Saturday, December 09, 2017

The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Four


On the fourth day of Gheorghemas, the swarthy Romanian gave to me:

Four reasons to save 68 CDs
Three balls a-rainin'
Two more automotive wormhole websites
And a bald guy and some random hor-seys

You all have heard me cyber-whining about our ongoing/neverending renovation. We are approaching the ninth inning of the project. And while I wonder if it's a fifteen inning game, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A point of influence to my wife amid this project was the need to purge objects as we prepare to settle into a wildly different home. I am an anti-pack rat, but my wife likes to hang onto things. We hit a purge groove last w/e. When we were both under the influence of wine, I got her to part with some stuff. I strongly urge you all to use wine as a lubricant to get the wife to purge items with little emotional value. And to get her in the mood for sexy time.


I decided to lead by example (again) last w/e. I made the hard decision to get rid of my CDs. They are stored in many (very) heavy boxes. I have moved them many times since burning them to a hard drive about a dozen years ago. It is inconceivable to think I will ever need ALL of them ever again. Removing boxes creates space. Everybody wins, right?
So I pulled all the boxes down from the attic and stuffed them in the garage until we figured out how to recycle them. But then I got nostalgic and decided to rip through them one last time, for old time's sake. Memories flooded back. I saw CDs I special-ordered from The Band Box. I saw CDs I had bought on cassette and vinyl. I saw CDs that expanded my mind in high school. I saw CDs that blew my mind in college. And I saw shit sandwiches. TONS of them. So much wasted money!


I decided I should hold onto a select, manageable group of the CDs I own. I gave myself no limit on saving. I just went through every one and kept each one that checked some opaque box in my brain/heart, keeping the hurdle rate pretty high. I looked at the keepers pile as I was almost finished sorting and became excited in an immature way, given where I thought the total might land. So where did I end up? 68 CDs. 68. Sorry dudes. I would love to have serendipitously landed at 69, but a CD had to meet some emotional threshold to be kept. No Korn. No MC Serch solo album. No POD. No Pietasters. No Rave 'Til Dawn. And no Dee Lite. Little Feat didn't make the cut either. Is it fun as hell? Yes. Yes it is. But is it an emotional anchor? No. But they did play at Jazzfest during my bachelor party. The reasons are entirely personal. Some I could explain and some I couldn't.


So here are the four reasons why I saved 68 CDs:

1) My kids may want the social equity from a robust collection of "old school" music, much like I gained with my hippie-ish mother's classic rock vinyl collection. So they now have a stack to choose from.

2) If I die one day (which some folks say is possible), my kids can play some of these and hear a lot of the music that influenced me as a kid and young adult. This was a key (and largely irrational) reason behind my decision to stash some tunes. My kids already like some Beatles, Rolling Stones, White Strips and Widespread Panic that I play them. So those are layup keepers. McCoy Tyner, Velvet Underground and Terrapin Station may take a bit longer to resonate, but they're still building blocks, at least in my warped view.

3) It hurts too much to be so clinical and toss all of it away. This is the soundtrack to my days as a young buck, when I was bird-dogging chicks and banging beaver, after all!

4) Adding an element of emotion to the process of decluttering makes my wife think I'm a normal human being and lets her know I'll give a bit of an emotional cushion when it comes to chucking crap into the garbage. Happy wife, happy life.

Here are the 68 CDs I saved. They skew towards rock for obvious reasons. Metal made it in the mix a bit  (Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Iron Maiden). Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet is my lone hip hop album. The collection might have been bigger had I not lost so many CDs along the hazy days of my youth. I'd bet a couple of you out there have a scratched-up CD w/ "TAR" scribbled on it.

