OK, so the phone rings again, this time your 'other half' answers, it's the undertaker. He says "Alright we've taken care of all the details and the funeral will be on Saturday. You're dead!
You arrive at the pearly gates and St Peter says "What's that lot you've got there then? Oh no, no way, you can't go bringin' all those in here, we're getting very crowded, space is definitely limited. The rules now allow you to only bring in 10 albums or CD's, you'd better talk to that bloke over there about shipping your excess back, he used to work in customs so he knows that stuff. So you go over to see him and you ask casually "So what's the deal on box sets and so on? and he replies "As long as I don't think you're taking advantage, if you mix it up a bit I tend to look the other way."
So there's the dilemma, what to take, you're going to be there for a long time so you'd better choose wisely, and you'll be glad later on that you took care of this detail now. I must warn you, this one is hard, the equivalent of a 'Killer' in Sudoku, It's not so much what you get to take but those you must leave, with their rules they almost force you to think in terms of compilations and cause many painful decisions to be made, it almost makes you believe in reincarnation so you could come back and get some more. And it doesn't pay to complain, think about the alternative, in the other place, they don't allow ANY albums, that's what hell is, a place where you don't have any music.
If you have the urge you can post a selection from one of your albums.
Here's my list, in no specific order.
1. Songs of Freedom by BMW.
2. The Boss of the Blues by Joe Turner
3. The Smithsonian collection of Classic Jazz
4. Biograph by Bob Dylan
5. Requiems: Faure and Durufle by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orch.
6. The Gershwin Songbook - Polygram - various artists
7. Mahler - Symphony #2 by Gilbert Kaplan and London Symphony Orch.
8. Rough Guide to the music of Africa.
9. The Trojan 'History of Jamaican Music'
10. Nina Simone - the Eclectic Collection, the Colpix albums.
I know I'm being a bit sneaky in that some of these are slightly 'pushing it' but forever is a long time and I know I'll see some of you up there also so I want to have some to trade with, plus I suspect the customs guy might take a small gratuity if offered.
ps: If one of you could bring 'Graceland' I'd be most grateful and willing to trade.
15 comments:
But isn't it said that the devil has all the best tunes?
I'll give it a go - again, in no order:
1) Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2) Two Sevens Clash - Culture
3) The Definitive Patsy Cline
4) I Want to see The Bright Lights Tonight - Richard And Linda Thompson
5) Ella And Her Fellas - Ella Fitzgerald (et al)
6) Greatest Hits - Al Green (both volumes)
7) Blue - Joni Mitchell
8) Horses - Patti Smith
9) Circus - Erasure
10) Best Of (The Capitol Years) - Peggy Lee
mind you, I'll change me mind tomorrow......
I'd get mired down in Miles Davis boxed sets, and have a crisis about missing out all the other great music. I think I'd have:
1) In a silent way
2) The Cellar door sessions box
3) Kind of Blue
4) Miles Smiles
5) Maiden Voyage (Herbie Hancock)
6) Coldkrushcuts (Ninja Tunes mix CD)
7) A love supreme (John Coltrane)
8) Weather Report box (Forecast Tomorrow)
9) The Flying Nun Anniversary edition boxed set
10) Bill Evans live at Village Vanguard
...and make a chandelier out of the other cds in my collection to try and smuggle in...
Life and Music of Richard Thompson
Bob Dylan Live 75
Dreams Fly Away - Linda Thompson
Live at Leeds (the one with the Tommy bonus disc) - The Who
Fountain of Snow - Shirley Collins
Revival - Gillian Welch
Live 75-85 - Springsteen
Dem's Good Beeble - The Gourds
No. 2 Live Dinner - Robert Earl Keen
Oh, all right...Graceland
You know it's not going to be that bad after all, there's quite a few there that I was sad to be leaving, we'll to have an industrial CD burner up there and cases of blanks, I'll have a word with customs guy and get back to you
1. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth (Domino reissue)
2. the Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional (Domino reissue)
3. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
4. Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum
5. Hilliard Ensemble - Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem (composer: Arvo Pärt)
6. Augustus Pablo - King Tubby meets Rockers Uptown
7. Cluster & Eno
8. the Clash - London Calling
9. Sixteen Horsepower - Live 2001
10. the cd I had just bought and hadn't listened yet....
And I'm hoping that Klaus Dinger (R.I.P.) has taken his copy of Neu! '75 with him....
...and hoping that the posters before me will arrive there before me, so that there will be plenty of Richard Thompson's stuff to enjoy! ;-)
Also in no particular order, and figuring that there'll be plenty of copies of 'the classic artistes' output already up there available to borrow :
UFO - Strangers In The Night. Apparently there is an import version with 2 extra songs on, so if I have a choice ...
