After a bout with skin cancer about one-thousand years ago (cured since), I was suddenly diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid gland in the beginning of the year. To be quite honest, I was expecting the diagnosis as my health had - gradually - gone to the dogs, but when my doctor came right out with it, it still blew me out of the water.

I'm not going to go into any details here but, suffice it to say, I have felt like "pish" (as Scotsmen are likely to say) since February and decided on the following:

1. No matter what, Internet activities would have to die ... and I killed them;
2. "Real life" activities would have to be stepped up ... and they were, to boot.

And that's what I did.

Hence, no updates around here.

To all the five regular readers around here: "Sorry," once again. "Life sucks ... and then you die." ;)
To all the four-hundred thousand since January: "While downloading, for example, the Mosaic discographies, you didn't even bloody-well notice, did you?"

I'm not even going to start telling you what you have to go through to get a leg up on this sickness, but the general well-being is cut down to size while one is at it. Accelerated heart beat, blood pressure close to black hole levels, dizziness, lack of energy, sleeplessness, skin problems, organ problems, ... the works. Unfortunately, I had to go through the entire medical library of symptoms and problems ... and I'm not done yet. Tentatively scheduled, I'll be back to "normal" by January of 2012.

The Music:

Music has been one of the most important cures while I was immersed in myself, me and I. Here's a quick run-down of what that encompassed:

• I completed my Dinah Washington, Anita O'Day and Frank Sinatra collections (I added the "Reprise" stuff via amazon.co.uk, in large parts recommended by members of the anally-retentive Steve Hoffman forums). None are complete, but what I've wanted to own, I now have. What's missing is the completion of my Nat King Cole collection, but I'm only missing a few releases. I also dug into Deep Purple (doesn't really fit into this list, does it?) and now have all the (affordable) (re)issues I wanted.
• I've been all over the map, musically, once again. From classical music (especially Chopin, Beethoven and Schumann solo piano works), ("white") Blues (Siegel-Schwall), 70s and 90s (I HATED the 80s) rock, pop and fusion, plus single high-spots like rare Oscar Peterson sessions and live recordings, Ella Fitzgerald (trashing my remasters and going back to, for example, Dennis Drake remasters), buying into an extensive Bruce Springsteen collection (Japanese remasters that aren't that great, but only cost around Euro 3.- each), etc.
• I remained on the lookout for used Mosaic boxed sets and, since February, was able to snag six or seven via the various forums I'm a member at, bringing up the total to a number large enough to fill two large moving boxes with, err, the boxes, as I keep the CDs on the shelves, the booklets in a cupboard and the boxes stored-away for eternity.
• I have cataloged a large part of my collection via collectorz.com's "Music Collector", which isn't great but helps me avoid buying stuff I already have. I avoided "Brian", a fabulous sessionography program which, to me, seemed like overkill. I just didn't have the time to enter my stuff there, especially since it is too much geared towards "jazz" and does get a bit quirky with "pop", "fusion", etc which often doesn't list enough info to enter into required (read: necessary to be usable) fields.
• I removed 50% of my film collection (which I'm thinking of selling) to the bedroom, making space for more ... music.
• The other day I was at IKEA and noticed that they actually do have a potential CD-storage solution that is, minus one aspect, close to perfect (and I never noticed, despite having studied their catalog in excruciating detail all these years): Bestaa ("BESTÅ": Those two "a"s are actually an "a" with a circle on top, but I don't dare enter that "Umlaut" here for lack of world-wide support). Have a look at the system (U.S. link), which can be adapted to taller digipaks, boxes, etc. The only downside are the also-available doors, which, as usual, aren't worthwhile. They look great, but they do need three hinges on each (in)side which will prevent you from actually filling the three shelves because said hinges will stick "into" the shelf space when used. Without doors, if you limit yourself to CD-sized boxes, CDs or digipaks, is near-perfect. Check it out. It's much better than, for example, their "Benno" system!

This Site:

• I have no idea what to do with this site but, as has always been the case, the site will be around until I'm dead and gone (maybe longer). It will pick up again at some point (as has also been the case time and again) and will still be the one spot where I post stuff just to alleviate whatever plagues me here or there.
• I do in fact have nearly ten posts ready, very lengthy ones at that, but I simply didn't have the energy to complete them and polish them up. As of now, they are not ready to be published. My post on Benny Goodman's Carnegie Hall concert and its three trillion reissues (99.9% of which are total shite) is nearly done and so is my Dinah Washington post. Alas, it might take another ten years before they actually appear here. I've also got some lists ready (almost) to go live, most of which are (completed) reissue series that I couldn't find too much about online. Etc., p.p. The same goes for my "Mosaic Discographies" page for which I have about 20 more posts (almost) ready.

"Almost":

It's the name of the game.
For those of you who have been around since the inception of this site, you know that  that's normal around here.
Hell, it's free, I'm me ... and you are you.
It'll be here when it's done.

As usual.

Peace.

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I had virtually no idea of who Claude Williamson was until I chanced upon some sound-bytes online. Yes, I already had some of his work with June Christy from the early 50s and Charlie Barnett's bebop big band from the late 40s, and I'm quite sure I have a lot of examples of his West Coast work with, for example, the Lighthouse All-Stars and, especially, with Bud Shank, but those are/were more fleeting glances and "drive-by" listenings than anything else. That name wasn't really on my radar and if it had popped up on a Trivial Pursuit card, the only thing I could have said is "Know him. West Coast, right?"

Then I came across Williamson's "'Round Midnight" (Bethlehem Records, 1956) and despite the fact that some reviewers didn't like that session all that much (many thought it "average" but not bad at all), my ears pricked up and, as usual, I started looking around the Net for a copy of that album. In the end, I settled for a Japanese edition (Toshiba/EMI, TOCJ-9623) which - because I didn't pay attention when I ordered it - accidentally also included a second 1956 session, actually Williamson's first LP for Bethlehem Records, simply entitled "Claude Williamson" (Bethlehem Records, 1956), which seemed to have garnered much more favorable reviews. I went for it because it was the cheapest copy I could get.

Now, let me state loud and clear that I'm probably the only person on this planet who is not a fan of those Japanese replica reissues that come in some nifty cardboard sleeve (usually over-sized) with an OBI-strip (where the hell does one keep those?), some flimsy inner sleeve to protect the CD (I always manage to get those into the cardboard sleeve in a way that it folds up and is all crumbled-up after a single day), plus various accompanying inserts like track listings, reprints of original liner notes, a reprint of an extra cover (in this case), plus more. Yes, nice, but ultimately they don't fit into my shelf system properly and are a pain in the neck to handle (unless you're into religious ceremonies whenever you intend to play one). Still, this one here I can live with because the music is so damn good. I have no idea if there are better remasters or reissues from original master tapes out there (and I don't care), but I'm sure you'll find the right issue for yourself if this post has managed to get you interested.

The first time I heard snippets from the "'Round Midnight" session i thought it sounded like an Oscar Peterson from whom the fireworks were removed  and to whose style you added a very healthy dose of rather loose be-bop phrases. Yes, you're allowed to say "ouch" now, but that's how it sounded to me when I first heard it and, in a way, it still does. On my site here, that's a quality criterion because you know that I love a lot of Oscar Peterson's work. Both of the Williamson sessions swing like mad and if you go into convulsions once you hear the term "bebop", no need to do so here. The bebop is in Williamson's style and ... it's wonderful.

