Anniversary
A year ago this week, in fact a year ago this Friday, I got word that the axe was going to fall on my incredibly rewarding yet aggravating music-industry job. The label was going through some changes, and one change was that music fans would no longer be needed. Or so I editorialize.
Upon hearing the news, I went out and did the proper music-industry thing; got straight shitfaced on tequila and beer. I knew it was coming. The dumbest Labrador retriever ever born could not have missed the signs. But that didn't make the fact any more fun. And so; tequila.
Now, a year later, I find that I've lost touch with that thing that I went into the business to cultivate-- my enthusiasm, my mania, for awesome fucking rock and majestic thunderous roll. I don't buy records. I don't go to shows. I don't read the magazines, not even Mojo. On the other hand, I also no longer compulsively analyze everything I hear from a marketing-cost-per-unit perspective, which is nice, but the joy which I bled away at some point during the end days of my too-short career never quite came back like I hoped it would.
Last Friday on the train home, I got kind of sad. I was listening to "In A Silent Way" and as the disc got to that part about 10:42 into "Shhh/Peaceful" where Teo Macero really screwed up the edit and two parts mash together like a Lydian-mode trainwreck, I realized that a few years ago, that shit would have given me chills. Not so much any more. Music comes second in my life right after family, and several steps before food, shelter, and Italian shoes. And yet, meh.
So I need all y'all's help. Despite my limited resources and lack of shelf space (in fact, my wife has forbidden me from exceeding my current 30 shelf-feet cd footprint), I need to know. What music in is setting your ass on fire?
My kickass purchases in the last twelve months have been few. The Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin. "Up From The Cellar," the Motown rarities compilation. I finally repurchased REM's "Automatic for the People." But that's it. A far cry from the halcyon days when every! single! week! brought a new wonder: Turbonegro; Josh Rouse; Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Don Cherry; The Yeah Yeah Yeahs; an eventual collection of dozens of Zappa discs; ...and You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead; The Sheila Divine; Erin McKeown; Rhinoceros; Sigur Ros; The North Mississippi All Stars; Mirah; Robert Randolph; Aceyalone; Shuggie Otis; Oren Blowdow [sp?], Dr. Octagon; Buck Owens reissues; Handsome Boy Modeling School; Antibales; The Fucking Champs; Gorillaz; Los Amigos Invisibles; and the greatest of all, a concert by the great Princess Superstar herself aboard a floating party boat in the Hudson River.
I hope those days aren't gone for good, because that would suck mightily. So help a brother out. What's ringing your bell?
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Well, lemme tell you. I have
Well, lemme tell you. I have neither the time, the funding, or the inclination to be as cool as I once was. Um, or maybe as cool as I thought I was.
I spend alot of my limited frivolity budget on old stuff, to tell you the truth, very specific records chosen because I want to have them forever, not because I think they're neat today. Which I'm not accusing you of, by any measure; I'm pointing out that I put alot more thought into what I buy now than I ever used to.
I don't think it's helpful to list specific titles and heading into a "must-have album collection" discussion, mainly because you already have everything cool.
Instead, try thinking of your collection of musiks as a single document. Think about who would read this document, and what you would want that reader to gain from it, and why. Consider what future generations of lesser Owens, yet unborn, might gain from it.
Then, with that frame of reference, go back and consider what is either missing from your collection, or is superfluous.
If nothing else, please have "Raw Power" and "Ziggy Stardust".
I'm sure Steve will agree:
I'm sure B will agree: Gillian Welch. Her CD "Time (The Revelator)" has been on continuous play in the Buckethead household since Steve bought it a few weeks ago. It's refreshingly simple. Acoustic guitar, some banjo and mandolin thrown in here and there, honest vocals with some honest harmonies thrown in for flavor. By "honest," I mean they are not over-engineered. Just vocals as nature meant them to be. And I haven't even started on the text of the songs - "Never minded workin' hard, it's who I'm workin' for..." I suggest giving it a listen (or two or three...)
GL, trust me when I say I don
GL, trust me when I say I don't have everything essential. I don't have Aerosmith's Toys in The Attic or Get Your Wings, I don't have Diver Down, I don't have any Dio, I lack Def Leppard and Meatloaf's only good record. I erred in letting Peter Gabriel's So walk off a few years back, and I have yet to purchase Wilco or Marc Ribot's Prosthetic Cubans. And I guess I could. But that stuff, which I ought to be salivating over, just seems like a nice idea now. What the hell? I need to get fanatical again about this, so's to channel my energy away from more destructive hobbies like buying guitars.
Also trust me when I say that the Great CD Purges have trimmed the ol' collection down to about 2000 titles, all keepers. Now I"m in the groove that you are, vetting before I buy so I only buy quality. But that doesn't diminish the jones for new sounds. Even with a 2000-cd catalog at home, the ear gets hungry for something new.
Already got Raw Power, and dont' care much for Ziggy. Bowie leaves me cold, totally.
But as for Gillian Welch, I'd totally forgotten about her, and I'm an idiot for it! Damn damn damn damn damn. I never bought that record when it came out, and it had totally slipped of my radar.
I smell what you're stepping
I smell what you're stepping in as far as needing new sounds. To me, old sounds ARE new if you've never heard a certain album in its entirety, or it's been a long time since you have.
So huzzah for Anitbales and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but I more often look back to hear exciting sounds today. Does that attitude make me old? Or do the Sinatra and Glenn Miller records just make me sound old?
Pretend you are in an episode of old Serling-era "Twilight Zone", one of the ones about the impending end of the world. It falls to you to be responsible for leaving humanity's musical record as best you can with whatever albums you currently own. Which do you put in the preservation capsule? Would that exercise help you with your purchasing?
And I had my fingers in my ears and my eyes closed, chanting "WAH WAH WAH I am not listening to you" over that Bowie remark.
A Bowie fan! Who knew!
A Bowie fan! Who knew!
I will temper my remark with this. There is no Bowie album I can enjoy all the way through. But on ever album there are three or four excellent songs to find. Also "Heroes" is one of the greatest songs ever.
It's kind of like Cheap Trick, who I super-dig. Their albums contain some filler, but their singles are world-beaters. "Surrender" is one of the greatest songs ever.
It's all a matter of where your sympathies lie. You are more glam-friendly than I am, and hence more willing to accept Bowie filler. I am more power-pop than you, so the reverse applies.
My wife was correct in her
My wife was correct in her assumption about Gillian Welch. I would also recommend the complete recordings of Tommy Johnson. Eerie, aching blues, all 29 of them.