A Lot vs. Sparingly

3-13-09 Records you play a lot vs. records you play sparingly [but like more]. Or meting out pleasure.

I don’t tend to play anything ‘a lot’ anymore. I might play something when I get it, make a dub of it to play in the car etc. But even “New releases” don’t tend to get much time from me these days.

The way I’ve found that things get play a few more times than others is when they turn up on the various artist compilations I make. I ‘track’ all of those, so I sometimes see myself using certain tracks numerous times.

There aren’t any records that I ‘hold off’ on – “I only play that once a decade, yet I keep 5 different LP variants on it!” – uh, no. Anything that I have 5 x variants on , I am majorly interested in it, and will be playing everything (at least once).

Sometimes there are physical limitations to what I can play. Those boxes of 45’s are in front of the German artist LP’s – so, won’t be playing any of those anytime soon (unless a CD will suffice).

When I was younger, I would sometimes ‘wear out’ a new record – making a cassette of it to play in the car, or at my office. Gotta run to the airport to try and pick up a shipment of Italian LP’s? Grab the A Certain Ratio / Wally Badarou cassette! 20+ years later, I still can’t drive past the ‘foreign exchange’ place on Wilshire Blvd. without thinking of that particular cassette! But I usually tried to not go so heavy on something that I changed my mind on it.

In the 90’s, this became ‘making an MD of it’ – ostensibly so I wouldn’t wear out the (rare) vinyl.

I used to try and regularly listen to my comedy LP collection. Sit down, pull an LP from the wall, and listen to both sides of an LP. I did this at lot at the end of the 70’s, and beginning of the 80’s. I remember enjoying a drink, and listening to “Derek & Clive Live”, the obscene Peter Cook & Dudley Moore LP / CD. I recently made someone a copy of this fine comedy / spoken word album; I wonder what circumstances it was listened to in? (I think he mentioned headphones)

Sometimes, I must get in the mood to listen to something. Other times, my listening habits are quite casual, usually listening to stuff I’ve obtained recently in my car. Usually, when I play vinyl, it’s to make a “Playlist” – a various artist sampler onto an MD. But I do sometimes full-out investigate an artist’s work…comparing what 45’s are on the re-mastered CD etc.

Everybody listens to music differently. And, of course, my listening habits have changed over the years as well – I now realize that I have been regularly listening to and evaluating ‘rock music’ for well over 40 years. There has been a lot of learn.