I guess one would have considered Williamson to be a representative of the "modern school" at the time, and Joseph P. Muranyi does in his original liner notes. All the action is in the right hand and the left contributes cascades of block chords ... or nothing. Muranyi calls this "stop-and-go fashion" and whatever you might call it, it makes for fascinating listening beyond the mere surface of enjoying the session. That, and Williamson's unique approach in form of very loose "free" melodic lines that are at times moody and at other times incredibly energetic (but always imaginative and inventive). Williamson does borrow from what was around at the time, but as a new listener to these two sessions, he always uses what he incorporated as a stepping stone only. Somewhere over on that "All Music Guide" website, someone stated that these sessions should appeal to "straight-ahead" jazz fans, and I would agree, without letting that stand as a derogative (which, unfortunately, is the connotation that term carries in certain circles): Here it signals "quality".

Williamson and his sidemen cover a lot of familiar ground in these two sessions and there is an abundance of standards that are given a new work-over, interspersed with more surprising tunes within this context  that make the grand total that much more interesting.

"'Round Midnight" kicks off with two faster tracks. "Stella by Starlight", with a wonderful piano intro by Williamson, is the single number that made me buy this session as it has that wonderful mid-tempo swing that I like so much. It really kicks into this cool percussive groove when Mel Lewis enters just after Williamson's intro, reminiscent of so many of the wonderful Nat King Cole (instrumental) trio tunes. That first tune also shows that Williamson must have gone through some excellent schooling because his ability is really on display here from the start. If this tune is not your cup of tea, you might as well stop listening as both trios stay in this vein throughout these two sessions. "Somebody Loves Me", another classic tune, continues exactly where "Stella By Starlight" had left off and we just continue that way through out all of 21 tracks.

Both Red Mitchell and Mel Lewis (one of the greatest big band drummers in my book) need no introduction here and the only question one could ask is if there was anyone (especially on the West Coast) who these two didn't play with. If you have a jazz collection of just about any size, chances are you have some of their work in there. Both form a perfect support team for Williamson's ideas but, in comparison, they are just that: "perfect". I was surprised that Don Prell on bass, whose name did not ring a bell at all with me, and Chuck Flores, who is probably the quintessential  drummer of the west coast scene if there ever was one, could match and even get a leg up on those pros in the featured session. Although I do not want to pit one trio against the other, actually that (earlier) "Claude Williamson" date is the better one because it sounds even more inspired; "hotter", for wont of a better expression. Just check out "I'll Remember April", "Blue Notoriety" or "Have You Met Miss Jones" to hear what I mean. Although Joe Quinn predicted a bright future for Don Prell in the original liner notes, it's a name that didn't really register with me on many later sessions that I have. A quick Google search turned up that he's quite active in the Bay area (with his "SeaBop Ensemble") but ... that's it. I intend to search him out though because I love what he does on this session and I'll let you know if/when I found some worthwhile stuff.

I could only give you a very brief glimpse into one of those singular CDs that has shot up on my private list of must-hear recordings that are in permanent residency next to my stereo. I can only encourage you to seek out either this version that holds both sessions or to at least find a reissue of the "'Round Midnight" session that is available in many different reissue states.

Right now I would give this reissue five stars which, in my listening room, will eventually drop to four stars once the initial excitement has cooled off. In the long run I think it will remain one of those CDs that I will keep around close to my equipment and one that I will certainly place in my "permanent" folder on my portable player. It will be residing next to piano trio dates with Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Teddy Wilson ... and many others. Not a bad place to be, I would think.

Run out and buy this CD reissue.
You won't regret it.

By the way, do any of you have other Claude Williamson recommendations?

***

[Personal note: Serious health issues are keeping me away from both this site and my PC. Please bear with me until I have had them sorted out. I'll be in hospital for a week or more soon and will need time to recuperate from serious surgery before I can return. I might even be away for up to four weeks after surgery! I have some half-finished posts ("Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Concert" and "Verve Elite Editions" which I might be able to complete in-between doctor's appointments, but I don't want to rush them out there.]

***

Williamson, Claude. "'Round Midnight", Toshiba/EMI, Japan, 2004.

Originally released: Bethlehem Records, BCP-69 ("'Round Midnight") and BCP 54 ("Claude Williamson").
Original liner notes: Joseph P. Muranyi ("'Round Midnight") and Joe Quinn ("Claude Williamson").
(A) "'Round Midnight: n.n.
(B) "Claude Williamson": Val Valentin (engineer), Dave Pell (photography), Burt Goldblatt (cover design)

(A) Claude Williamson (p), Red Mitchel (b), Mel Lewis (dr)
Hollywood, California, December 1956

01. Stella by Starlight (4:02)
02. Somebody Loves Me (3:06)
03. I'll Know (3:21)
04. The Surrey With the Fringe on Top (2:53)
05. Polka Dots and Moonbeams (3:05)
06. Hippy (3:04)
07. Tea for Two (3:20)
08. Stompin' at the Savoy (3:30)
09. 'Round Midnight (3:53)
10. Just One of Those Things (3:00)
11. Love Is Here to Stay (3:00)
12. The Song Is You (2:08)

(B) Claude Williamson (p), Don Prell (b), Chuck Flores (dr)
Hollywood, Calidornia,;January 19, 1956

01. June Bug (3:43)
02. Jersey Bounce (6:12)
03. Moonlight in Vermont (3:43)
04. I'll Remember April (5:01)
05. The Last Time I Saw Paris 4:33)
06. Blue Notoriety (6:07)
07. Embraceable You (2:32)
08. Have You Met Miss Jones (3:35)
09. Hallelujah (2:48)

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No matter what, those things have always annoyed the hell out of me. I also have to admit that in the beginning I tried to remove them the old-fashioned way, by simply trying to peel them off. If you have ever tried that more than once, you know what happens every single time: The damn thing rips and the rest is even more difficult to get off. It wasn't until someone told me that I should just separate the CD jewelcase that this particular nightmare came to an end.

It's an old trick but since I encounter people time and again who are still fighting those stickers with sheer willpower, I thought I'd add a brief "instruction manual" here for those of you who are still being annoyed by those things. I'll start with a few photos from the livingwithmusic.com gallery (you can also find them there) and then I'll explain it again.

1. Photos

2. Instructions

This is really simple and it's nothing new. There are many places on the Internet where you can find this technique explained and everyone always comes to the conclusion that once you've tried it, it becomes as easy as pie.

So, let's go.

Step 1: Separate the jewelcase by "opening up" the opposite side to the one where the sticker is affixed. You can separate the two jewelcase halves easily by inserting your fingernail at the end of the spine, between lid and tray.

Step 2: Flip the whole thing open as you see in the photos above.

Step 3: Just pull one side of the jewelcase away at an angle. The sticker will come off easily. Best of all, this way they hardly ever rip. I can't even remember if this has ever happened to me since I perfected this technique for myself.

Step 4: Now you have the whole sticker stuck to one side of the jewelcase and ...

Step 5: ... you just need to pull it off and reassemble the jewelcase

That's it.
Done.

