I’m having a bit of a dilemma.
Generally, I like to listen to a wide variety of music. I don’t stream music; I buy the CD when I decide I want to listen to something.
But only in very few instances have I collected the complete catalog of any artist. I’m more likely to go wide than deep.
The stunning variety of ways that humans have found to combine rhythm, melody, and harmony is at the core of my love for music. Why get fussy about tracking down every single recording by a certain artist when there’s SO MUCH different music out there to listen to?
Some would suggest that if you really love an artist’s music, you should make a goal of acquiring their complete discography. And in a way, that does make sense.
Owning and becoming familiar with everything that an artist recorded and released is certainly a way to fully appreciate that artist.
But a part of me bristles at this.
What if the band has permanently broken up, or if the artist has passed on?
I don’t think I’d like the feeling of knowing that there was simply no more new music to be heard by my favorite act.
That’s been my informal philosophy for quite some time, but now I’m considering making an exception. And in the interest of not being coy about this, I’ll cut to the chase:
There’s only one band whose music is compelling enough – extraordinary, even – and whose catalog is deep enough (without being too deep; I’m leaving John Zorn out of this conversation) to warrant this consideration.
That band is Cocteau Twins.
I’ve been in love with their music for a long time.
It was the late 80’s when, intrigued by the band’s cryptic ephemera, I picked up their 1988 album Blue Bell Knoll from my local mall record store. I hadn’t heard anything of theirs previously, so the first song on the album – which is also the title track – marked the first time I had listened to any Cocteau Twins.
I was immediately spellbound.
The foreboding keyboard, the ethereal vocal, the way the song swells and erupts into a mind-bending guitar freak-out at the end… I’d never heard anything like it before. Even today, I’m not convinced that anyone had ever made music like this before the Cocteaus did it.
The rest of the songs on that album didn’t come anywhere near that level of intensity. At first that was a bit disappointing, but in retrospect it was a fortunate thing. I don’t think my physiology could have withstood a whole album’s worth of such brain-melters.
More broadly, to maintain interest long-term, a musical act must be able to sing more than one song. One-trick ponies are not compelling.
After listening to that first song, I knew that they could convincingly pull off a ground-shifting conjuration of a song.
But could they also deliver a swooningly beautiful number that sounded both ecstatic and angelic?
Like, something jaw-droppingly gorgeous and entirely unprecedented?
Turns out they could:
Suitably impressed, I quickly picked up the only other CD of theirs I could find, a compilation of earlier stuff called The Pink Opaque. It was similarly delightful, but also represented something of a dead-end. Back in those PI (pre-Internet) days, answers to the questions I had about the Cocteaus were decidedly NOT at my fingertips. I learned that they were a UK band, and gradually gathered that there was a confusing mix of albums, singles, and EPs involved.
It would have taken some major digging to find out more, so I left it at that.
For several decades.
I never lost my fascination with the music of Cocteau Twins.
But as I’m sure you know already, there’s a whole world of music out there to discover.
Eventually – and at least partially thanks to doing my “Far From The Charts” write-ups for SG’s #1s comment section – I realized that the Cocteau Twins music, which had seemed so exotic and beguiling all those years ago, still delivers the goods. So I decided to fill in some of the gaps in my collection.
I’ve made some progress, most crucially in snagging a 1991 boxset that collected all of their early EPs, a considerable chunk of music that’s not available on the albums.
I’d written it off previously due to the expense – spending $150 or more for it had always seemed a bit too indulgent. But I searched around a bit (thanks, Discogs) and found the discs – (minus the decorative box( – for a double-digit price. It’s the savviest bit of consumerism I’ve pulled out of my sleeve in quite a while.
This creepy-as-hell number from 1985 is the song that convinced me that, yes: I did need the EPs:
But it’s possible that the Law of Unintended Consequences has kicked in.
Now, I find myself waking up in the mornings with Cocteau Twins songs playing in my head. I felt the need to not only have all my collected Cocteaus music in a single playlist, but I wanted the playlist to be arranged in chronological order so that I could analyze it and better understand how their music progressed over time.
I realized that to put the songs in order, I needed a master list – otherwise, keeping up with all the names and dates is not within my mental capacity.
