Your record collecting "quirks"...

It differs for me by artist : Martin Gore sits in Depeche Mode, and Richard Wright sits in Pink Floyd because he was still in Pink Floyd when he made his solo albums. David Gilmour and Roger Waters are separate because they both made their solo releases largely at the time Pink Floyd had become inactive. So Peter Hook, Revenge, Electronic, Bad Lieutenant, The Other Two are very clear and separate to me. In almost every instance the solo/subsequent band is a separate entity.

Cinerama is filed into The Wedding Present though, as the two bands vastly overlap both in style and lineups and some of the later Cinerama material that was never released became Wedding Present material when the band was relaunched.

 

Regarding vinyl, I don't buy new vinyl records. Vintage only in as good of condition as I can find. No UPC bar codes, no promos or cut corners on album covers. Anything newer from 1980's up I would rather have on cd.

 

I mainly prefer coloured vinyl.

 

I usually put bands in the order I bought them rather than alphabetical but within that band, it's always chronological unless something comes out like a complete live show will go when it was recorded. So The Who at The Fillmore 1968 goes between Sell Out and Tommy. An exception is if The Stones Metamorphosis came out today, I'd put it according to the last song recorded even if it's got mid-60's stuff on it. That comp ends in 1969 so I would put it there, but because it came out in 1975, and I've gotten used to seeing it after It's Only Rock & Roll, I put it there. After a certain point in time, comps like that, if I buy it, go at the end after the last studio album so it doesn't interrupt the studio discography. The Stones BBC comp is after Blue & Lonesome.

I used to work in a department store in Massachusetts called Caldor. I was in the books & records department. They were changing over the holders that held cassettes and offered them to me and the other person in the department. They were long grey rectangles about five feet high and quite heavy. I got two of them, the other person got three. I've used them ever since and never filled them up because I regularly get rid of stuff...and then buy some of it again years later...and maybe get rid of it again... Now I put cds I think I want to get rid of in my closet so I won't buy them yet again. My cd buying has slowed way down since I don't look for anything new anymore.

These holders can hold four rows of cds; two stacks of two on top of one another. If I want The Beatles (bottom left corner), I have to take out everything to get to it. I didn't like that at first but I've gotten used to it since I don't listen to the cds as much once I put it on my iPod. Before that I would tape it and listen to that mostly. I separate classic rock from punk/alternative stuff. Classic rock is two rows in back and punk/alternative is two rows in front. I did want a band that was important to me to start each row so The Beatles and The Rolling Stones start the classic rock rows and Husker Du and Guided By Voices start the punk/alternative rows. The Who are more important to me than The Stones but it was because of space and the size of The Stones discography even with just studio albums and contemporary live albums it's about half a row. It's the same with Guided By Voices. Within the classic rock rows, I put the bands that started in the 60's on the bottom and on top, aside from The Stones, are bands that started in the 70's. I have recently put a table cloth over the front of my cds because I would always just stare at them and drift off. After decades it felt like a hinderance to my attention. Now I do the same with my bookcase and tv just so they don't grab my attention.

 

I haven’t purchased records in years. But when I did I had to get the original pressing only. For example if the record was originally a Columbia “360 Sound” label, that was the only one I’d be interested in. Not the later orange label (as a reissue).

Another strange quirk of mine....I always preferred albums with custom picture labels. I’d spend hours in used record stores purchasing as many albums as I could, as long as there was a cool picture in the middle of the vinyl.

Apparently “The Who Live at Leeds” was the first album with a custom label. (I could be wrong). And perhaps “Apple Jam” from George Harrison (All Things Must Pass) was second

 

For me, it would be under F, next to Fifty Foot Hose, and quite far away from T for Ten Years After...

 

Diner.

I was just playing the excellent soundtrack LP the other day...

 

Well, collecting is ultimately filing, for many of us.

But I know what you mean. And I appreciate your post.

 

When it comes to buying second hand records, one of my quirks is that I can't accept any handwriting/owner's name/doodles at all. I know there's a collection of hundreds of copies of The White Album where the owner likes the "story" that this sort of thing adds, but if I'm buying the work of Hipgnosis, Peter Saville, Vaughan Oliver et al I don't appreciate Jeff from Barnsley contributing to it. Normal wear, foxing etc is fine, in fact it can add a bit of character.

I had a second hand NIN CD once where someone called Krystyna had written her name on the disc. After about an hour of careful cleaning with white spirit her contribution had almost been removed when a touch too much pressure snapped it.

 

My vinyls are organized based on year the artist first came out. So my first albums are Miles Davis followed by John Coltrane followed by Bob Dylan followed by The Beatles... and the albums within one artist are in chronological order. This continues all the way to albums released this year. But I have one exception: "grunge era" aka "soundtrack of my teenage years" aka "only category that's oragnized based on genre, but are still organized by year the artist first appeared. Starting from Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails...

My dad used to have this same way of organizing vinyls. Maybe someday I will organize them by genre when I have a bigger apartment and more vinyls (I currently have 580 and 1/3 are sitting in my basement).

 

Sadly is..and has been for decades now due to multi moves unfortunately…disorder…former place lived several years they were tightly packed back..here the entertainment room better but immediately got too disabled with balance to arrange them so listen to music online.