Artist Album/Box Set
Allman Brothers Band Live at the Fillmore
Beatles Rubber Soul
Bob Dylan Blonde on Blonde
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 1
Bob Marley Songs of Freedom (Box Set)
Broken Social Scene You Forgot it in People
Bruce Springsteen The River
Bruce Springsteen The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Luther College
Dave Matthews Band Crash
Elton John Greatest Hits
Elton John Greatest Hits Vol II
Grateful Dead Reckoning
Grateful Dead Shakedown Street
Grateful Dead Terrapin Station
Guns n' Roses Appetite for Destruction
Iron Maiden Live After Death
Jane's Addiction Nothing Shocking
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin I
McCoy Tyner Blue Bossa
Metallica Kill 'Em All
Metallica Master of Puppets
Michael Jackson Off the Wall
Michael Jackson Thriller
Mooney Suzuki Electric Sweat
Motley Crue Shout at the Devil
My Morning Jacket It Still Moves
Neil Young Decade
Neil Young Harvest
North Mississippi All Stars Shake Hands With Shorty
Old & In the Way Old & In the Way
Pearl Jam Ten
Phish Live 10/31/98 
Phish Rift
Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet
Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine Renegades
Robert Randolph & The Family Band Live at the Wetlands
Robert Randolph & The Family Band Unclassified
Rolling Stones Let it Bleed
Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers
Rusted Root When I Woke
Sly & The Family Stone Greatest Hits
Soundgarden BadMotorfinger
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble Greatest Hits
Strunz & Farah Live
Styx Grand Illusion
Talking Heads Stop Making Sense
The Band Music from Big Pink
The Band The Night They Drove Old Dixe Down
The Doors LA Woman
The Doors Morrison Hotel
The Doors The Doors
The Samples No Room
The Strokes Is This It?
The Word The Word
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Greatest Hits
Van Morrison Moondance
Velvet Underground Peel Slowly and See (Box Set)
White Stripes De Stijl
White Stripes Elephant
White Stripes White Blood Cells
White Stripes White Stripes
Widespread Panic Ain't Life Grand
Widespread Panic Don't Tell the Band
Widespread Panic Everyday
Widespread Panic Space Wrangler

42 comments:

Whitney said...

Love this post. Very solid list.

I just moved yesterday. Had the movers haul 1800 CDs in plastic racks up to the 3rd floor. Got some sideways glances for sure. I can't help it.

Mark said...

I purged my CD collection long ago. It’s pretty much all digital now save for a select few dozen.

Dave said...

where did you move, whit?

typical whit with his generic "solid" half-assed compliment. what he meant to say was that this list is absolutely awful (of course) as no two humans could ever agree on which 68 CDs are essential. many years ago, i threw away all my CD cases and shoved my CDs into binders-- totally stupid. should have sold them all.

i wrote about this kind of thing two days ago at SOD: http://sentenceofdave.blogspot.com/2017/12/putting-it-on-wax-museum.html

anyway, you should have chosen "some girls" from the stones and most of your other choices were imbued some level of retardation but i love the fact that you let us look at it . . . one of my favorite things that has vanished is the moment when you get to first look at someone's shelf full of CDs (or albums or cassettes) and judge the person accordingly. now that things are digital, there's no cost to keeping everything so people don't have to make hard choices like this and be judged for them (and then there's whit, lugging around 1800 CDs because he likes everything!)

zman said...

Fuck Dave. This is fantastic. Next Thanksgiving let's go through this list with Schpfeckt so he and I can guess why you kept each CD.

Whitney said...

I moved into the house I lived in from 7th grade until I moved out. You've been here, Dave. My folks are Sunshine State residents now so they encouraged me to move into the old homestead.

Whitney said...

And Dave is an aggro-opinionated idiot. Anyone who assigns good/better/best and bad/worse/worst to art is cerebrally stunted. There's just shit you like and shit you don't. If I want to go over to TR's and rock out to "The Bitch Is Back" off Elton's Greatest Hits Vol II, that's my personal taste and it needs no valuation. Not that there's anything wrong with it.

Mark said...

Where’d your parents move to in Florida, Whitney?

TR said...

This is aggressive: “most of your other choices were imbued some level of retardation but i love the fact that you let us look at it . . .”

TR said...

The Elton John CDs were actually my wife’s, but I kept them in with my stuff. I asked her to slim down her CDs. She struggled to keep up. So we now have a few dozen CDs that will never see the light of day. Lots of Annie Lennox, Sara McLachlan and 90’s romcom soundtracks.

Marls said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marls said...

You can blame her for the Rusted Root and Deep Blue Something CDs that I know you secretly held onto.

Marls said...

Dave’s funeral is going to be awesome. A time to gather together and celebrate unique man that we all loved and tell stories about him being a complete dick sometimes.

Who am I kidding? Dave will outlive all of us passing aggro-opinionated judgment on us all.

Sometime in 2069:
“Mrs. Whitney #3, I’m very sorry for your loss. Whitney was a great man and an even better friend, except for the fact that he liked early Jimmy Buffet. What an idiot. In fact, I’m not sure how you could marry someone like that.”

zman said...

He'll only be on #3 in 2069? So he found a winner?!

zman said...

