Got this idea from Peter Cresswell: he calls it "filing by stuff that's lying around." Sure, there are racks and cases, the physical supporting structure of our music libraries, but how about, Peter asks,
the CDs, tapes and vinyl that -- no matter which way you organise the collection -- just end up regularly lying around the stereo, stuff that gets played so often it just never gets re-filed? If our autobiographical filing shows us the experience of a lifetime lived, wouldn't our regular playlist tell us more about our current selves? Or does it just tell us we should dust more often.
So here's my pile (three piles, actually):
1. Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
2. The Benny Goodman Sextet 1939-1941 featuring Charlie Christian
3. Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane: The Complete Riverside Recordings
4. Time Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5. Crescent - John Coltrane Quartet
6. Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane
7. The Thelonious Monk Quartet featuring John Coltrane: Live at the Five Spot
8. Reinhardt & Christian
9. Kind of Blue - Miles Davis
10. Misterioso - Thelonious Monk Quartet
11. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard - Paul McCartney
12. Tug of War - Paul McCartney
13. Ėternelle - Edith Piaf
14. Poulenc Chamber Music - Pascal Rogé
15. Poulenc: Le Bal Masqué, Le Bestiaire, Sextet, Trio - The Nash Ensemble
16. Rubber Soul - The Beatles
17. Revolver - The Beatles
18. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
19. Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles
20. Let It Be - The Beatles
21. Let It Be..Naked - The Beatles
22. Abbey Road - The Beatles
23. Love - The Beatles
24. Through the Past, Darkly - The Rolling Stones
25. Beggars' Banquet - The Rolling Stones
26. Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones
27. Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! - The Rolling Stones
28. Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones
29. Exile on Main St. - The Rolling Stones
30. Black and Blue - The Rolling Stones
31. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
32. Giant Steps - John Coltrane
33. Maverick A Strike - Finley Quaye
34. Fifty Easy Classical Guitar Solos - Jerry Willard
35. Gershwin's Piano Improvisations - Paul Posnak
36. Gershwin Plays Gershwin: The Piano Rolls
Note that Peter's list includes the Beethoven piano sonatas, some of the Benny Goodman small combos, and Thelonious Monk. And Muddy Waters.
And Callas.
I wholeheartedly approve. It would appear that Peter has good taste in detritus music.
Ah, but we have more! For I have, not only a stereo with detritus, not only an iPod, but mobile detritus! There's a stereo in the library and also one in the bedroom, and a cassette player in the car. This category consists of language lessons, for the most part German, Spanish, French, with good numbers of Arabic and Russian thrown in, and some other entries (Norwegian and Italian and Japanese). Items in this category rotate in and out of the machine and in and out of locations.
Posted by Craig Ceely at June 2, 2007 11:04 AM