AC/DC - The eponymous Aussie import 17 album box set, if I can get it past St.Peter! (Sorry, nilpferd.)
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden. I just couldn't trade the (extra 2mins in the) full-length I Believe In You for the truncated version on the otherwise more wide-ranging A-Sides & Besides double disc.
Led Zeppelin Remasters (My 4 CD version of the first box set, so that when I add - )
Led Zeppelin Remasters II ( - I'll have all the official songs)
Which Drive-By Truckers? I don't know. Hopefully by the time I die there'll be an extensive box set anthology.
Which Steve Earle collection best covers my favourites? [Rhetorical, btw!]
But this is ridiculously hard: Thunder or Cocteau Twins? Richmond Fontaine or Alabama 3? Cowboy Junkies or Was (NOT Was)?
Eternity without Phil Campbell's Fresh New Life or Sass Jordan's Rats? Never hearing Emmylou's or Lanegan's voices again? Not being able to rattle a celestial window or two with some Mogwai or God Is An Astrona...ah! Would they be banned?!
I think I've just decided I need to live forever ...
Or I could cheat: RR 1st Social CD-R box set. RR Northern Social CD-R box set. RR Book Launch Social CD-R box set, etc., etc. If we get organised between us now . . .
Severin, are you aware of the 3 CD Al Green boxed set 'A Deeper Shade of Green'?
By coincidence I have been playing it while cooking this week. 10 CDs requires a lot of thought.
I think the album I have played most in my life is 'Astral Weeks' though it has been a while since I last played it. Maybe that should be included though. Even if Albert Hoffman is responsible for one night of constant play.
However Blue Nile's 'A Walk Across The Rooftops' has probably been played the most consistently in that I have never really stopped playing it ever since it came out; although it is down to about 6 - 10 times a year these days.
And then which Go-Betweens album to chose? (I don't know of a box set.)
The Steely Dan 'Citizen' box set would be on my list.
Bob Marley's 'Songs of Freedom'.
The Burning Spear double CD 'Chant Down Babylon'. The live album was great though too.
A Stax collection. (Cheating really.)
An Atlantic collection. (Cheating again.)
Greatest Hits of Aretha Franklin.
'Blood on the Tracks'.
Elvis Costello 'Get Happy'.
Is that 10?
Right about the Go-betweens dilemma CB -if I might influence your decision I'd say either 16 lovers lane- the most perfect album- or the singles collection, for a brilliant slice of the band's history from start to finish.
Hard to resist joining in this one... I'll be looking to borrow "Blue", "Horses", "Blood on the Tracks" and whichever Go-Betweens album CB decides on (gentle nudge in the direction of "Spring Hill Fair" from me) - though since eternity is a very long time, I'll hope to borrow everyone's choices at some point. Anyway, I can offer:
1. "Abbey Road" (no Beatles, anyone?)
2. Primal Scream - "Screamadelica"
3."The Stone Roses"
4. The first Tindersticks album
5. A St Etienne compilation that has "Avenue" on, because this will sound amazing in heaven
6. Belle & Sebastian - "If You're Feeling Sinister" (I think St Peter will approve of this, and let me sneak in a copy of "Tigermilk" too)
7. Joanna Newsom - "Ys"
8. REM - at a loss to choose which, so falling back on the obvious "Automatic for the People"
9. Paul Simon - "Graceland" (my pleasure, goneforeign... now can I borrow Nina Simone?)
10. A Vaughan Williams CD that includes "The Lark Ascending" and "Dives and Lazarus"
I just read in The Scotsman that scientists have invented a teeny tiny chip that's capable of storing 125 million songs on it, so when the iPod iNfinity is invented I'll bring that with me, loaded up with every piece of music ever (apart from Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads, cos I can't stand it)
Blimp.
veeeerrry dangerous claim, Blimp. You'll either:
1. Forget the crucial live bootleg Dylan/Davis/Grateful Dead/BMW/ACDC recording we were all counting on, and be subjected to dirty glares for the rest of eternity;
2. inadvertently walk too close to St. Paul's microwave transmitter, which will reformat the chip, and cause a mass riot/full scale war when everyone realises you've brought 15 trillion megabytes of low bitrate hiss with you.
Don't say you weren't warned..
Hmmmm.
Maybe I'll just bring my VU boxset, and "Girl At The Bus Stop" 7" then!
Do any of the Go_Between fan's have a critical appraisal of the Go-Betweens tribute album 'Write Your Inspriation Down'? Have they heard it/Is it worth getting?
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