Again, I know this is nothing new, but since one of the readers here brought it up in a mail the other day, I thought I would post this manual for him instead of sending him and others who sometimes ask all across the Internet. Still, if you had problems following me up to this point, you might also want to have a look at a video on youtube.com demonstrating the process: "How To: Remove a CD Case Sticker in 40 Seconds (w/one hand)".

In case you have never tried this, have fun perfecting the technique. 30 seconds is actually longer than you should need, even with one hand. :)

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Before I get started though, this: I will probably be absent from this site for four to six weeks starting some time in February. I have asked one of the regular readers here to keep an eye on any spam that might make it through my defenses (not much does) and I might be able to post this or that from wherever I'll be those four to six weeks. If I have the time, I might pre-write a few posts that can then just be switched to a "live" state from far away. Plans for this haven't been finalized yet. So, if you are wondering about missing updates during that away-phase, don't worry ... they'll roll in once I'm back.

On to the changes that have happened around here these past two or three weeks.01. "Living With Music Gallery"
At the top of the page you'll notice a new menu item, the gallery. I'm using a simple WordPress plugin to upload photos relevant to posts or my collecting habits and to file them away into albums. I have regularly updated my January 2010 acquisitions, have moved some older photos from the old (non-Wordpress) gallery over and have a few more albums planned (like one for the way I set up my IKEA Ivar shelves to work well with my CD collection). The photos are usually between around 100k and 190k in size so if you have a slow connection and nothing seems to be happening when you click on a thumbnail, give it a few seconds. The gallery itself is pretty much a bare-bones affair, nothing fancy at all. It does offer the ability to automatically add thumbnail images from the gallery to posts, based on specific tags, but I haven't utilized that feature yet. For this to work, the gallery still has to be expanded and everything needs to be retagged. Eventually, all of a sudden, this feature will be implemented.

02. "Discographies and Lists"
The new framework used for my site allows me to automatically group new pages (also posts) I publish into drop-down menus. After some moving back-and-forth of some pages, I have created this new section which will collect some important reference pages such as the ever-popular "Mosaic Discographies" and "Jazz in Paris" pages. There are more in the works (one is almost done) ... see below. Please note: These pages do NOT show up in my feed that you have maybe subscribed to, although they are updated frequently. You just have to drop by once in a while to have a look. The same goes for the third new section, ...

03. "On Sale!"
That page isn't up yet, but it'll pop up in the menu at the top-left of my site when I'm done. I have quite a few items I'm thinking of selling and you might be able to get something like "The Complete Glenn Miller" (Japanese boxed set, basically "as new"), "The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles: Volume 3 (1972-1975)" (shrink-wrapped 10 CD set; I have two extra sets of this one) or single CDs cheaper than elsewhere on the Net. You won't be able to make a killing as I know what these are worth, but I'll make them cheaper for regular readers of this site if they should at all be interested in anything I have on that list. You'll notice when it's up.

04. "Twitter Feeds"
In various places on my site I've included two different Twitter feeds: One that I update with newsworthy stuff and one which links to CDs or larger sets I'm currently listening to ("Enjoying Now"). Please note that the links in that list are Amazon associate links and make me some money if you buy something after you reached Amazon.com via a click on one of those links. If you want to do me some good, you can also then continue searching on Amazon for other stuff to buy and I might get a minuscule amount of money in commission.

05. Other Changes
I have decided to streamline this site in a major way, deleting some older posts, combining some and reordering them by imposing a new tagging system on the whole lot. That does mean that addresses might change and some Google searches will end up on a "404 Error" page because the material has been moved, but I don't care (and will not install any redirects for these items. The plan is to post one or two lengthy new items (blog posts) each month and to keep updating and expanding the head of my site (pages) with more lists, updated lists and discographies. I'm also going to be adding a wishing list menu item just in case there is a person out there who likes this site enough to send me something from that list.

06. Upcoming Posts and Additions

• a) More Mosaic Discographies
  I haven't been adding new Mosaic discographies because I screwed something up and lost what I had saved. "Lost" is not the correct word, but the whole shebang has disappeared from my PC. I do have backup copies somewhere and just need to find them amongst my nearly 20 terabyte of external harddisks. Give me another few days and we'll be rolling there again as well.
• b) "Verve Elite Editions"
  I'm almost done with a very long page which will include each and every reissue (track listing, iextra info, small cover image, brief reviews from AMG, Amazon, etc.) within the Verve Elite Editions series. This page is done down to the last four CDs. It should be up early next week.
• c) "Benny Goodman: Carnegie Hall Concert (1938)"
  Motivated by a lengthy exchange with various people about this lkandmark concert and the various (re)issues, I've nearly completed a lengthy post on this which will include a discussion of some of the better or more controversial reissues available today. I'm waiting for the delievery of one item I purchased today and when it has arrived (from the U.K.), the post will be up within 24 hours.

07. Further on Down the Road
I chose "Elemental", the framework for this site because for over two years, I've had a redesign of my own flying around that I would like to implement one day. It looks quite different and would change this site from a regular blog into a different beast. I have no idea when this might happen and I already know now that it won't be easy, but I've started working on refining that design again. Being the restless fellow I am it does mean quite a lot if I still like a design almost two years after I first completed it (my avareage time is usually a few hours or days until I trash an idea again). That design is minimalistic to the extreme and text-based, with one image for each post, it includes registration (plus benefits) for this site and other stuff. Let's see if I'll ever get around to it.

***

That was it for today. By the way: It is these kinds of posts and other less relevant ones from the past that will be deleted in one fell swoop one of these upcoming weeks. When done, I want to have the better posts left and all of these update and other posts in the trashcan. If we consider this to be spring cleaning of sorts, spring would be a good idea to get it done.

Have a nice weekend everyone ... and don't forget to listen to some good music!

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Yes, we make our lives more difficult than need be, but being a collector also does bring that moment of joy when you finally get to hold one of these wanted items in your hands. Don't get me wrong, for me it's always been the music first and I wouldn't be collecting so much of it if I didn't get permanent enjoyment out of it, but there are those irrational moments when your safety switch goes off and you get yourself an item that you might not even enjoy that much, just to get that CD number 53 that's missing in a long run of, say, 100.

I'm not going to talk about those irrational moments here - I'll leave that to another post - but what I do want to talk about are those single items that I've had on my want-list forever and which I, for one reason or another, have not been able to pick up yet. And, to get that out of the way first, the reason for having avoided purchasing many of the items listed below is usually ... money.

How much is music really worth, in an age in which illegal downloading or copying has seemingly made music a freely-available commodity? I can't give you a general answer, but to me music is worth quite a lot, despite the fact that I have also gone digital these past many months (or years, depending on the perspective). I might be a bit too old-fashioned here, but there is joy in actually owning music in a form that you can actually touch and look at. It's an aspect that is beginning to disappear from modern culture, in an age of quickly-exchanged, up- and downloaded digital bits and bytes, but all of us who grew up in the age of the LP and then the CD, SACD or audio DVD probably have a special affinity to the product itself, the music, the liner notes, the cover and the production values as a whole.

The downside is, of course, that whereas a digital collection takes up next to no space, even if you have several terabyte on external hard drives twice mirrored, a real-world collection takes up a larger part of your living space. In my case, my entire digital collection fits onto about 1 meter of shelf space whereas my CD and LP collection takes up more than 60 meters, not counting the moving boxes stuffed full with empty boxed sets I removed the CDs from.