I like Rusted Root, or at least the idea of Rusted Root as the band I saw open for the Alan Brothers at that open air venue in Richmond one summer. They probably made TR's cut as the opening act for a Widespread show circa 1995.

Donna said...

Hey--want to say thanks for car advice! It helps. Actually talked to Reynolds dealership (I know him!)--Subaru might be in our future. Question--why shop Feb 28th?
Whit--living in old house sounds cool! Enjoy!

zman said...

Glad to be of help. Car dealers have monthly quotas so the shorter the month the fewer days they have to make their quota. And people don't usually buy cars during or soon after snow storms so those days are bad for dealers. This combination of factors makes February a perfect storm (pun!) for buying a car. The 28th is the last day of the month so by then dealers are often desperate to get closer to their quota and potentially likelier to give you a better deal (especially if you show up looking to buy two cars).

rob said...

aggro-opinionated is a sublime coining. we'll all remember where we were when we first heard it.

Whitney said...

They're in Sarasota. My grandparents got a place down there in the 80's and now it's theirs. Not a bad gulf town.

rootsminer said...

TR, your 69th cd is one you haven't bought yet. You'll have to round out the collection at some point. And you still have some disposable titles in there in case you make new acquisitions.

I'm with Whit.-have loads of cds, vinyl and cassettes on hand. You never know.

Danimal said...

WSOB on the ESPN.
USA vs World! We've got some rollers on our squad - Kyle Troup has the best Caucasian afro of all time. Matty "ice" McNeil on fire.

Danimal said...

Will throw in learned bowling phrases as I hear them.
"Lots of wood on that deck!"

Danimal said...

"more revs on the ball"
"rub it more"

Whitney said...

Sounds like bowling terminology is second only to golf for innuen-tial.

Danimal said...

"Mauling the pocket"

zman said...

Through 28 minutes of play in Bills/Colts both QBs combined are 2/6 for 20 yards and 0 TD or INT. I guess that's one way to hide your shitty quarterbacks.

zman said...

They're playing in a blizzard. That makes more sense.

Danimal said...

and that is not an exaggeration.

rob said...

i'm at a cheerleading competition. my daughter's first. it's in richmond. we'll drive five hours round trip to watch her perform for three minutes. she's lucky we like her.

Mark said...

I went to one of those for my niece one time. It was awful. Drove three hours round trip. Hung out in an arena for another 3-4 hours waiting for her team to perform for 3 minutes. Awful.

Speaking of awful, why would anyone live in Buffalo?

zman said...

I think people live there because they were born there and their families are there. It certainly isn't because of the weather or job opportunities.

Mark said...

That checks out.

My wife moved to Rochester shortly after her first marriage and I mock her for this decision on a regular basis. I mean, who in their early 20s chooses to leave the beach in Florida for Rochester? Fucking idiots. That’s who.

TR said...

Rochester, Troy, Albany, Binghamton. NY State has a lot of ass towns.

Staten Island is like Buffalo. It's not like people choose to be there. It's just that they were born there and don't have the wherewithal to choose something better. And I say this with some distant relatives who were born in Staten Island, have lived there their whole lives, and will die there.

zman said...

Which is to say it's like north Jersey.

Danimal said...

You forgot Oneida, Syracuse, Watertown, Canastota, Utica, Rome

Danimal said...

I'm guessing the Rams/Eagles ending probably among the worst bad beats ever?

Danimal said...

Was wrong...Philly was favored by 1.

TR said...

I beg to differ, Zman! North Jersey has lots of ass parts, but it is a (somewhat) convenient suburb of one of the greatest cities in the world. NJ offers a lot of high paying jobs and excellent food options. Staten Island does that to some point, but it is so inferior to other suburbs in so many ways: traffic, massive landfill, etc.

rootsminer said...

I just perused the over the air channels and saw a commercial for a stuffed bear with familiar hair called 'trumpy bear', with a little flag that comes out of a pouch. It's endorsed by an elderly army vet and a badass marine.

I thought it was a joke for about 30 seconds, but nope. It's yours for two easy payments of 19.95, payable at thetrumpybear.com.

Marls said...

TR, you forgot Clifton Park, NY. Home of Doubel Vision.

Marls said...

That’s the Belgian version of Double Vision.

zman said...

It's as if you've completely forgotten about Bergen County, TR.

TR said...

Port Authority - sweet. At least I don’t go there much. Haven’t parked there since...last Friday.