Reduction Plan (?)

1-15-08 Reduction plan

After writing about Universal’s “To Go: Stick It In Your Ear” cheap CD’s yesterday, I return to my thoughts about cutting down on my collection. I need to look around and find a list of those “To Go: Stick It In Your Ear” titles – what artists there are etc. I remember seeing these in ’06 when they came out, I think they were $3.99 or something. I found two last December ‘07 for $1 each.

Also in December, one day that I went to a favorite L.A. record store (“Record Surplus”), all of the LP’s I bought were merely variants on things I already have! Only one ‘new to me” LP that day! (the debut album by Noel Redding’s “Fat Matress”, a nice UK original fold-out cover, $6!). But the other stuff? A cover / pressing variant on the UK version of Split Enz “Mental Notes” (the album known as “Second Thoughts” in Australasia), a German-pressed A&M label version of “Tapestry” by Carole King (I have an original US LP and a re-mastered CD of “Tapestry”, but I could not resist the label variant), I also found an Elton John “Honky Chateau” on Uni – with the flip-open flap cover (mint – for $2!), and a Japanese promo LP for the debut album by The Other Ones (the German / Australian group that I like so well). Looks like I am very comfortable adding variants to titles that I already have. Y’know, whenever I find stuff like the Split Enz variant, I can’t pass it up. I have a large Split Enz collection, and I always love adding this era of Split Enz titles to my list. And I’ve been buying re-mastered Elton John and Cat Stevens CD’s for a year or two, and enjoying them.

If I can find out what “To Go: Stick It In Your Ear” Motown titles they made, I might be able to get rid of a ton of Motown vinyl & CD’s! I almost never listen to them, as complete collections – I usually go after the singles that I like, when wanting to spice up an R&B collection MD/CD-R/mix-tape. Will the Stevie Wonder “To Go: Stick It In Your Ear” title have the single version of “Living For The City”? Hmmm…I wonder.

I almost always make plans to cut down on having so much stuff – but the universe (Universal?) gets in the way. Seems I want to keep around music that I am merely OK with, rather than concentrating on artists that I admire highly. Oh, if I had bought that Sony hard-drive “ES” deck! I could be busy dubbing individual songs to the hard-disk, and throwing away boat-loads of “Best Of” CD’s for artists that are ‘secondary’ to me.

I have been making some ‘genre’ “Best Of” MD/CD-R/mix-tapes lately – “British 60’s”, “French 80’s Wave”, “Japanese 90’s”, “Jazz Before 1968”, “NZ 70’s/80’s Singles” etc. In the case of the “British 60’s” collection, I had to buy a CD for a single track: Swinging Blue Jeans “Hippy Hippy Shake” – and I could not bring myself to buy a Peter & Gordon CD just to get digital copies of “A World Without Love” and “Lady Godiva”. Yes, I have CD’s by Freddie & The Dreamers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas etc.

Do you ever keep an LP or CD for a single track (or two)? What are they? And where can I buy a Sony hard drive audio ES unit???

PS: Sorry for the weak entry - my brain wasn't anywhere in particular, so I just sort of rambled on from yesterday. I'll try to do better next time. And how do I rotate th photo? This ain't Flickr, so I do not know how to flip a photo in Blogger. Sorry.