TS: Musicians with massive record collections vs. Musicians with little or no record collection

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Alright, I only know one musician reasonably well and I'm a big fan of his band and I was a big fan of the band before I met him. But jesus, he has terrible taste in music. Actually thats not fair he isnt really *into* music tbh. The first time I met him he was back from Italy after 2 years and he had only 2 cd's with him: "Astral Weeks" and a cd of fucking WHALESONG. I've never heard him enthuse about anything beyond "Oh yeah suchandsuch is cool". He's like ILM's mythical 12-CD'er but his band sound great! So, is having this vast musical knowledge more of a hindrance to a musician than anything else? Is a musician better off without it?

― Michael B, Thursday, 17 July 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

i am deeply, deeply suspicious of musicians who claim they don't listen to much music.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

(other than their own sucky shit obv)

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

.... and end up having to give all their royalties away as settlements as a result.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't think a muso with a *massive* record collection is necessarily all that good a thing (excluding myself) - there's already a predisposition to self-indulgence..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

from a personal point of view though, it's good to be educated and to know what you're up against.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

The only new band he seems interested in are Coldplay...is that keeping up with the joneses?

― Michael B, Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, I think it means we can rule out the possibility of him releasing any ground-breaking, avant-garde, experimental, textured soundscapes in quirky time signatures any time in the next couple of weeks.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Hrmmm. A tough one. Musicians are (almost by definition) obsessive or compulsive people, and record collecting is an expression of obsession. Yet if musicians become too closely obsessed with just one artist or *aspect* of that collection, it narrows their horizons, and can be a Very Bad Thing. (Hello, Primal Scream, who are often described as being "merely the sum of their record collections." It's just that they happen to be good record collections.)

― kate (kate), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe they can be more creative without the knowledge/baggage of other people's work. (I know, that's bullshit.)

Dan Perry to thread ....

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

".... if musicians become too closely obsessed with just one artist or *aspect* of that collection, it narrows their horizons, and can be a Very Bad Thing".

Very true - I believe it's far more important that those records collections should be "massive" because they have *breadth* rather than just *depth*.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, this is U&K, Stewart. And also why it's important that you work with other people who maybe don't have overlapping record collections.

Because 4 people who come together and start a band because they all like Band X invariably end up sounding JUST LIKE Band X.

― kate (kate), Thursday, 17 July 2003 11:55 (twenty-two years ago)

musicians should noit be allowed to listen to other music as it will pollute their minds, sullying the purity of their own expression and hindering the construction of complex melodic and harmonic arrangements

― Heir Gongro (Dave Stelfox), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Record Collections are not melodic enough.

― Lord Hongro Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Record Collections roXor U R all gay!

― kate (kate), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

record geek and musician in not having/needing same psychic makeup shocker.

(that said, it's always pretty cool when yr hero can ace the inviz jukebox or whatever, but the 'secret' to what they do lies slightly elsewhere -- how slightly I don't really know)

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:12 (twenty-two years ago)

"musicians should noit be allowed to listen to other music as it will pollute their minds, sullying the purity of their own expression and hindering the construction of complex melodic and harmonic arrangements"

Apparently some research facility actually once tried that experiment involving giving a shit load of typewriters to a shit load monkeys and waiting to see if they'd eventually create the works of Shakespear.

At the point when the experiment was abandoned the longest and most coherent thing they'd come up with on all of the reams and reams of paper that they'd used was the word "Chumbawamba".

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:12 (twenty-two years ago)

it's always pretty cool when yr hero can ace the inviz jukebox

i love it when people who are solidly "in" the wire canon royally fuck up the invisible jukebox coz it just shows you don't have to be a devotee of cornelius cardew, charlemagne palestine or some other esoteric guff to make interesting music. then again, i find the whole invisible jukebox idea horribly self-congratulatory and annoying

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Thursday, 17 July 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Kevin Shields to thread!

― Michael B, Thursday, 17 July 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

derek bailey to thread!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 17 July 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

who the fuck is he?!

― Michael B, Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

haha see the invisible jukebox (it has portishead on the cover).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

i once told myself i'd stop listening to music for three months, write some songs, and see if they turned out to be more original or a better representation of who i am than who i like. i broke down after 3 hours. i find, at least, that as a musician, the most important trait one can have (especially when working within a band) is to be a good listener. of course, you can still be completely original in your own music while being obsessed with, say, yo la tengo. a large record collection often suggests intellectual curiosity, which i consider more important for songwriters than just about anything else.

― Felcher (Felcher), Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

"who the fuck is he?!"

Are you talking about Bailey?

Anyhow, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that most of my favorite musicians don't/didn't have huge record collections. Having a lot of records/having heard a lot of music seems to be kind of a hinderance, for me at least. A lot of the time, when I'll sit down with a guitar, I'll be able to come up with some good, albeit fairly familiar sounding melodies. It won't be until a few days later that I realize I subconsciously copped them from somewhere else.

To me, it seems like musical seclusion is the surest path to true originality. Then again, I believe Lennon once said that if you're a popular musician, you should purposefully try to rip off the songs of others, because chances are it'll sound like something entirely different when you're done. I'm almost inclined to take his word for it.

― Clay, Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I listen to whalesongs! *harumph*

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Hippie!

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:35 (twenty-two years ago)

as long as you dont listen to Whale songs

(sorry if this joke has already been done)

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 17 July 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Lyric sheet from "Romantic Sounds of Whale Lust"

track 1:
mmmmmmaaaaaaaaoooouuuuuurrrrrrrruuuuooonnnnngggggggg
track 2:
eeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuerrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooggggggnnnntttttt
track 3:
oooooorrrrgggmmhhhmmmm oooooorrrrgggmmhhhmmmm ooourrrrrnggg
track 4: (the fast dance number)
mmmmuuuuoorrrrqqqqkk kk kk kk kkgggrrouuutttnnnttt

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 17 July 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

frankly, I think I misspelled most of that.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 17 July 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of the best music I've ever heard was live, and never recorded, in small scenes, by small bands, I used to have a big record collection, but after many years, moving, having stuff stolen, it's now pretty small. But that's also because of MP3s. Anyway, seeing those factors at work in my small collection,

I don't think it's a danger sign that a musician doesn't have a large collection. I mean I have several albums *memorized*--but you won't see them on the shelves.

― Orbit (Orbit), Thursday, 17 July 2003 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

''Are you talking about Bailey?''

yes.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 17 July 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Who gives a fuck what music musicians listen to? A lot of really great musicians display no musical taste whatsoever (hello Lou Reed) well a lot of truly dire talentless musicians have great taste (hello Bobby Gillespie). In fact, a lot of great musicians aren't really all that interested in listening to other people's music.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Saturday, 19 July 2003 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think musicians with massive record collections make better records - I suspect few of the canonical "greats" had very extensive collections. I do think that critics (who DO have extensive record collections) have a narcissistic tendency to over-rate records that show signs of the artist's large collection and hip taste.

― ArfArf, Saturday, 19 July 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.