I have chosen the real-world collection route, doubling-up in digital formats so I'm ready if I should ever decide to go entirely digital, but I can't let go of my CD collection that has accompanied me for the past 30 years or so. I bought into the new CD format very early on (I've always been an early adopter) and was lucky enough to be the guy on the lookout when, in its first wave, CDs weren't all that successful yet. I remember endless hours in second-hand shops in my old hometown, buying up CDs other people had apparently gotten as Christmas or other presents and dumped at the shop, either because they didn't even have a CD-player yet or because, for some other reason, they didn't want that particular CD. In that phase, I bought tons of them.

When I finally started earning a decent living, which was delayed considerably by me being the eternal student and assistant at university, I started buying music regularly, albeit in an economical fashion. One could often find me hunting around the bargain bins and second-hand stores wherever I happened to be living or visiting and I had all of those beginning-of-the-year, end-of-year and inbetween sales phases imprinted on my inner clock. There were and are lots of bargains to be had and you just need to invest some time to unearth them.

Still, some CDs have proven to be rather elusive ever since the time I had the chance to buy the music (usually upon release) but couldn't because I didn't have the cash or had other items at the top of my list.

That list of must-have disks is not very long, but it is substantial enough to seriously drain my music budget. I have decided though - in the hope that no other high spots will pop up to make me veer off course, to finally get to these elusive CDs this year, one by one.

So, I started the year off with hunting around the Internet for an entire day, comparing prices, unearthing copies and then contacting sellers to get hold of the first batch on my "want, need, will have" list.

***

At the very top of my list were the other 3-disc volumes of "The Complete Dinah Washington on Mercury", which I only had volume 1 of. I might possibly be the biggest Dinah Washington fan in Germany (hell, many people don't even know her name) and ever since I bought Volume 1, I knew I had to get the rest of this reissue series. Now, I know that the first four volumes, perhaps the first five, are what you need, volumes six and seven veering off into different territory, but I decided to make this a full run.

The problem with this reissue run is that it really collects everything Dinah Washington recorded for Mercury and that being the case, we enter some controversial areas. AllMusicGuide sums this up quite nicely:

Dinah Washington was at once one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century -- beloved to her fans, devotees, and fellow singers; controversial to critics who still accuse her of selling out her art to commerce and bad taste. Her principal sin, apparently, was to cultivate a distinctive vocal style that was at home in all kinds of music, be it R&B, blues, jazz, middle of the road pop -- and she probably would have made a fine gospel or country singer had she [had] the time.

Fact is, I like her voice and although a lot of the later recordings are quite formulaic, to say the least, I intend to get the full run.

So, these out-of-print volumes being so damn expensive, for starters, I limited myself to those I could afford (usually in the $30 to $70 range). That way, and after some very intensive research, I managed to get hold of Volumes 2, 3, 4 and 7. Volumes 5 and 6 are currently too expensive, but once my initial purchasing run is complete, I might just jump on those as well, a month at a time. I've had help from my connection in the States getting hold of volumes 3, 4 and 7 (the marketplace sellers didn't offer international shipping), but volume 2 I found at a very reasonable price here in Germany (I was alerted via e-mail by Amazon.de that someone had put it up for sale at a very low price and I jumped on it within seconds).

***

I have written about the Siegel-Schwall band on here before and if you did read that older entry, you know I'm a huge fan. They were a huge part of my very early encounter with music and one could say, despite this being the white blues school, they got me hooked on it. For some odd reason (detractors might chime in, "rightly so"), most of Siegel-Schwall's output has been out of print for ages. Best-of CDs abound, but I'm not interested in those because they usually leave out those tunes I particularly enjoyed.

So, after having researched the Dinah Washington material, I spent not one but two days hitting every online site known to man (and woman) to unearth the three central recordings that I didn't have yet.

And, lo and behold, the research paid off. Just two days later I was the (very) proud owner of "Sleepy Hollow" (Wooden Nickel, 1972), "953 West" (Wooden Nickel, 1973) and "R.I.P." (Wooden Nickel, 1974). Together with "The Complete Vanguard Recordings and More!", which collects the first four Siegel-Schwall albums ... and more), I have now brought my collection in line with what I used to have on LP.

Believe me, those three CDs added to my collection were the icing on the cake and I've been blasting this music through my hometown ever since they got here. I started with my favorite tune off "R.I.P", entitled "Take Out Some Insurance" and haven't stopped since.

I won't go into further detail here because I intend to write about each and every one of these CDs once my run is complete, which it isn't yet. I'm still hunting around for their live recording ("Live: The Last Summer", Wooden Nickel, 1974), the totally elusive debut on Wooden Nickel, "The Siegel-Schwall Band" (Wooden Nickel, 1971), which doesn't seem to be available anywhere, and I'm at least considering their "Three Pieces for Blues Band and Orchestra" (written by William Russo) which is readily available from Deutsche Grammophon and presents their collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in 1973 (conducted by Seiji Ozawa).

AllMusicGuide had this to say about this recording:

This is not an album -- or a piece of music -- to be neutral about. Collaborations between the high brow and the low down have always been dicey (anyone ever heard Albert King playing with a symphony orchestra?), but this one will definitely leave on one side of the debate or the other; either you'll hail it as the blues brought "uptown" or as an experiment gone terrible awry.

I agree, and I sway between the two camps, but it does, nevertheless, have some excellent Siegel-Schwall on display. I liked it 30 years ago and will probably get hold of it as well to make my vintage Siegel-Schwall collection more or less complete.

***

After the Dinah Washington and Siegel-Schwall parts of my collection have been completed I don't honestly know where my searches will take me. I do still have quite a few reissues on my want-list, but most of those are too outrageously-priced to even be considered. Those items include some out-of-print Mosaic boxed sets and similar items which I do not intend to pay the asking price for.

When push comes to shove, there is a limit to what music is worth around my house and that limit is my wallet.
Always has been.

[to be continued]

Related posts:

1. The Siegel-Schwall Band After having worked my rear end off these past weeks...
2. Do you make backups? If you are into collecting music as I am, there...
3. Sony botched the “Miles Davis: Complete Columbia Album Collection” Although the various Amazon sites around the globe are ripe...

That doesn't mean, however, that I can't  throw in the odd multimedia page here once in a while and this one right here is the first one of some that I have thought of. I  do spend quite a bit of time - every once in a while - surfing around youtube.com or any of the other video portals and there's tons of fun stuff I usually discover there.

For this post, I haven't selected any rare items that most of you probably haven't seen yet. Actually, many of the videos below are nothing out of the ordinary, really, but they serve a special purpose here.

I thought i'd try to present a very quick and rough outline of my musical evolution, sprinkled with some autobiographical tidbits. There's no way I can be all inclusive, and I'm not even going to try, but the videos below do offer a quick glimpse into some formative material that has shaped me and my music collection, from when I put the first LP on my dad's record player until I left Denmark in the early 80s. I stopped there, not because I stopped listening to music, but because I think the 80s and 90s were a blur of so much music that I haven't even started to sift through to pull a few gems from the rubble. I veered off into each and every possible direction, only to return to a fundamental appreciation of 50s and 60s jazz in the new millennium, sprinkled with a healthy dose of 60s and 70s pop and rock music. It's along story, really, and I might choose the video route to expand on it at a later date.