Now, after putting together both the master list and the playlist, I can “test” myself: I put the playlist on shuffle.
As the songs randomly come up, I try to identify which recording the song is from.
In short: I’m beginning to feel obsessed.
It’s been a few years since I last felt like this (go ahead, ask me about John Zorn, I dare you.)
And I’m not sure that I like it.
This morning, I took a closer look and realized that I’m not as close to the goal as I thought. To really get the whole Cocteau Twins shebang, I’d probably need several months to acquire the last three studio albums that I lack…
… plus the collaborative album they did with Harold Budd…
… PLUS several later singles and EPs…
But I don’t know if I want to commit to that. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s worth the time and expense, not to mention the music I won’t be able to check out if I go all-in on the Cocteaus. After all, I’ve only scratched the surface on The Big Moon and Joanna Newsom!
Maybe I’m over-analyzing this? Obviously it’s a question that I have to answer for myself, but I’m curious about you, kind reader:
Have you had similar experiences?
Are there artists that you love so much that you’ve felt compelled to own EVERYTHING they produced?
And if so: how did you handle it?
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I’ve never felt that way about one particular artist, but I have felt that completer obsession before (with the AT40 hard drives sitting on my desk as proof). So I get where you’re coming from — and you’re at the right place! Good hearing from you again!
Thanks! Nice to flex my writing muscle again, it was getting a little flabby…
Well the short answer is Yes, of course I have!
I think part of why we do this is it’s some sort of use for our evolved capabilities to categorize and create mental schema. Memorizing which mushrooms are delicious and which are poisonous, or what plants have medicinal properties, was obviously quite valuable back before modern civilizations rendered such knowledge moot, yet now we put that cognitive hardware to tasks like “When was this Cocteau Twins single released relative to this Siouxsie and the Banshees album?”
I’ll admit that I have long since abandoned CDs, and sold my collection around 2007. I have also made some major music files swaps with other hardcore music heads over the years, so my collection grew exponentially without having to buy nearly as much new music. All of that is to say that there are a fair amount of bands where I have all of their stuff–including Cocteau Twins–but the journey getting there wasn’t so effortful for me.
Probably the most work I’ve put into was Cabaret Voltaire, since so much of their music is not available on mp3. They put out so much music in their time, yet they were always very much a niche band, so maybe the demand to digitize every EP wasn’t there. So despite having sold all of my CDs, I had to hunt down and acquire CDs of all of these harder to get items.
Obviously the more material you acquire from an artist, there’s a greater chance that you’ll hear something that you find repetitive, mediocre, or downright bad. It’s a sign of true fan-love when you actively seek that stuff out to get a better understanding. I had great fun going through David Bowie’s various obscure clunkers, with no small help from Chris O’Leary’s excellent Pushing Ahead of the Dame blog.
Best of luck on your Cocteau Twins journey! What is your favorite release so far? I’m surprised by how much I love the really early stuff. It’s shameless in its Banshees worship, but so stylish, like goth chic. But my favorite is and has always been Treasure.
That’s an interesting theory re: mental schema. I think it’s true that in the past people were obligated to spend a much larger portion of their mental energies on tasks associated with just staying alive, and it makes sense that today, with survival being less of a critical issue, we would find something else to – for lack of a better word – obsess about.
Also interesting is that there’s still a considerable contingent of folks, myself included, who find topics like medicinal herbs and wild edible plants to be more worthy of consideration than standard things like sports teams, tv shows, or fashion. I would almost put music in that category but I think there’s something more profound going on there. That’s a whole other discussion though.
I suspect that your taste in music is at least as eccentric as mine; I’m drooling a little thinking about all the cd’s that you sold. A lot of treasures in there, I bet. But I understand about space availability and having the music available otherwise. I think part of my sticking with cd’s is that I think I’d get overwhelmed with streaming or downloading and end up owning a bunch of music that I never get around to really listening to. Buying cd’s helps me moderate.
I’ll confess, I’ve never really listened to Siouxsie, but that totally makes sense as an early influence on the Cocteaus. That first album GARLANDS really has a much different feel than the later stuff. As for my favorite, I think it would have to be either TREASURE or HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS. But BLUE BELL KNOLL ranks highly for sentimental reasons and I haven’t even heard the last couple or the one between GARLANDS and TREASURE yet.
