I know what at least some of you are thinking. You’re thinking, what does the blogger behind “Some Came Running” and his Lovely Wife do of an autumn weekend? Well, mostly, I myself like to do almost nothing, but my Lovely Wife often enjoys advancing the cause of Getting Things Organized, which occasionally involves the rejiggering of the CD shelves. As you might have guessed, the CD shelves that are displayed in our home cannot possibly hold all of the discs in my collection. I will not bore you with the details of how we store the CDs that we cannot house on our shelves. But I will note that the exercise of determining which CDs stay on the shelves and which are to be stored elsewhere does focus the mind, and reminds one of one’s…priorities. I thought it might be fun to record that which constitutes the inviolate portion of the collection, that which must remain always at hand, rather than stored at some distance. As it happens, my bias toward non-pop instrumental music is growing more vehement by the year.
Top shelf untouchables: the Cow and Messiaen boxes. Hopefully the gallery below will be relatively self-explanatory. If not, there’s always Wikipedia.
Yes, Coltrane and Coleman ought to have been included, but I didn’t want to risk throwing out my back bending over so far…
miles, monk, zappa, zorn, can, does it get any better? i apparently need to check out these bands i haven’t heard of.
Look at all that AMM and Derek Bailey! Haven’t seen such collected riches since my (relatively recent) college radio days. Unfortunately, I’m currently too poor to afford such a treasure trove myself.
I really enjoyed this post.
I would love to do a post like this, but with my bookshelves. I love my books so much. Unfortunately, my shelves are a fucking mess.
Thanks, Glen, my kindred spirit. You reminded me why I fucking hate hate hate the digital revolution. Even the thought of a room with no shelves (full of DVDs, CDs, and Books) gives me shivers.
What, no Air Supply? 😛
Beautiful! Never seen so much CAN – and I don’t know anything about Henry Cow (except what you’ve previously posted) or AMM. Hope you will enlighten in future writings. Meanwhile: What equipment do you use to listen to them? (CD player, amp, speakers, etc.?)
My CDs are all on shelves in the basement in more-or-less random order. I’ve copied them all (except for the classical – still working on that) onto two 2TB hard drives for easy access. But, like you, I just have to keep some discs on-hand and I did the same thing – whole catalogs by Monk, Miles, Coltrane, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, et al., have to be at hand, easily accessible.
My CDs are scattered throughout the basement in various stages of alphabetality. The current most playeds are scattered about the living room haphazardly. So you’re pretty darn well off, I’d say. If you’re not listening to the late greats Henry Threadgill and Don Pullen on a regular basis, you’re missing out on some significant nurishment for the nutrons.
Way too anal of me, I admit, but I have to know: How are the individual discs in a category organized if neither chronologically or alphabetically?
Or (shudder) is there no organization at all?
@ Rick Taylor: Interesting you should mention Pullen, as I was just listening to his great set with David Murray, Andrew Cyrille, and Stanley Franks, “Shakill’s Warrior,” just the other day. I was lucky enough to see that band in the early ’90s in Tokyo, at a great club named Keystone Korners, a night I’ll never forget. My Pullen stuff isn’t as well organized as the pictured material, nor is my Threadgill, but I assure you, “Too Much Sugar For A Dime” is often part of this nutritious breakfast, as it were.
@ Jim: My stereo rig is pretty standard for the most part, owing largely to the exigencies of Brooklyn real estate. The pride and joy of it, however, is a pair of NHT tower speakers that utterly rule. I was just having them put the hammer down on the audio DVD of Crimson’s “Red” the other day, and man, they can blast like nobody’s business.
Seeing all that Sonic Youth made me very happy.
By the way, I am not allowing my own lovely wife to see this post. She is part of the Getting Things Organized mafia as well, and it will only give her ideas.
Can, Cow, Crimson, AMM, electric Miles, mad Incus and Zornage and Coleman and Coltrane and Threadgill offstage…you can DJ any parties I throw, Glenn! Was the “Red” DVD the new 5.1 re-mix? Re: Henry T., “Too Much Sugar” is some kinda highwater mark in that brief mid-90’s window of KnitFac bricolage for the people – avant melodies, blistering solos, wild textural/orchestral contrasts, absurdly phat phusion beats courtesy the great Oliver Gene Lake. &c. Re: Henry C., dying to hear that box set.
What, no Foghat?
My friend Mr. A. is trying to goad me into sharing a funny story I once told him about my interesting /tenuous relationship to Foghat. I may do it. Some time.
It occurs to me that John Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor were not among the artists I chose to represent photographically in this post. Rest assured that their recorded works are well represented on the inviolable shelves…
So what Can should the neophyte start with?
I think Ege Bamyasi is the best starting point for Can. It’s a little less sprawling than other Can releases, and for my money there isn’t a weak track on it.
I agree about *Ege Bamyasi* for a great Can starting point. It’s their most accessible and, coincidentally, also probably one of their best, if not the best, period.
And I guess I underestimate how many people are into music like this, but I’m always surprised to come across someone else who admires AMM as much as I do. Although I’m guessing that’s just a sampling of your AMM shelf, since it seems inconceivable not to have *The Crypt* always at hand. If I were to do something like this, AMM would feature heavily, along with a similar spread for AMM member Keith Rowe’s solo and collab discs.
@ Ed Howard: Yeah, “The Crypt” is about four or so discs to the left of what’s in the picture. As Bruce Reid inferred, I really don’t have any intra-artist organizational system. Boy, Keith Rowe’s been getting into more and more interesting/challenging stuff lately. Have you heard his ’70s recordings with Trevor Watts and Liam Genockey? Fascinating material, the closest I’ve heard of him playing “conventionally.”
Agree with you and Bowden about “Ege Bamyasi,” I think “future Days” and “Monster Movie” are also relatively novice-friendly.
Yeah, Glenn, Rowe’s been on a roll ever since he hooked up with Jon Abbey of Erstwhile. So many interesting projects have come out of his association with that label; my favorite is probably still that memorably vicious live set with Burkhard Beins from a few years back. I haven’t delved into his new duo disc with Sachiko M as much as I’d like, but it’s pretty amazing and incredibly difficult music.
I haven’t heard that 70s collab you mention; probably the oldest non-AMM Rowe I’ve heard is a piece on one of the Fred Frith-produced *Guitar Solos* compilations. I know that Rowe in the 70s was casting about a bit, tinkering with more accessible styles, maybe inspired by Cornelius Cardew’s similar, socialist-inspired embrace of accessibility. There’s a great picture of Rowe from that period holding an acoustic guitar in the traditional manner, looking a bit like a folkie strumming away. I’ve also always loved the (possibly apocryphal?) story that Rowe was once asked to join the early Pink Floyd; hard to imagine!
[Rick Taylor]: “If you’re not listening to the late greats Henry Threadgill and Don Pullen on a regular basis, you’re missing out on some significant nurishment for the nutrons.”
Just thought I’d mention that Threadgill is definitely not “late”! He’s got a new CD out, in fact, the very nice (though disappointingly short–39 minutes) _This Brings Us To, Volume 1_.