Right now though, we're going to travel from the mid- to end-60s (I was born in 1962), a time at which I consciously started listening to music, all the way up to 1982, the year in which ugly candy-colored fashion and plastic pop came into vogue. And, yes, I partook in all of it, no matter how gruesome it might look today.

Let's have a look.

Important note: I think I've stated often enough on this site how much I hate Sony Music Entertainment, the one company of the hundreds that I have in my collection that I have been boycotting as much as possible. Root kits, copy protection, law suits, asinine management decisions, shoddy quality control and whatnot: If it's bad, Sony probably invented it. I would have loved to include some important videos in this post but couldn't because Sony Music Entertainment is blocking them in my country.  Obviously, the Sony Music Entertainment bigwigs have no idea how the Internet works (now there's a surprise for ya') as it takes two seconds to get around that block, but I won't even bother. And I'd like to encourage you not to bother either. Just ignore them, their artists and their products. Sony sucks.

***

"Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman,
from the film "Hollywood Hotel", 1937.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9J5Zt2Obko

Unfortunately, there's no really decent version of this magnificent stomper on youtube.com, but this excerpt of a much longer piece will have to suffice. When I look back at the earliest records in my own record collection, ignoring my dad's for now, I believe that a Benny Goodman compilation was the first (double-) LP that I had. I think it was. My dad had a wonderful ring-bound version of Benny Goodman's renowned Carnegie Hall concert and when I spent my first pocket money on my first LP, it just had to be a Benny Goodman one. It was a gatefold, white  double-LP with a black ink sketch of Goodman on the front. Because I'm quite the inquisitive and persistent fellow, I've tried for years to find a reference online to that first double-LP I bought, but, alas, to no avail. I have no idea whatever happened to mine, but it disappeared from my collection around 1978/79. I guess I let someone have it for a while and that person (I do have an idea who it might be) never returned it. It doesn't really matter because today I have more Benny Goodman than anyone will probably ever need in his or her collection, but those memories of that first double-LP are extremely fond ones.

My musical life started with classical music, because my mom was a gifted pianist and there was always classical music around our house, but when I started listening on my own, it was swing music where it was at. I didn't (yet) go for the more complex arrangements that, say, Duke Ellington had to offer; I went for Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and the many other dance bands. Swing music, usually with easily-remembered melodies, powerful and intricately arranged brass sections and a flowing, straight swing beat. Gene Krupa, who is featured on the drums in this smaller part of "Sing, Sing, Sing" became my hero and has remained so until today. I still believe that Krupa is the grandfather of all heavy metal drummers, a showman with enough panache to stand out from any crowd. He rocked, and so did Benny Goodman's band, to boot. Really, it's exactly here where everything started with me.

"I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" by Glenn Miller,
from the film "Orchestra Wives", 1942.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFv_PoZ2iP0

Glenn Miller, whose entire output (minus a few Airforce band cuts) I call my own, has actually recorded quite a large number of bland tunes, but when you distill his output down to the evergreens plus some, you have a bandleader with a very unique sound and very unique ideas. I loved that perfectionism that always oozed from his music and with Glenn Miller I also became aware of the many spectacular band members Miller so effectively either hid or showcased in his line-ups.

The version I chose here is an "enhanced" one from the 1942 film, "Orchestra Wives", starring Ann Rutherford and George Montgomery, a film which was the second and last film to feature The Glenn Miller Orchestra.  It features the superb Tex Beneke, American saxophonist, singer and (later) bandleader himself, who is backed up by the Modernaires, and it showcases a unique and famous dance number by the Nicholas Brothers, both of whom apparently do not subscribe to Newton's law of universal gravitation. On a side note, "Orchestra Wives" is far from the bland Hollywood dance band film that you might be accustomed to; it chronicles the split of an orchestra which is ripe with tension and virtually disintegrates when a couple breaks up because of the many jealousies that abound. Interesting little film that you should check out.

Next to Tommy Dorsey, the third band leader and cornerstone of my early collection, Glenn Miller provided the soundtrack to many of my younger years, until Rock & Roll hit my old mono tape recorder a little later.

***

"Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & The Comets,
Ted Steel Show, WOR-TV, NY, 1955.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5fsqYctXgM

Rock & Roll entered my life in the oddest of form(at)s: A red cassette tape that was actually by some band that had re-recorded some of the great Rock & Roll hits. It was given to me as a present when we were on holidays in the mountains of Switzerland and I remember playing that tape up and down, for hours on end. At some point, a year or two later, the tape disintegrated and I didn't replace it with the original versions of those hits until a few years ago (other music got in the way), but whenever I hear Bill Haley & The Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard today, the fondest of memories come flooding back, of carefree holidays in the Swiss Alps, high above the rest of Europe.

Of all the great rock and rollers out there, I've always been partial to Bill Haley, perhaps the "cleanest" one of them all. At a time at which Rock & Roll was aggravating the younger generation's conservative parents, to me Bill Haley seemed to be the one that could have been deemed "acceptable" by many of those strictly opposed to this new form of "jungle music". There's another video up on youtube, from the 1956 film "Rock Around the Clock", and in it, while visiting a dance at which the Comets are performing "See You Later Alligator", another stellar track,  two representatives of the older generation (and, indeed also the representatives of the younger one) hit one cliché after another one out of the ballpark. Have a look at it. It's great fun!

It wasn't until this millennium that I re-bought some of this music and one CD I'd like to heartily recommend is "Bill Haley and His Comets: From the Original Master Tapes" (MCA 1985, MCAD-5539) which is one of the very few Steve Hoffman remasters I own (I think). It has spectacular sound (!) and is usually still available at very reasonable prices (I paid 6 dollars for it a few years back) from your online-dealer of choice. Search around for it ... it's really worth every cent and, again, comes highly recommended.

***

"Down in the Bottom" by The Siegel-Schwall Band,
Self-Titled, Vanguard Records, NY, 1966.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Y8A4VtY3Q

I've written about the Siegel-Schwall band before on this site and it is utterly depressing how expensive (because out-of-print) their back catalog has become and how damn little of their material is available online ... or anywhere, for that matter.

My first encounter with Siegel-Schwall's music was also my first encounter with our resident flower-power dope head. A guy with extremely long hair, unwashed clothes and a permanent herbal smell about him. In our street, he stuck out like a sore thumb, but somehow he took to me (I was about 10 years younger than him and had absolutely no connection to him and his friends whatsoever) and often approached me in his slow zombie-like shamble, usually later in the evening outside, after he had gotten up, telling me about this or that LP I should check out. Until today it baffles me that he somehow singled me out of a huge number of (to him probably) irritating young kids hanging around our middle- and in spots slightly upper-class suburban neighbourhood, but he did and no matter what I though of him (I can't even remember his name today), I'm hugely indebted to him for planting some important seeds, musically. The Siegel-Schwall Band, the early Santana material, Chicken Shack, the early Fleetwood Mac, Chicago Blues of all shades and colors; the list is endless. He would give me a stack of LPs, shamble off into the sunset and would, weeks or sometimes even months later ask me if he had given me this or that LP. I could have kept them all, but I never did.