Ooh, Head Over Heels is a great one. Still gothy, but more dreamy and sumptuous.
Siouxsie and the Banshees were an important influence on dream pop and shoegaze bands, but they themselves were never much for sonic purity. They dabbled in pretty sounds and psychedelia, but jumped all over. I think a lot of CT and MBV fans reliably get into The Cure, (as Robert Smith is all about singular sonic approaches and perfectionism), and some get into the Banshees, while others are a bit confused at their more ramshackle and theatrical nature.
Yeah, I’ll probably make HEAD OVER HEELS my next CT purchase. That Joanna Newsom is still calling my name though… I’m not opposed to hearing some Siouxsie at some point, but ramshackle theatrics are not my jam, generally. As for the Cure, I don’t mind hearing them but I’m basically ambivalent.
Since we’re on the subject, what do you think about the couple of CT albums after HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS? I haven’t heard any of that stuff, the impression I get is they sort of fell off after HOLV. But sheesh, that album is gorgeous. How would you rate the ones after that?
Well…I think of them kind of how I think of Stereolab’s later albums. They’re pleasant and pretty, but overall I confess to finding them a bit boring.
Individual songs still grab me though. From the albums, usually the singles, but I also like the EP material and B-sides. “Alice” is full of pathos, and I could listen to the later remix of “Cherry Colored Funk” over and over on a loop, forever.
I’m listening to the Blue Bell Knoll album as I type and yes that opening title track is stunning.
First band I obsessed over was The Beatles as a teenager, an obvious choice but if its good enough for millions of others than why not. As a teenager with no income other than weekly allowance I knew where all the 2nd hand record stores and market stalls were and picked up all the albums on vinyl for a lot less than they cost new.
Then there’s acts like Belle and Sebastian where I was there from the start and with a regular income by then it was easy to keep up with every release as it came out.
I still have the same obsession about acts but like Phylum disposed of my CDs around 10 years ago – most of them, I kept ones by the likes of B&S that I’d obsessed over. Now I obsess digitally.
I do keep abreast of a range of new stuff but I like to mix that by picking an artist and over the course of a week or so (or longer depending on their longevity) listen to everything they’ve ever done in chronological order to understand how they progressed and fill in any gaps in my knowledge of their output. This week its Nick Drake which given the unfortunate circumstances there isn’t a huge catalogue to get into but is still rewarding when it’s an act that doesn’t have tens of albums to dig into.
I think it comes with the territory of being a committed music fan to obsess in some way. There’s plenty worse things to get into. Trainspotting, I really can’t understand that. Do they have trainspotters in America?
I guess there might be some here, but it’s more of a thing in Japan:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2022/04/03/general/japan-railway-enthusiasts/
They really take it seriously. Never get between a Japanese trainspotter and the train.
Ohhh yes. Local example – they love Harpers Ferry train station on the Potomac River within the Harpers Ferry National Park. its a teeny historical town, a dramatic setting with the Shenandoah River emptying into the Potomac at a break in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and all trains coming from the east emerge from a tunnel through the mountain and emptying directly onto the bridge. Its an Amtrak station and a major east west frieght rail line, so its very busy all day. PC (Pre covid) when I was commuting most of the week, I’d go to the Harpers Ferry station to catch my train in the morning if I was running late ( I normally go to a different station). Without fail, every day when I’d exit the train at that station, there’d be groups of people sitting on the benches, tripods set up to catch pictures of trains emerging from the tunnel.
Even bigger deal is the branch line that comes out of that same tunnel and follows the Shenandoah shoreline to the south. That line shares the bridge over the Potomac with the Appalachian Trail bridge, so folks get to be even more up close and personal with those, which have to crawl at about 5 mph over the bridge lest they destroy something (as an engineer discovered a couple years ago when he took it juuust a bit too fast and the train derailed into the Potomac, taking out a good chunk of the trail bridge with it). Yes. I like trainspotting there too, is it that obvious??!!
Thank you for that detailed and highly informative response. I know where to go if I ever get the urge. Taking pictures I can just about understand. There’s another type that just record the serial numbers of the engines into a logbook as they pass. That’s a whole step too far. Gets them out the house I guess.
