Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Lost gems

Today, I decided to do what I have been putting off fer five fooking years. No, its not to give up smoking or start exercising or any of that bollocks. I finally took the time to actually catalogue and arrange me precious record collection.

Yup, took me whole fooking day & some of you may recall in me earlier post I talk bout the joys of collecting vinyl. It's just one of those things I have stuck to all these years; I bought me first LP with me saved pocket money in 1983 - Howard Jones's "Human's Lib" (ring a bell anybody?) & haven't looked back since. And it has steadily grown over the years & it really took off when I was in UK. But I still collect whenever I come across interesting titles & the total tally is just over a thousand pieces (yes, I have wasted/invested that much money on records). And I make it a point to actually listen to my collection at least twice a week.

Previously, all me albums were carefully arranged according to genre & I even put each band's output in chronological order. Anyone who has read Nick Hornby's tome Hi-Fidelity (or seen the movie adaptation with John Cusack & Jack Black) will know just how seriously fooking anal record collectors can be!

Well, when I moved into me own place with me wifey, everything got jumbled up & they just got shoved into any possible storage space. I just kept putting off the task as it was just too daunting; so fer five years I had Black Sabbath LPs sitting next to John Handy while the Sex Pistols snuggled up to Spyro Gyra (I know, I know, every collection must have its fair share of embarrassing mistakes).

Two things occurred to me while I finished the gargantuan task. Firstly, I actually have more jazz LPs than death metal titles! So the common misconception of me being metal-ccentric to the core is way-off the mark (just happened the other day when a visiting friend mentioned how I only listened to metal coz of all the tengkorak on the album covers!). Even I was a bit surprised by sheer number of jazz LPs sitting on its now dedicated shelf. Secondly, there's just soooo many albums I haven't listened to in fooking years & sadly, forgotten about. Of course, some were slipped out of their sleeves & plonked onto the turntable.

Dark Angel's Time Does Not Heal, anyone? Or how about Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger? I also stumbled across me copy of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours & I had to give it a go again since Premo has been nattering about it non-stop. Yes, yes, soft rock rules. . .

One of the lost gems was Monster Magnet's Spine Of God. Brilliant! The album sleeve carried the motto - "It's a satanic drug thing . . . you wouldn't understand" (!!!). If that isn't a sure sign of great contents within, I don't know what is. Awesome stoner space rock that still sounds fooking way out there today! As such I have taken the trouble to find a band video (above) fer yer viewing pleasure (those of you familar with Monster Magnet, enjoy; those who aren't, trip anyways dudes).

I was well chuffed with me efforts when wifey came home & she asked how were the LPs arranged. "Genre & chronologically", I replied smugly. "You mean not alphabetical, ah," came the reply. I told her she could fooking do the CDs on her own . . . and that's another posting fer another time.

9 comments:

Bernard said...

Which reminds me of my long forgotten copy of Superjudge. You can also go to www.monstermagnet.net/media.htm
to download some b-sides, videos etc. to your PC for listening/watching pleasure. Evil is out there....!! Got my copy of Soundgarden's Louder Than Love on permanent rotation on my laptop too!

Bernard said...

...and don't think that it'll take your wife THAT long to catalogue her collection of John Denver's campfire singalongs. ;D

kiaq said...

Talking bout lost gems, my 600 or so vinyls are residing peacefully untouched for years down at mom's house 300km away. My Funkadelic collection & other vinyls (Shakti, Santana, Coltrane, a few drum&bass stuff, etc.) are in KL, but at Idzuan's and other friend's ... shite ... missing the experience la bro ...

anfield devotee said...

Bernard: TQ fer link to MOnster magnet site. Cheers!

Kiaq: Might I kndly suggest you leave yer records in my care?

Unknown said...

Damn! Superjudge was fuzzed out psych rock but leave it to the earlier MM records like Tab and such for a truly amazing aural acid trip. The band now doesn't kick ass as it used to (probably meltdown).

Badmotorfinger remains my firm favorite. who can forget the classic doses of Sab-tastic heaviosity in tracks like Slaves and Bulldozers, Drawing Flies and Holy Water?

And hey since soft rock is 'in' again, why not start a revivalist campaign? We'll be the first! Pilot anyone?

kevo said...

sorry lah bro. dunno what noise you listenin to. ?... not qualified to make comment. but you know, that howie album was one of the few i had bought in all the music data storages then - cassette, record and cd. david sylvian's 'brilliant trees' was the other i remember vividly. ah good stuff. eh and what the f's wrong with spyro. didn't know you listen to jazz la. my definitive essential ear candy. cheers...

anfield devotee said...

Good to see u back, kevo. Monster Magnet isn't noise, its a trip. Anyways, anyone know what Howard Jones is up to these days . . .?

PS: Sorry la, bought a few spyro LPs on sale, only good use is fer testing yer hi fi delicate end. Me prefers Miles, Bird, Coltrane fer me jazz fix.

nick m said...

howard jones? that brings back good memories. i have that on cassette! LOL!!!
btw, it's not the number of LPs you have but how often you play them. i guess that qualifies you as a metalhead.

anfield devotee said...

I am definitely a metalhead, just that so many people seem to not realise I listen to so much more - I also enjoy the new orleans vibe of Dr John, the DUB-tastic sonic boom of ARK studios etc etc. And this is from people who own 2 compilation CDs.
PS: I was just surprised at the number of jazz lps there were.