Siegel-Schwall's white suburban blues, penned by Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall or covered by them, awkward as it may have been at times, got me completely hooked. Yes, there's lots more respected blues out there, but I treasure those LPs as much as I treasure any cornerstone recording session in my collection. In my little world, these guys were and are as important as the best jazz, rock and pop recordings I own. Yes, they were that good.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find my favorite tunes online anywhere, for example "Take Out Some Insurance" off their 1974 R.I.P. album or "Hey, Billie Jean" in its studio or live version with, yet again, an absolutely smoking blues harmonica. So, I resorted to a non-video track off their self-titled debut album.

2010 is the year in which I intend to buy each and every Siegel-Schwall release which I have tried to avoid for years because they're so damn expensive. I have LP rips of every LP, but I want the CDs, so ... lots of other music will probably have to take a backseat this year until I've got all the Siegel-Schwall available. It's really the last gaping hole in my collection that I absolutely intend to fill.

"Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon & Garfunkel,
Live with Andy Williams, April 28, 1968.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h34B0she_xQ

[Note: The one with better sound can't be embedded here, so I've chosen this one.]

Amongst the first 10 LPs I ever owned, Simon & Garfunkel still have an honorary place today. I don't know how many times I re-bought their entire output, but they were a major influence in my youth. I actually wanted to learn how to play guitar because of them, and I did take a few lessons, but somehow the instrument and I didn't jell (actually, I think I was too lazy to practice, but don't tell anyone).

My first Simon & Garfunkel LP was actually the soundtrack to "The Graduate", which had a load of hits on it, supplemented by one or two other studio LPs. Because I had to spread the little pocket money I had thin to get what I wanted, I collected the rest of their material on cassette tapes, but till today I still remember each and every note and word to their songs.

The video I chose here is one I often link to around the Net, simply because it is such a beautiful version of a classic tune. If you watch and listen closely, it seems so easy ... but, of course, isn't. It's one of my favorite youtube videos and if you aren't moved by this performance, there must certainly be something wrong with you and you should get your wiring checked.

Another small gem, "Anji", played by Paul Simon with his brother Ed Simon, is something you should check out as well. It's quite a bit more fleshed-out than the original off, for example, the "Sounds of Silence" album, but worth your time.

***

"Down the Dustpipe" by Status Quo,
"Doing Their Thing", Live TV, 1970.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWo3j8pXq8M

I've also written about Status Quo on this site before, but they just have to be part of this trip down memory lane as well. For years, Status Quo was the band  I listened to. I ran out and bought every LP the day it came out (until "Rocking All Over the World", which I hated) and still listen to them regularly today.

Amongst my first LPs, given to me for my confirmation, was a compilation of their earlier stuff that formed a bridge between their flower-power and their later boogie phase. "Down the Dustpipe", "Gerundula", "Spinning Wheel Blues", "Umleitung",  and "Railroad", to name a few of the tracks off "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" (1970) and "Dog of Two Head" (1971) , got me hooked and made me a fan for life.

'Nuff said. The rest you'll find in my old "Status Quo" post.

***

"Social Disease" by Elton John,
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-93jphMpTM

For some reason, I didn't really take notice of Elton John until some years after this seminal double-LP was released. In fact, it was at my first-ever party that I came into contact with him, and that happened after we had left Germany and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. There was this girl there, Kate S., who had invited me to a small party at her house and this LP, amongst some others, was played up and down the entire evening.

Since that day, "Goodbye to Yellow Brick Road" has been an absolute favorite of mine. It's a release chock full of hits, wonderfully-crafted tunes and great lyrics (Bernie Taupin and Elton John remain one of the best songwriting teams in pop history). In my little musical world, this one comes close to be being one of the perfect pop releases of the last century, and despite all the world-wide hits included in this release, I am partial to the last track on side 4, "Social Disease". I can't really pinpoint it, but that's always been (the 70s) Elton John for me, in a nutshell. It's a hilarious tune, perfectly executed. And it's got a banjo.

I was smug enough way back when to make this my theme song, my motto of sorts, and still today I have to smile when I hear it. I had a great time that year, in 9th grade, and finally managed to break free of the shackles that were, in my case, Germany. "Good riddance" was my feeling then and until today I still haven't quite gotten used to being back here.

"Killer Queen" by Queen,
Rare promo video, 1974.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq4r8XPbTik

To keep things in chronological order, I have to leave my personal timeline here for a second. It was actually years before we moved to Denmark that this song hit me like a sledge hammer. At a time at which a lot of what I heard on the radio seemed bland and devoid of originality, Queen popped up out of nowhere and served this backhand. I still clearly remember the exact location and time of day when I first heard this tune. It was a complete breath of fresh air, with an absolutely unique sound and raw power. Yes, Queen went every which way in their career and I still somewhat prefer the material up until "News of the World", with some of my favorite Queen tracks such as "Sleeping on the Sidewalk", "Fight from the Inside", "Get Down, Make Love", "All Dead, All Dead", and, last but not least, "We Will Rock You", but "Killer Queen" put them on my map and kept them there long after Freddie Mercury died.

I saw them live whenever I had the chance and I count myself lucky that I was able to do so. Spectacular shows that got bigger and bigger, but no matter how elaborate the stage, the show and the circumstances, the feeling was always an intimate one, like they were playing in your living room just for you.

***

"Saturday Night Fever Medley" by Various Artists,
"Saturday Night Fever", 1977.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUFCq1VeZ-4

There's no way around this one, not a chance. In 1977 we were away on an England school trip and I brought three albums back, all of which are in this section here.

You know how it is: Long bus rides from place to place, a large group of hormone-infested school kids, ... and a tape recorder. I think we played this album up and down, a million times, and although - of course - everyone just hated disco music, somehow everyone was listening to this and secretly enjoying it. It was the beginning of the disco age for me, in which I didn't much participate, but this film put disco music on the map for me. Yes, there are better examples (and yes, I own the Rhino disco boxed set with some real gems on it), but this double-LP became a huge part of our lives way back when, if we wanted to or not. "Saturday Night Fever" was everywhere, it was huge and it permeated every nook and cranny of almost everyone's life. We even skipped school upon our return from England to go and see the film ... and got into a load of trouble because of it. There was no escaping it ... and it had staying power. I don't think there was a single party for months, if not years, at which somebody didn't pull out this - often worn to shreds - double-LP and threw it on the record player. Some people groaned "Not again, pleeeaaase", but in the end, everyone was on the dance floor hoppin' and boppin' along. People were secretly practicing dance moves from the film, some even went as far as buying themselves white suits, some tried to counter every appearance of the recording by following it up with Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and whatever else came in handy, but, in the end, to no avail. That thing just wouldn't die.

"Do You Feel Like We Do" by Peter Frampton,
Live, Midnight Special, 1975.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rFYbMhcG8

The second (double-) LP I brought home from that trip was this live classic by Peter Frampton. I have always been amazed at how split the general populace is on this one, but for 35 years it's been one I regularly listen to. It was a massive hit with us at school and it's the one album I know so well that I'm quite certain that none of the many CD reissues came even close to the sound that LP had way back when. I've gotten into fights over this recording time and again and have given up trying to extol its virtues. My favorite bit, amongst the many favorite bits, is Bob Mayo's brief keyboard solo on "Do You Feel Like We Do", a part which I heard so many times that I think I should one day try to play it. :) I love this double-LP! Seminal music to me. This version here is of course a different one than the one on the live album, but it holds up quite well.