Oh, they exist too. I’ve actually overheard some visitors at that station commenting on the type of diesel locomotive coming through, that is was definitely the new upgraded engine, blah blah blah – these people know their stuff, that’s for sure!
I am very surprised there’s no train website equivalent to flightaware.com. now that’s a nerdy fun site if you’re a planespotter. [Raises hand] That’s how I know the contrails I’m seeing when I’m working outside on the back porch are one of the numerous Newark – Memphis Fed Ex flights vs a United from JFK to Dallas, or that the large jet flying too low over the house on its approach to Dulles is coming from Seoul, South Korea….
https://flightaware.com/
I had no idea that trainspotting was much of a thing in the US! To each their own… I like watching trains go by, and being able to drive alongside them at the same speed is particularly satisfying for some reason. Beyond that, I think it takes more of an appreciation of fabrication and mechanical construction than I’ve ever mustered.
One of my favorite movies is called The Station Agent starring Peter Dinklage.
I had no idea trainspotting was a thing in the United States either, but it has a role in the movie.
Went to Harpers Ferry last year while on vacation. Beautiful part of the country. I can see how watching those trains could become addictive.
Mt, you able to recover my trainspotting post reply? It appears to have gotten eaten by a Spam Monster….
Sorry, dutch. Not sure why it was flagged, but ^
…you’re all set.
You da man mt. 🫡
I like that approach of spending a week or so with a given artist, then moving on to another.
So if you were going to recommend one B&S album for a newbie, which would it be?
I’d go with The Boy With The Arab Strap as entry level B&S. Their 3rd album and the one where all the elements came together. First two albums are great too but they do reflect a more basic approach. There’s only been one album I’ve felt a bit let down by; Fold Your Hands Child… but even then there’s good songs on there. Still going strong with their latest release a couple of months ago.
I don’t always side with the consensus picks, but in this case I must. If you’re feeling adroit, there’s no better option than If You’re Feeling Sinister.
I agree that Fold Your Hands Child is much more of a mixed bag. It’s the one B&S album where I actually skip tracks, but it also has some of my absolute favorites on there.
BG, just wait until you start dreaming of finding Cocteau Twins rarity collectibles in used record stores… 😁
I usually have those at least once a month. My last one was just a few weeks ago in fact; I found some bootleg of an Italian Wham! Concert I think it was, along with a some Arcadia 12″ I’d never known about, and I was all excited I found both George Michael and Duran related items in the same store. Which in my dream was like this old school electronics store with big console tv’s everywhere. It’s always so vivid when I discover these stores in my dreams too, like, I can see the covers and liner notes of these things I know don’t exist but still wake up feeling convinced I can find one because I know exactly what to look for.
In contrast, MrDutch wakes up giddy if he got to play with big boobers in his dreams. 😂
Our subconscious minds are funny things, aren’t they?!
It’s the thrill of the hunt, really. I still don’t have a turntable even after all these years; all my vinyl just sits on a shelf to be admired. I despise shopping otherwise, but I have been known to spend hours in used record stores just endlessly searching because you never know what might be buried in the bins. I shared my experience from my first record convention shopping experience in college over at the mothership many virtual years ago, where I literally got such a rush I was all flush and shaky and it was the first time in my life where I actually didn’t care how much money I spent, as long as I got all the goodies I was finding (Wham, George Michael, and Duran mostly). After I got back to my dorm room I realized – oh, is this the feeling people get when they go on shopping sprees at malls?! Now I get it!
George and Wham thankfully are easy – the man was such a perfectionist he kept extremely rigid control over what actually was released, there are no b-sides or lost demos or anything floating around the rumor mill. Closest thing was the Jerry Wexler produced version of Careless Whisper that George did in ’84 at Muscle Shoals before realizing he could do better back in London himself. That version somehow made it onto Japanese 12″ releases of Careless Whisper, and yeah, it’s atrocious. It’s not like there’s some Prince like vault of unreleased GM music – he just didn’t operate that way. Which in a way is a relief as a collector!
