"My Perfect Collection" #1

“My Perfect Collection”

For some reason, I often return to the idea of thinning out my vast music library down to what I would consider “My Perfect Collection”. With over 20,000 titles in my collection – it’s true – I have “over-collected” – in some instances, I collect the artists, in others the labels. Sometimes my ‘variant collecting’ is for a really good reason – an album has different songs between territories – or perhaps a totally different package. Also, please be aware that I do not “over-collect” just anybody – I try to reserve this honor for my favorite artists (such as Frank Zappa, Split Enz, Gruppo Sportivo, Scritti Politti, A Certain Ratio etc.) – and it only really becomes ‘troublesome’ when the artist has a large number of titles to begin with (notably Mr. Zappa).

OK OK OK…Here’s how I’m going to ‘assemble’ my “Perfect Collection”. The big advantage: I already have LOTS of it in my possession! So, I will need a specially built cabinet – preferably wooden, with doors, lined shelves, secure-able etc. The perfect LP cabinet would be able to hold approx. 1,000 LP’s / 12” singles. I prefer to store my 45rpm’s in boxes, as opposed to a cabinet – so, I’ll need some “library boxes”. As many of you know, I “de-bone” most of my CD’s – I throw away the jewel box and store the disc itself in a special CD sleeve from Japan – this sleeve holds the disc and booklet – I keep the CD back-plates safe in a carton (Dang, I wish they were alphabetical!).

So now I have this new ‘area’, with new boxes / new shelving ready. I must decide – what goes into my “Perfect Collection” from my existing collection? I would really and sincerely like to keep the duplications down to an absolute minimum. I suppose to give this project some impact – I will physically move the discs from where they are now to this new ‘storage area’.

I must console myself with the idea that I will not keep lots and lots of titles from my present collection. Shall I come up (instantly) with some sort of criteria? Something like “You must remember and like something about this LP or you may not move it into your Perfect Collection” (you can tell, I’ve been watching The Learning Channel – the show where they made those Goths throw away tons of VHS tapes and DVD’s – unless the couple could name one of the actors from the film, they didn’t get to ‘keep’ it etc.)

To make the selection process a lot less painful, I think I want to buy a Sony hard-disk audio machine – where I could ‘store’ a boat load of individual tracks that I still ‘wanted’ (I saw one for sale at the Sony Outlet store in Camarillo – so it is a reality). I really hate having to keep a CD for just one or two tracks (i.e. many CD Singles). Picture sleeves? I suppose I could merely scan the sleeve in, via a scanner? How many 7” 45rpm singles do I own merely for the picture sleeve?

I remember looking at my ‘list’ – and noticing how I could almost immediately cut it in half (well, it took a while of looking at it and carefully considering, “What do I really want to keep?”).

Shall I try to make a list of what would be in “My Perfect Collection”?