Afterthought: Whenever I talk about this album, that ghastly 1978 "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" disaster with the Bee Gees, Frampton and Aerosmith pops into my head. What the hell was that all about? It certainly did kill Frampton's career. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Yikes, what a corker.

"Cuff Link" by Paul McCartney,
London Town, 1978.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_-fYxmfdGY

The third - and last - album I brought home was Paul McCartney's "London Town", which until today has remained my favorite McCartney recording, only matched by "Wings Over America", another must-have in my book. There isn't a song I don't like on that album and me being me, my favorite one is the one I linked to here, the one most people probably skip. I love that funky vibe and have had this song on constant replay time and again. A perfect little diddy. "I'm Carrying", "London Town", "With a Little Luck", "I've Had Enough"; each and every song on this album has been played several thousand times in this house. This is one album out of ten that I would take to that proverbial desert island.

***

"Exciter" by Judas Priest,
Live, Japan, 1978.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqFkUPv0WCY

In 1oth grade I disappeared into heavy metal, to be more precise, "The New Wave of British Heavy Metal", and I didn't reappear until I heard Joe Jackson and The Police a year or two down the road, who brought me out of that nebulous phase that consisted of denim jackets, band patches and endless strings of live concerts (and lots of good Danish beer). If I had to choose one single band that formed the center of that strange universe, it would have to be Judas Priest, closely followed by Saxon, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, The Scorpions, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Ian Gillan, Led Zeppelin, Aersomith, Van Halen, etc., etc., etc. One gave birth to the next, the horizon broadened, the album covers accumulated up on my wall, and my hair got longer. It was a phase that I don't believe was much appreciated by my parents, who put up with it nevertheless, and the noise permeating the house grew substantially. I still have these phases today when, suddenly, I just have to whip out this or that tune to get a quick fix, but when I look back upon that period in time, I don't understand how I got to be so single-minded about it all. For quite a while, there simply wasn't any other music for me. Full stop.

"Emerald" by Thin Lizzy,
Live, 1978.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENy7MQIYJs

Thin Lizzy, a band that I saw live every year when they came to town, sometimes several times, was the second biggest thing at the time. Despite his drug addiction and self-destructive life style, I still thought Phil Lynott was the coolest guy on the block, and to this day I think that Brian Downey (next to Les Binks, former drummer of Judas Priest) was one of the best drummers that the hard rock and heavy metal scene had ever brought forth, John Bonham not withstanding. Downey had this constant swing beat going on with explosive and thundering breaks that knocked me off my feet every time I saw him. Style, ability and a coolness factor of 110%. I had taken up drumming by then and Downey became the number one magnet for me.

***

"Sunday Papers" by Joe Jackson,
Live, 1979.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnaUL8OpBck

It wasn't until Petrus S., who calls himself Kurshid today, brought a Joe Jackson LP along to a friend's party that I woke up. "Sunday Papers" was one single track that whacked me about the head and brought me back into reality, gradually. To this day I have no idea what it was about that song that had such an effect on me, but an immediate effect it had. I can't really nail the exact point in time when it happened because I'm quite sure, like always, there was a time-delay involved, the record not reaching my ear until months after it had been released, but with all the punk music infusing the scene and all the "we-don't-give-a-damn" attitude, Joe Jackson stood out as an intelligent guy with an attitude (and a new spin on things). Yes, I had checked out the Sex Pistols and, especially, the Stiff Littler Fingers from Ireland whom I thought far superior, but I was a musician at heart and always thought that there was too much wanking going on there. Too much attitude, too little musicality (which, I guess, was also the intent). Joe Jackson changed all of that. Attitude, yes, but also brains and skill. Although I haven't subscribed to everything he released, Jackson remained a fixture on my musical horizon way into the middle and late 80s.

"Walking on the Moon" by The Police,
Live, Veronica's Countdown, Holland, 1979.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxAPmKLWIyA

The Police reinforced that change with a full run of releases until the very last one that I gobbled up as soon as they were put to market. It was actually that same party I mentioned before that brought them into the spotlight together with Joe Jackson. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that the stars rearranged themselves that night (at Angus' place; yes, the Angus that later played "Robert the Bruce" in Braveheart). It was that reggae and ska vibe I got off Jackson and The Police, that raw energy packed into coherent musical patterns.

I remember the last Police live concert I saw in Coepnhagen, Denmark. That was one odd experience. It was the Synchronicity tour and I loved that album, but I felt oddly detached when I saw them up their on that weird stage, the drummer seemingly sitting on top of some huge pile of rags, the sound so ear-shatteringly loud that it almost made my ears bleed. The whole thing was only bearable from the sidelines and the vibe just wasn't good. It was probably the worst concert I've ever attended, and that's saying a lot, coming from the guy who suffered through one hour of "Mercyful Fate" who were warming up for an even worse Uriah Heep (the Abominog tour). Who the hell ever came up with that pairing? That was the absolute pits and even the good Danish Tuborg couldn't make it better. Thankfully, the tickets had been for free (and, in retrospect, were still too expensive for what was served up).

***

"Signal" by Sneakers,
TV, Denmark, 1982.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRki5jE35RY

[Note: After publication, I noticed that embedding of this video is disabled by request. Can't they let you know that beforehand in a more obvious manner? I didn't notice that miniature message below the link at all. I left it in here anyway. Just click on it and hop over to youtube to see it.]

Well, here it is, the one single video I'm sure you haven't seen yet. As I was living in Denmark, I couldn't help being influenced by what was being recorded there and slowly but surely, I was pulled in by the local music scene. I discovered that there were loads of fabulous musicians in Copenhagen. It all started one night, when I accidentally ended up outside a concert venue across from my old school (the event is mentioned in another post on this site) and I peeked through the cracks in the wooden wall and saw her, Sanne Salomonsen, and heard them, the Sneakers. This band single-handedly gave birth to the largest collection of Danish pop music outside of Denmark, mine, and until the end 90s I updated it again and again until I had most of the music I had previously owned (or still own) on LP. Yes, there are exactly three CDs missing that are impossible to find (or haven't been released) and that's it. I've got it all.

But that Danish side of my musical life will be picked up again at a later point. You'll just have to wait and see.

For now, have a look at the awful 80s outfits, the colors and the audience. I wonder how we all survived the 80s in light of that, but the Sneakers were a great band with crack studio pros that could outplay just about anyone at the time. They crafted a ton of top-ten hits, they were all over the place and dominated the Danish music scene for many years (and, in a way, still do today with at least two of them in the spotlight time again with their various solo or group efforts). What drew me in at the time was the musicianship and skill. These guys were young and they were already better players than most. I think they were a good example of a new generation entering the scene that had a rock-solid musical upbringing and tons of skill. They ushered in a new age for many of those who believed that being able to play one single chord was simply not enough anymore. It is for a reason that the Sneakers were often compared to Toto, that seminal LA studio band, and that they had staying power. There wasn't anyone on the scene who could outplay or "out-compose" them. Not a chance.