Duran Duran however, they’ve got all kinds of extra tracks floating around. I thought I knew of most of them, but then just this past week there’s been hyper chatter on the DD forums with talk of a new album later this year, and Andy’s doing some guest guitar work on it. Anyhow, folks are speculating about which potential ‘lost’ songs might finally see the light of day, and it becomes a competition to see who can name the most obscure, least known demo that is somehow the greatest thing they ever did and they can’t understand why it was never released…. and I’m just at a loss for what they are talking about. I’ve still got a ways to go on the Duran collectibles front. 🙂
Well I’m glad there’s no one else home that I have to explain my snort of laughter to as I reached the reference to MrDutch. Different strokes for different folks 😁
How interesting! Dreams are endlessly fascinating to me. I don’t recall ever having a dream like you describe, even though I love to shop for music and books (and basically nothing else). It’s rare that music appears in my dreams in any capacity at all, which I think is strange. But occasionally I do wake up remembering being at a performance, or getting ready to perform myself.
I think dreams are one of the most primal and universal creative activities we engage in. Apparently even most animals dream when they sleep! It has to be serving some function, but I don’t think it’s really been figured out what that function is yet.
Do dreams about specific things always translate to something in real life, or is that an urban myth? Are they for functional problem solving, or just stray electrical signals in the brain?
For example, if one has been having recurring-themed dreams lately about walking by strange houses that are on fire? And they rush in and check all of the rooms and closets, etc, to see if any people, kids or pets are trapped inside?
Asking for a {cough} friend.
If you’re able to find an answer for your friend mt, please do share. I know someone…. who has recurring dreams about plane crashes. Not in one, but watching one happen from the ground. And always with no noise. However, said person does watch ALOT of Air Disater documentaries.
Maybe your friend, mt, is od’ing on ‘Chicago Fire’ at the moment???
I had a dream last night involving an evil mechanical dinosaur, being operated by an evil tiger, which was controlled by an evil Elon Musk-type figure. And at some point among the attackers was a group of tigers, the mechanical dinosaur, and a pug wearing a rastafarian wig. At some point I had to stop being scared and point out, What’s up with the pug in the wig?
The dream took a very Sam Raimi turn.
Hey, sounds like the tuxedo-clad, tophat wearing, machete weilding duck character I had visit my dreams a few months ago would have fit right in with your group, Pauly!
(Yeah, I’m not going to forget that one. I woke myself up by saying ‘you’ve got to be f’ing kidding me!’ both in the dream and out loud. MrDutch was concerned i was having a nightmare. I explained my dream and went back to sleep. He was left wondering, once again, what was wrong with me)
That’s a great question, mt. I don’t think there’s a great answer for it, though.
I’ve gone through long periods in the past when all the dreams I remembered had a common theme. In the most unsettling batch, I was always sneaking around, usually in someone else’s home, trying not to be found because I wasn’t supposed to be there. This went on for a number of months (not every night, by any stretch, but still…) and then they stopped. Why? I have no idea.
My hunch is that dreams are highly individualized and “custom-built” by each person. So I doubt that there’s a universal correspondence list. A recurring dream would probably indicate that your brain is spontaneously utilizing the same element repeatedly, so perhaps some issue is nagging at your subconscious. Determining what that issue is, though, is likely going to be up to you.
On the other hand, I think it’s possible that we understand even less than we think we do about dreams. The idea that someone appearing in your dream means that you are also appearing in their dream is very compelling to me, and I have had a dream that would legitimately qualify as a premonition. So who knows? Dreams are mysterious, and I love a good mystery.
If you really want to dig into the subject, I can recommend this book. It’s a bit out of date, admittedly (I got it for $1 at a book sale), but it goes in-depth re: the physiology of sleep and dreaming, which is fascinating.
https://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-Brain-J-Allan-Hobson/dp/0465017029/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XPOU6DQNAXJV&keywords=the+dreaming+brain&qid=1679689583&s=books&sprefix=the+dreaming+brain%2Cstripbooks%2C109&sr=1-1
And yes, I have multiple copies of albums and singles – that’s part of the fun! You have your big 3 – US, UK, and Japan. If you can keep the obi strip intact on the Japanese items, that adds bonus value. Different labels for each country is a big deal. Owning OG Innervision label stuff of Wham!’s first album is prime collecting. I managed to score a UK 45 of ‘Young Guns’ that was so early on, the song is credited to George Panos, before he settled on the George Michael stage name.
