I think I first started buying albums around 1970 and I certainly got my money's worth then. Whatever I bought I listened to obsessively, playing the same album day after day (not owning enough, not having a lot of money, to do otherwise.) So I'm an expert in The Incredible String Band's U, Fairport's Angel Delight, the first Emerson, Lake and Palmer album and Floyd's Ummagumma, especially the live part, these being the first albums I ever owned.
This stands in stark contrast to the position I now find myself in. Yesterday at various times I listened to Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish, Dylan and The Band's Before The Flood and People's Colony No 1 by the Temple of Sound and Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali. In each case I had a strong sense of rediscovering something forgotten and, at times, listening to something wholly new, even in the case of Before The Flood, an album I've had for years, once owning it on vinyl. In that particular case I was far more aware than I'd been previously of The Band's contribution to the proceedings, especially Levon Helm's drumming. With regard to the Blur album, which I got hold of a few months ago, I found myself enjoying the simple attractiveness of the songs when originally I'd thought of it as a rather thin, insipid collection. And I'm embarrassed to say that People's Colony No 1 might have been entirely new to me, I was so unfamiliar with the material.
So all this is making me wonder whether I can justify a bit of spending on new CDs when I'm acutely conscious of not doing justice to what I already have. This week I've got the opportunity to do a bit of shopping and I have funds set aside that I need to spend on books (the vouchers I got for the workshop and a sort of grant for such from the school) but is it just extravagance for its own sake to extend my shopping to include a lot of stuff for the ears? Probably, but I doubt that that's going to stop me.
Amongst others I've got designs on Hank Williams, Badly Drawn Boy, The Decemberists and a bit of Chopin. A cheerful little list, methinks.
2 comments:
If you must buy an album--http://www.amazon.com/Takk-Sigur-Rós/dp/B000AJJNPY/ref=pd_sim_m_1
The short sample tracks don't do the epic pieces justice, though.
Interesting one. I got the first album, called Agaetis Byrjun, I think, and enjoy it when I play it - but that's not too often. Not sure why. I have to be in the mood for luxuriously drifting away. I wonder what these guys are like live?
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