fidelity and organise them into chronological order of when I discovered which band. That would have taken a good deal longer than the 2 hours of alphabetising that went on last night. It would also have been too hard to incorporate Husbandface’s contribution to the collection into that method, I never discovered Blue, it’s a measure of my love for him that Blue is allowed to stay in the collection. (He did also contribute some good albums I promise, before you judge too quickly).
I did rediscover some gems, renewed my love of Bruce Springsteen, shook my head over the varying quality of the last few REM albums, was glad I didn’t update all the Queen albums from cassette to CD and delighted in anticipating some reunions with old friends. If I was of the sort to make grand sweeping promises I’d probably vow to blog about rediscovered album each week. You never know, I might manage one or two a month from the back catalogue. On the player as I write is a genius collection of covers of Johnny Cash, fascinating to have such familiar songs reworked and re-imagined, no-one can beat the gravely voice of the Man in Black but it’s fun listening to people try, or ignore imitation completely and take the songs in a whole new direction.
I know I’m meant to be downloading songs from the internetski now, I know I’m not meant to care that HMV is on the way out of our lives, I know that it’s all about mp3s now but I can’t stop caring about the product. There is still something deep within me that loves the thrill of buying a CD, getting it home and pressing play. Something satisfying about looking at long lines of CDs on our shelves. I’ll hold onto that pleasure as long as I can.
I *almost* feel guilty that I’ve spent a significant portion of today ripping music so I can throw away the CDs and have the music on my computer and iPhone. First the vinyl fans were the purists, then the cassette – who would’ve thought we’d end up with people like you clinging to CDs? Good on you, though. That collection looks impressive.
Re-discovering old gems…. I recently bought a r-a-d-i-o c-a-s-s-e-t-t-e p-l-a-y-e-r (remember them – 2-touch record:-) and listened to some ‘tapes’ from my teens.
That was quite a trip!
I forgot to say – this is my first time on your blog, well done – it looks great – I love the style of your header and the way you write!
Hmmm… my comment seems to be lost somewhere…. from what i can remember it was: I recently bought a R-A-D-I-O C-A-S-S-E-T-T-E P-L-A-Y-E-R and listened to the ‘tapes’of my teens. That was quite a journey 🙂