I’ve got a German Wham compilation cd of 12 inch mixes as produced by Columbia Records, only it actually got printed and distributed with the typo “Thelve inch Mixes”. To me, that’s like having a double-stamped coin mint error.
It’s also interesting to note the differences between the releases to each country. Sometimes it’s a different version of a song, Japan always got the bonus tracks – early Duran albums are a fun treasure trove to track those differences. There are at least 3 different versions of the Rio album and it’s songs. The original UK has different mixes than the US release, which are different from the single versions….
Yeah, I’m one of those people that buy the re-release of the Faith album because it’s on super thick vinyl and remastered. I picked up the Older box set last year even though I already owned everything that was included (Unplugged, the Upper companion cd, all the remixes), because the record companies know there are those of us out here who happily buy the same stuff time and again as long as it’s repackaged.
And don’t get me started on the formats!! My holy grail is the Rio 8-Track. Someday I will find one. Remember mini-discs? I’ve got a brand new, sealed mini disc of Faith that Sony put out in the late 90s. I’ve never actually seen a mini-disc player, they came and went so quick. But I got a version of Faith on it!
I was trying to restrain myself BG when I first read this this morning, but the itch got too much. I looooove talking about record collecting, man, I could go on and on and on… 😁
That’s truly impressive, DG, thanks for giving us a glimpse. It makes me wonder, though – do you ever consider expanding that list and taking on other bands/acts to follow so intently?
The imagined role of a curator for a favorite artist was a good feeling: 1973 me was on the job, and making sure to keep a candle in the window for Mike Oldfield.
When I was younger, it was fun to collect not only the music, but the ephemera for favorite bands. The only thing cooler than pointing to your Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs pressing of Dark Side Of The Moon was having an actual first edition tour T-shirt; in this case, the one I bought and wore at the Boston show of the first DSOTM tour in 1973. (Whoever writes my obituary, please note that I was there. It was a biggie.)
(And no, I no longer have the tee. I lent it to a friend as a favor, and never saw it again.)
Notable collectables:
I remember getting my hands on a UK pressing of Close To The Edge, and later, finding the accidentally-released, and then immediately withdrawn Japanese CD of Abbey Road, all the way back in May of 1983. It was issued in error and hastily withdrawn when EMI had a fit, due to the shady legality of it all. It was the first and only Beatles CD release until all was sorted out in 1987.
Possibly as a result of getting older, and the fact that you can hear anything, anytime with your phone or computer, I’ve not only stopped collecting, but have grudgingly eBay-ed or given away most of my “hard assets.”
It’s sometimes bittersweet, but I find myself getting to the point where I just want to clear my head, and Have. Less. Stuff.
This whole conversation has spun me to what I’ll share next week: being a 12-year-old with my 11-year-old brother in New York City, unchaperoned, for a comic book convention.
I am also getting rid of stuff. Having some losses in my family kind of brought it home that someday someone has to go through all of it. Might as well be me. Just a few weeks ago, I gave all of my vinyl to my grandniece, for whom it is a trove of collectibles. They have a turntable and listen to vinyl a lot. I know that they will enjoy most of it, and I urged them to pass on what they don’t want. Just don’t return it to me.
This grandniece has been my concert buddy on many occasions. At some shows, they have been the youngest person in the audience, and at some I have been the oldest. I know that they will be open-minded enough to listen to all of the records and not prejudge based on whether they are already familiar with the artist.
Looking to offload my CD’s next. And DVD’s. And maybe some books…no, that’s too far. Keeping all of the books. For now.
I’m not obsessive like that. My dad used Napster and Limewire to find obscure, out of print Perry Como records that weren’t available any other way.
Respect for his embracing of the tech of the day!
+1 for Dad!
He was always ahead of the game on that. He built his first PC from scratch in the mid 1970’s. I remember going with him to Ham radio shows to find parts and meet other computer/electronics hobbyists.
Our dads probably had a lot in common. Mine was big into ham radio (after doing it in the army) and was early on board with computers. He didn’t construct them but got excited about buying them, starting with the VIC-20. I think that one is still packed away in his basement, actually.