 

I keep them away from turntables

 

My filing system is extremely dull. Artists are alphabeticised according to whatever instinctively feels right, as it'll probably still feel instinctively right when I'm looking for a particular artist. No ordering of any sort within artists. Even with people I've got loads of stuff by, once I've found my way to, say, Miles Davis or Erik Satie, I'll locate the disc I want quickly enough. A man's got to know his limitations, and if I make the filing system too much of a chore to maintain I'll never put a CD or LP back after playing it. I do have one quirk, although really it stems from my fundamental laziness, as above.

Discs that have been given to me by the widows of friends all get shoved into the shelves in one block. Not as some kind of weird tribute, but just because it's too intimidating a task to file that many discs in one go. I'll have a fairly good recall of the kind of music my late friend liked, so in my mind it almost forms a category of its own and it works surprisingly well. I'm aware that my music filing practice as a whole will strike many of you as reprehensible.

By the by, this is my first post. I'm not a musician or an audiophile, but I'm mad on music, I like good sound and have reasonable gear (if decidedly entry-level by most of your standards I suspect). I've greatly enjoyed reading the forum on and off for some years, so I thought it was time I contributed something, however inconsequential.

 

When I discovered King Crimson in the late 1970s (aged about 16) I immediately set about frantically trying to acquire their entire back catalogue. As I trawled the 'K's in every record shop within reach I formed an irrational dislike of Klaatu and Al Kooper (Super Session in particular), since it seemed they invariably turned up where King Crimson should be. (I still haven't knowingly heard a note played by either).

 

SHF members have an irrational dislike of some of artists, songs, albums, thus the multi posts and threads on what they hate and you’ll see fans of those artists counter with why they like what others hate.. Your reason is actually understandable…usually the this forum’s reason reason and you’ll see many repetitive threads and posts on this is generalized…like they just don’t like the music or song styles or it’s an older style of music, an artist’s voice and the song or album doesn’t rawk, etc…but your reason is more personal and reflective of the problems of record collecting on a more obscure group. I saw king crimson as opener for badfinger in 71 or so, a great concert and was very lucky to see them both then. I’ll never understand why forum members repeatedly fixate on who and what they hate and doesn’t instead just emphasize what they like as there’s so much great music out there from the past and present and why some folks threadcrap the threads obviously created for fans of those artists.

 

Welcome!

I do a similar thing re: the discs from your late friends...if I've bought things in a certain shop, I tend to remember that and so as temporary measure I keep them together until some point in the future that I re-organise everything again.

EG.

 

I used to have them exclusively alphabetical by major genres (Rock, Soul, Classical, etc) and then I got frustrated looking for my Robert Ludwig albums, so I gave them their own section, now I am pulling out my audiophile stuff and significant best pressings (MoFi, Acoustic Sounds, etc.) and giving them their own section.

I'm also going through and putting them all in plastic sleeves to try and prevent that "old album" smell.

 

Very kind of you to see it that way! I can't claim to be entirely without musical hate, although I tend to regard it as a pastime best shared by consenting adults, rather than taking the form of ill-tempered online derision. However, I may have implied on another thread earlier that I'm not mad about Kenny G (now there's an original target).

But I did forgive Klaatu and Al Kooper for being in the wrong record racks at the wrong time once I'd assembled a complete collection of King Crimson albums to date. I'm envious that you got to see that Crimson concert, fifty years ago though it was. Would that have been the Collins/Boz/Wallace line-up? On the evidence of Earthbound at least, concert-goers who were perhaps hoping for Epitaph and In The Court Of and suchlike were instead treated to something more closely resembling John Coltrane with a scat vocalist and a guitarist who sounded as though he was trying to catch James Brown's ear. However did Crimson arrive at that point?! Earthbound's a ferocious album though. I still play it a lot.

 

Yes, in a badfinger thread here someone copied a ticket from that badfinger/king crimson show..on the tour I saw. I don’t have any KC albums but admire frippe with being great at prog, truly an original and creative guy. I was extremely lucky to see both bands. In those days, they had great dual header and opening acts and even had multiple artists touring on one show.

 

I consider Robert Fripp the single most overlooked musician (guitar or otherwise) of the so-called "Progressive Rock" genre from the seventies.

 

He truly was and is..forgive the term..underrated and had a profound influential effect of progressive rock and I think was proto electronica in his style as well.

 

I sometimes buy specific pressings because I don't like the labels on the cheaper ones. That's kind of ridiculous.

 

My only quirk is that I use the alphabet sporadically

 

In the most recent years my library has been digital. What is my quirk. Accurate and quality album art for my digital library. I don't like issues with "altered" or "alternative" album artwork. I strive to have the best quality original release artwork I can find.

 

Funny how we all have our quirks.

For me, alphabetical ordering has never been a feature of my collection - far too random. Would be weird to have some artists rubbing shoulders with others based on just on an initial. Makes far more sense to group artists with some commonality - ie record label, producer, genre etc, some of which nicely segue at certain points.

For example 4ad, Mute, Factory, One Little Indian, Creation, Rough Trade etc come together to form the independent section.

I don’t worry about the major labels so much - other than A&M - as their respective artists are too diverse, but where I can make a sensible connection, acts come together. For example Queen will follow Bowie as both have been on EMI and they also collaborated.

Otherwise I will go by genre or chronological - so the heritage acts, 80’s, 90’s etc or World, Electronic, Indie, Soundtrack. etc. Within that I’ll have little clusters of records - maybe producer (eg Trevor Horn) or maybe sleeve design (eg Vaughan Oliver, Me Company). I have some odd connections, but I think they work. Eg Diana Krall follows Elvis Costello. The The is next to Talk Talk.