Jun 212008
In the quest to know more, hear more, possess more music, are there artists you’ve thought might be the limit to your music buying, that one toke over the line, so to speak? In other words, for all your passion for digging deep into the music, is there an artist you feel compelled to stop short of checking out?
Tom Waits, and for the same reason I haven’t started into a lot of other artists who have been around; so many albums. Where to start, and if I really like him, a big dent in the old wallet when I have to buy all of the albums.
I suffered this fate with Costello. Luckily, with Costello, he remasters his old albums every 6 months. So I hit the used bin the last time he was reissued, and the older albums were dirt cheap.
I know what you mean, mac. I resisted Leonard Cohen for years, not because I thought I wouldn’t like him, but because I figured I would and would have a whole bunch of albums to catch up on. I’m still not done with him.
All that Doug Sahm stuff. How many incarnations of bands he’s been in would I need to explore?
Re: Sahm:
I think the five (or six, counting an odds and sods collection) records the original quintet made for Smash are truly golden; an unwieldy mix of blues, soul, rock and roll and Tex-Mex ballads from San Francisco transplant lonesome for Texas. I like all the psychedelic influences, though they’re mostly fleeting. that cheap Polygram Best Of does a serviceable job of locating the highlights but for the first time in years all those Smash records are finally in print.
I have a bunch of artists in this category, but currently the one that immediately springs to mind is Robyn Hitchcock.
Yes, and The Best of Doug Sahm’s Atlantic Sessions will mop up the middle period. After that it gets spotty.
That was a rhetorical question! Sheezus!
I am such a completist that I almost HATE discovering new music. Especially when it’s someone I really like.
One such daunting artist has to be Zappa. The catalogue is so varied and so LARGE. Zappa was great and his work can be so rewarding, but it is so difficult to wade into his musical waters.
There’s alot of Dylan out there.
Ditto for Johnny Cash.
Any They Might Be Giants fans? I feel sorry for you. There’s so much stuff out there it has to be impossible to collect it all.
I’m afraid of Tom Waits, too.
TB
Here’s a rhetorical question — Why don’t you bite me?
BigSteve makes a late-week bid for Post of the Week!
TB, I pity the rock nerd completist who feels the need to complete his (I think I can safely rule out a “her” in this case) Zappa collection! For a while, he was putting out an album every other week, wasn’t he?
It’s funny how many answers to this question have centered around completist issues. When I asked the question, I was thinking of artists that might mark me as being too desperate for digging into some untapped past. I’ve long been tempted to pick up some of that Brian Auger Trinity stuff, even after I watch a clip like the one I added to kick off this post.
I’ve been kicking myself for the last few days, when I passed up buying used copies of both Eric Burdon Declares War and Black Man’s Burdon because of similar worries so that I could buy the new album by Sam Phillips. Man, that woman needs to get off the horse tranquilizers! She and Aimee Mann, whom I’ve already “broken up with” a few albums back, are making a play for modern-day Perry Como status. I should have increased my Eric Burdon collection!
Of course any way you choose to answer this question is fine with me.
Mod, I’ve heard about some of those later Burdon/Animals records. People have told me that they’re pretty wild. I’ve always thought The Animals a pretty good bluesy-type British band. I don’t know.
I fell in love with Julie Driscoll after seeing her on the ill-fated 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkees special. It was so horrible, but I want that woman so bad that it hurts. Her version of “Come On Up” just kills me. I’m a total sucker for female British soul singers. Dusty, Annie…and my favorite…Julie. Those Auger albums have their rewards, but they can be tedious. He was a great player, but with most technical guys, they can be a tad boring for my tastes.
It’s the completist in me that keeps me from getting into certain artists. This is one of the primary reasons I held out for so long on The Stones. I stated earlier that I was late to their party. I still don’t own too many of their albums past Tattoo You. As a matter of fact, I don’t ANYTHING after Tattoo You (aside from a few live boots). I don’t know if this is a good thing or not.
TB
I LOVE those late-period Burdon/Animals records, TB, as well as the “Spill the Wine” b/w “Magic Mountain” single by War, from my childhood. In part, admittedly, I love the late Animals records for perverse reasons, but that’s never concerned me in the past. I hopeful that the day I finally spring the money for Black Man’s Burdon I’ll be fully satisfied by its “good” badness, but what if it’s just bad-bad?
Stay away from those post-Tattoo You albums, my man. Many of those albums are hazardous to your health.
i’ll bet 5 american dollars that no “friend of ours”
here in the halls of rock will vouch for a post tattoo stones record.
she’s the boss and expensive winos don’t count.
anyone?
Back to the subject at hand, I’ve finally got my first Sparks album – Kimono My House. I was put off from them by “Cool Places With You”, which is a song that never did anything for me. But that and “I Predict” were the only Sparks songs I knew. Finally somebody convinced me to check it out, and it is working for me. So, I guess I have just been compelled to “go there”.