I’ve never really been a completist. It’s just too hard. Just when you feel like you’ll be satisfied with your complete collection, you’ll realize, oh, sure, I have the album on reel to reel, but do I also want the STEREO version of the album on reel to reel? Or the Italian pressing with one extra digit on the cover? It starts to get a little silly.
I do like #1 songs. Back in high school in the late 1980s I started checking records out of the local library, and borrowing them from friends and recording songs that were #1 onto cassette. Eventually I put the years 1955-1974 chronologically on a series of cassettes. Later youtube downloads helped me complete my collection digitally from present day completely back to 1917. I also have what Joel Whitburn claims are the first 3 #1 songs in 1890 by John Phillip Sousa. It’s fun to have them.
But I too feel the desire to simplify, downsize and minimize. The urge to unload my 1000+ album collection is strong, but I haven’t done it yet. I’m out of collecting mode (except for digital collections).
We’re on the same page re: that type of ultra-completist collecting. I’ve never felt the need to get multiple copies of the same recording. The closest I’ve come to that is replacing some cassette copies with the cd – back in the late 80’s.
I think it’s great that you found a venue to share all your #1’s research. That’s been a regular valuable addition to the mothership column for quite a while now!
On the subject of musical completism, this from a reader led interview with Henry Rollins today;
You have a vast record collection; which record do you have the most versions of?
I have lots of different pressings of the first Damned album and the first three Buzzcocks albums. Different pressings of Hendrix albums are interesting, especially the South African ones, because during apartheid they didn’t want a non-white guy’s face on the cover. Bowie 7ins from the Philippines are super hard to find and always in bad condition. I buy every Joy Division bootleg. It’s basically the same eight shows, but until I have every pressing my life is not complete.
I’m not sure any of us reach the level of buying every available bootleg of the same show so we’ve a way to go in obsessive behaviour.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/23/henry-rollins-i-wouldnt-go-back-on-stage-with-a-band-for-anything
I love when Henry Rollins talks music. Always fun to bask in his geeking out.
This comment makes me think of a rare press of a Kate Bush single my brother-in-law has. Let’s say that it’s straight out of Mr. Dutch’s dreams…
You’ve got my attention… If it just so happens that you run across an image of the cover, you could, oh I don’t know, post it here inconspicuously, perhaps?
Here’s more by Henry Rollins. I really vibe with his concept of protein vs carbs music, and I’ve definitely got some music that I associate with specific seasons…
https://www.discogs.com/digs/music/henry-rollins-food-groups-seasons-of-listening-to-music/
Oh, wow. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard “Blue Bell Knoll”. Can’t remember if I bought the “cassette” because I saw “Carolyn’s Fingers” on MTV or a Rolling Stone album review. Blue Bell Knoll was my entry point to proto-Bjork. Elizabeth Fraser always seemed shy about the spotlight. To me, that’s what stopped Cocteau Twins from being Bjork-famous.
Blue Bell Knoll remains my favorite Cocteau Twins album. “Cico Bluff”, in particular, transfixed me. Also, it’s Jason Lee’s favorite album.
Cocteau Twins turned me into a 4AD nut. I used to have “label” collections. I bought anybody who was on 4AD, Merge, or Sub Pop.
I almost bought a turntable so I could buy a pair of comprehensive Go-Betweens retrospectives. What’s available on CD, I own. In addition to the songwriters’ solo albums, and in one case, his offspring.
Based on what little footage of the Cocteaus I’ve seen, I’d agree that Fraser doesn’t seem exactly comfortable in the spotlight. My impression is that they were sorta hovering at the edges of the mainstream, and that was cut short when the band broke up.
Collecting a record label’s releases is an interesting approach, but purchasing an artist’s offspring is next-level!
(That’s an intentional misread – I think…)
Sometimes Radie Peat of Lankum sits down on the stage. Not on a chair, the stage floor.
Robert Forster’s son was the frontman for The Goon Sax.
Arcade Fire was just another Merge band. Had no idea they were going to blow up.
I actually heard Goon Sax before knowing who was in it, and remarked, “Wow, this is great. This sounds like really early Go-Betweens.”
