“Life is not so idiotically mathematical that only the big eat the small; it is just as common for a bee to kill a lion or at least to drive it mad.”― August Strindberg
David, I reached the same "have to shed" moment a few years back, seeing a few years older than you. Over a six year period I sold or donated LPs to take my collection down from 8,000 to about 1,000, many from the Lomaxes, others from Townes Van Zandt, Lightning Hopkins (managed by my dad for about 10 years). A lot went to Waterloo Recors who were then bulking up their used vinyl. I kept my blues and folk items also. I regret letting some go (Who Will Save the World? - The Mighty Groundhops, my Magma items and a few others but not enough to go try to re-acquire them. I also forwarded your piece to 3 friends who are collectors, one with over 100,000 LPs (still buying), the other two probably come in @40,000 (both are still buying). So, in my case, I think I'm cured as I rarely buy anything, just dig around and play something I already have. Good luck paring down
Don't worry, I kept Lightning, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Townes and all the family records I can find. My dad was known as "The Dean of Texas Folk Singers" as he co-founded the still going Houston Folklore Society which was the start of the careers of Guy Clark, Kat T. Oslin, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle, Lucinda, Shake Russell and lots more. He did 1 solo LP for Folkways and one with his group, The Te-I-An Boys.
I don't collect vinyl, but I do collect CDs and have come to the same conclusion that I need to purge some of my stuff. It's fun to obtain more and more of them, but it's even better to appreciate what I have. That still won't stop me from buying new ones, of course, I'm just going to be pickier.
Great post and something I, too, have been thinking a lot about. I own around 4,000 LPs. It could be more; it could be less, but it hovers somewhere around that figure. I did do a purge a few years ago, but I used that money to buy, you guessed it, more records. However, the purge consisted of albums I hadn't listened to in years, didn't like, or maybe were leftovers from my youth, and I was simply holding on to them for nostalgia.
I'm now at that point where if I begin another purge, it will be diving deeper, and like you, it may involve that Grosse Pointe, Michigan Index record (although I do dig that LP, so possibly not). But do I need those two Mystic Astrologic Crystal Band albums? When did I last listen to them? In truth, I never really liked them from the start, and I don't even listen to psych as much as I once did; I have moved on to other music interests, which has opened up so many new rabbit holes to explore and collect.
However, at times, I have thought maybe I should weed my collection down to a top choice of 1000 and sell the rest. But, most likely, I will start with 50, maybe 100. That said, I know myself, and I will most likely turn around and try to find things on my want list or even spend the $$$ on an impossibly hard-to-find, elusive minty original from my want list.
Who knows, but like you, I, too, will keep my original copy of The Other Half on Acta
Love this, David! This is obviously something I think about often, specifically the "end game," as you put it. I expect the end game for me will be baffled and frustrated nieces and nephews paying someone to haul Uncle James' worthless garbage off to the dump. This makes me think less about hoarding than about mortality, so I try my best to exist in a state of denial about this.
Re: err, being boring, I have often said that if you are not interested in music--ANY music--I am the most boring person you will ever meet.
If I may be so bold as to quote an essay I wrote for NPR a few years ago, I feel like this might resonate:
"A friend once floated a theory that I've grappled with ever since. She claimed that we only ever really love 10 albums, and we spend the rest of our listening lives seeking facsimiles of those 10, pursuing the initial rush, so to speak. At the time, I argued with her, mostly because I didn't want this to be true. But even as I protested I began recalling how many times I compulsively "added to cart" an item whenever some savvy vinyl-hustling mountebank deployed the phrase "Velvets-y" or "Royal Trux-ish," and how many times I'd bought reissues promising the "holy grail" of private press proto-doom only to discover tepid bar rock that sounded like a warmed-over Bad Company. Our individual dragons may vary — Sabbath or Coltrane or Beatles or Beefheart — but we're all chasing 'em."
David, I reached the same "have to shed" moment a few years back, seeing a few years older than you. Over a six year period I sold or donated LPs to take my collection down from 8,000 to about 1,000, many from the Lomaxes, others from Townes Van Zandt, Lightning Hopkins (managed by my dad for about 10 years). A lot went to Waterloo Recors who were then bulking up their used vinyl. I kept my blues and folk items also. I regret letting some go (Who Will Save the World? - The Mighty Groundhops, my Magma items and a few others but not enough to go try to re-acquire them. I also forwarded your piece to 3 friends who are collectors, one with over 100,000 LPs (still buying), the other two probably come in @40,000 (both are still buying). So, in my case, I think I'm cured as I rarely buy anything, just dig around and play something I already have. Good luck paring down
Your dad managed Lightin’ Hopkins….and I didn’t know you when you were getting rid of your vinyl???? I can just imagine what was in there…
Don't worry, I kept Lightning, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Townes and all the family records I can find. My dad was known as "The Dean of Texas Folk Singers" as he co-founded the still going Houston Folklore Society which was the start of the careers of Guy Clark, Kat T. Oslin, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle, Lucinda, Shake Russell and lots more. He did 1 solo LP for Folkways and one with his group, The Te-I-An Boys.
I don't collect vinyl, but I do collect CDs and have come to the same conclusion that I need to purge some of my stuff. It's fun to obtain more and more of them, but it's even better to appreciate what I have. That still won't stop me from buying new ones, of course, I'm just going to be pickier.
Great post and something I, too, have been thinking a lot about. I own around 4,000 LPs. It could be more; it could be less, but it hovers somewhere around that figure. I did do a purge a few years ago, but I used that money to buy, you guessed it, more records. However, the purge consisted of albums I hadn't listened to in years, didn't like, or maybe were leftovers from my youth, and I was simply holding on to them for nostalgia.
I'm now at that point where if I begin another purge, it will be diving deeper, and like you, it may involve that Grosse Pointe, Michigan Index record (although I do dig that LP, so possibly not). But do I need those two Mystic Astrologic Crystal Band albums? When did I last listen to them? In truth, I never really liked them from the start, and I don't even listen to psych as much as I once did; I have moved on to other music interests, which has opened up so many new rabbit holes to explore and collect.
However, at times, I have thought maybe I should weed my collection down to a top choice of 1000 and sell the rest. But, most likely, I will start with 50, maybe 100. That said, I know myself, and I will most likely turn around and try to find things on my want list or even spend the $$$ on an impossibly hard-to-find, elusive minty original from my want list.
Who knows, but like you, I, too, will keep my original copy of The Other Half on Acta
Love this, David! This is obviously something I think about often, specifically the "end game," as you put it. I expect the end game for me will be baffled and frustrated nieces and nephews paying someone to haul Uncle James' worthless garbage off to the dump. This makes me think less about hoarding than about mortality, so I try my best to exist in a state of denial about this.
Re: err, being boring, I have often said that if you are not interested in music--ANY music--I am the most boring person you will ever meet.
If I may be so bold as to quote an essay I wrote for NPR a few years ago, I feel like this might resonate:
"A friend once floated a theory that I've grappled with ever since. She claimed that we only ever really love 10 albums, and we spend the rest of our listening lives seeking facsimiles of those 10, pursuing the initial rush, so to speak. At the time, I argued with her, mostly because I didn't want this to be true. But even as I protested I began recalling how many times I compulsively "added to cart" an item whenever some savvy vinyl-hustling mountebank deployed the phrase "Velvets-y" or "Royal Trux-ish," and how many times I'd bought reissues promising the "holy grail" of private press proto-doom only to discover tepid bar rock that sounded like a warmed-over Bad Company. Our individual dragons may vary — Sabbath or Coltrane or Beatles or Beefheart — but we're all chasing 'em."