Bands don’t stay together because they can’t afford to, I guess. The non-singing guys bring something to the table you’re not aware of until the frontman(or frontwoman) goes solo. Cullen Omori, for instance, is not as good as Smith Westerns.
Majical Cloudz was my jam. Why did they break up? You only had to split the profits two ways. And then I learned why. Devon Welsh is the non-sketchy one. I follow his career, but it’s not the same. Some of Majical Cloudz output reminds me of some great unrealized Martin L. Gore project. Welsh, alone, just sounds sad.
I was ticked off when Goon Sax broke up. They were hitting their stride.
Pre streaming, I always had the “broad, but shallow” approach with music – I’m fine with a few songs / albums from most artists. Sure, I might miss some deep cuts until later, but once I get a feel for the sound of a band, I was pretty happy to stop there. I just couldn’t afford to get every album from every artist I enjoyed.
Post-Napster / streaming, I am more willing to do deeper dives, as it doesn’t cost me anything but time (and my internet connection).
As I have shared several times, I collect comic books, and there are similar challenges in being a completest; want every Spider-Man book? Amazing Fantasy #15 & issues 1-100 (Vol. 1) are going to cost a bloody mint, and, since the 90s, variant covers have exploded, so do you really want 50 (no kidding) copies of the same issue with different covers? I try and not get overwhelmed – the hunt for a cheap, raw book “in the wild” is what’s fun – I’m not losing sleep about not having every copy of everything.
I was BIG into comics in the early/mid 80’s – Marvel, specifically – and even then, for the more long-standing series like Spiderman, FF, Avengers, etc, there were several hundred issues worth of backstory. For someone of average adolescent resources like myself, rounding up all the back issues was way out of reach. This was before they began doing the phonebook-style b&w reprints, and I don’t think variant covers had been introduced at all back then. I can’t imagine trying to be a completist the way the industry is now…
I always have one or two obsessions brewing (currently: Alvvays and Tennis), but I’m not a collector. I move on to the next obsession before I can make much headway with collecting anything.
Example: in the summer of 1996, I discovered Ani DiFranco thanks to a friend’s recommendation. I borrowed her Out of Range CD and I was totally in, hook, line and sinker. I listened on repeat a few times, returned my friend’s CD, then proceeded to buy her first 8 albums within the next 6 months. Ani was always on in the background or in the foreground (I have a tendency to read lyrics while I listen when in obsession mode). I loved her fierce feminist perspective, her quirky acoustical playing style, her emotional range, her raw honesty. Her later albums were written from the perspective of someone who had already made it, which I found less compelling. So I stopped looking for new material (my last album was Little Plastic Castle, which has some high points for sure, but is not as consistently great as her first 4 albums).
At some point the obsession moved on. But Ani’s always there in my memory bank, and I can still sing entire albums from memory. Just like my Queensryche obsession from an earlier era, or my Nilüfer Yanya obsession from more recent times. It’s not like I stop liking my obsessions, but they move from addiction to old friend who I visit from time to time.
People used to make records
As in a record of an event
The event of playing music in a room
-Ani DiFranco
When I bought the Smithsonian Folkways’ Anthology of American Folk Songs, I thought about “Fuel”.
Yeah that’s a good one! A friend and I spontaneously performed “Fuel” as a duet at one of our Peace Corps meetings before our tour of service ended. It was a glorious mess…
My favorite from that album is either that one or “Gravel”:
https://youtu.be/pf0uSHhGvRA
I can’t say that this lite-funk stint she did is my favorite, but it reminds me of when I was working retail in Manayunk in the early 00s, as it was often played in the shop. Très nostalgique!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn48lOfrM9o&list=OLAK5uy_m-4Vjzf1EBMbC4oqRu3dZVpKjnFCatUmk
Sounds like good shopping music. Pretty much the antithesis of early Ani DiFranco.
https://youtu.be/FntNlSXuww0
This makes me think back to hanging out with one of my friends from high school, and that’s a much better association than retail!
That’s ambitious.
That’s some next-level karaoke.
Is it better to have a memory of the event than have it recorded?
Seeing DiFranco during her tour for “Dilate” back in the day was transcendent – what an amazing show.