***

There's so  much I haven't covered here, and as I went along, another thousand tunes popped into my head and made me want to include even more video, but I've decided to keep it to this list. What you have here then, from 1962 until the beginning of the 80s, is my musical development, spotty as it may be, condensed down to a few tracks. I do want to flesh each phase out a bit in the future, either via another video post like this one or a longer somewhat autobiographical piece, but for now, I think it's enough to give you an idea where I come from.

Not that you didn't have that already if you read along here regularly.

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Yes, I could have crammed everything in that I had bought, especially those larger recently-added items that are so often virtually thrown out of stock at wildly reduced prices around the end of one and the beginning of a new year, but filling up every nook and cranny of my shelf system(s) isn't really the most intelligent way of going about things. As I have several sub-collections strung together shelf after shelf, I need space in-between the various sections and at strategic spots inside of each section to be able to add new items as I go along.

So, once again I was stuck. Because I had some time one afternoon, I did it the meditative way and sat on the floor of my living room, accompanied by the sounds of Chicken Shack's absolutely brilliant "Complete Blue Horizon Sessions", and surveyed what I had and what could possibly be moved elsewhere to free up space and to give everything a little room to breathe. For quite a while I was blank and simply couldn't come up with a solution ... until "Night Life" started blasting from the speakers and I suddenly thought of my ... bedroom.

Yes, the bedroom. See, some years back I had bought myself an extra 4 IKEA Benno shelves and stored them away in the bedroom for future use. In the meantime, those had been partially filled with many packs of new empty jewel cases I so often need when another shipment reaches these shores with mangled goods, partially with CDs I had removed from my collection because they had been "updated" with newer or better releases, or partially with other stuff that I was thinking of getting rid of (but haven't so far ... typical).

So, the decision to move something from the living room into the bedroom was made quickly and after a bit of intense deliberation with my various personae, I decided to split my DVD collection into films and TV series. A quick count revealed that I have about 50 TV series boxed sets and the removal of those would free more than enough space to house my two Beatles boxed sets, the Led Zeppelin one plus a few other unwieldy ones and leave me enough space to spread out the 60 plus meters of music a bit again.

While once again shifting large masses of media around the house, I also had the chance to reflect a bit on my changed purchasing habits. In fact, although it might sound different (and might when compared to less geeky people), I haven't actually bought all that much.

I have virtually stopped buying DVDs because I got tired of having all that stuff standing around (and because I have pay-TV) and I also bought a lot less music these past two years or so. Once the initial "feeding frenzy" was over and I had grazed the various online shops and auction sites thin to put together my initial collection, my bouts have been limited to adding the occasional high spot to my collection (Mosaic boxed sets, for example, which are about to go out of print) or going on brief buying binges when my usual haunts reduce single high spots or items on my eternal wish list drastically. In 2009, the latter seemed to be the case all too often.

I don't know what it was in 2009, but because I have learned to be somewhat patient and wait, suddenly a virtual deluge of heavily price-reduced items hit my mail program's in-box and/or my various online radars. Aside from the two Beatles boxed sets and buying Mosaic boxes, everything I bought was either reduced by up to 80 percent or was offered at a greatly reduced pre-order price.

Because I have started keeping tabs on what I bought - together with both the list price and the median price an item reaches at some point of its online career - I was able to add up in late December what I had saved. It came to approximately 78 percent, and that includes a very large number of formerly damn expensive boxed sets or very hard to find single items that suddenly popped up via some unsuspecting marketplace dealer who didn't know what he was selling. If you were wondering who continuously jumped on items before you had a chance to, it was probably me. As soon as some notification hits my PC from somewhere, I'm usually there to buy it a few seconds later.

On top of that, various forums alerted me to extremely good offers, most of which only lasted a few hours or days before the reduced items had been gobbled up by those in the know. The last route some items took into my collection was by way of a present by some extremely nice readers of this site here, a shop owner or two who rewarded my loyalty with very good offers, as well as generous birthday and whatnot presents which often turn out to be CDs (because my family and my friends know I'm always happy when I get a new CD).

The flip-side of the coin is that now I have so much fine music to listen to that I shouldn't really be buying any more for at least the next 11 months.

Yeah, right.

That's not really why I made space in my collection by shifting everything around. Yes, the list of must-have items has grown extremely short these past 24 months, but the crux of the matter is that there are still a number of excellent reissue labels out there that put together these new items I usually haven't even considered before they start marketing them.

So, also in 2010 there will be plenty to write about here, both about music I'll finally get around to listening to and new music which finds its way into the recently dusted-off nooks and crannies of my shelf system.

Here's to 2010 then.
Let's get to it.

Related posts:

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2. Boxed-In I've said it often enough around here and I'll state...
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Shortly before the Christmas holidays, which I spent with my parents in our rather cold and rainy former capital, I was literally tripped up by "Elemental". Sounds mysterious, but it wasn't. While desperately searching for a WordPress theme that is updated regularly, has a rock-solid base and good support, "Pro Theme Design", the makers of "Mimbo Pro", suddenly popped up on my screen and, to be quite honest, a small 454px x 284px partial screenshot of "Elemental" hooked me before I had a chance to breathe.

But, let's take a step back for a second.

Preliminaries:
Selling a product like a WordPress theme must surely be getting more and more difficult, with pro themes proliferating right and left like the swine flu, and the elegance and efficiency of the "Pro Theme Design" homepage as well as the detailed information available on their as yet relatively few themes convinced me within the blink of an eye that I might have finally landed on the right page.

To be quite honest, just about every theme (both free and pro) had fallen short in the few minutes I had spent on setting them up (and I did pay for some), and I was a bit weary of hitting site after site only to come up short ... again.

There are tons of great themes out there to be had, but, when it gets down to the nitty gritty, this didn't work, that wasn't browser compliant, the code sucked, the documentation was lacking, the support was limited to some virtual person regularly stating "I'm updating the theme" (for weeks and months on end), every new WordPress update would break something, etc. A pain in the rear end, to say the least.

So, it was with a bit of apprehension that I dove into the concise information, the online demo and documentation of "Elemental". I was ready to be disappointed, once again.

Prerequisites:
See, I had a rather specific set of must-have properties in mind. The theme I wanted to have was supposed to

• avoid all these useless bells-and-whistles that detract from the core functionality;
• have a rock-solid foundation (framework);
• enable me to set up a child theme to tweak separately from the main theme;
• allow me to freely add widgets and plugins without overriding too much pre-designed stuff;
• not take more than one single day (in total) to set up my site;
• offer somewhat consistent support and
• be updated immediately if anything breaks because of an all-too-often WordPress update.

It's that last point, especially, that enraged me these past months. WordPress, as good as it might be, is being updated and expanded - sometimes needlessly so - at such a rapid pace that most themes are blown to smithereens when one of those updates is installed. So, I hit the as yet rather quiet forum over on "Pro Themes Design" and saw that (small) issues that had arisen with the last megalomaniac WordPress update were fixed and updated on that day.

Secondly, although there are lots of exceptions I could cite, some of these pro themes out there use so many irremovable functions and tweaks to get to where they want to be that it has become almost impossible to sift through the millions of core functions, templates and style sheets to find what you need to do in order to tweak said theme into submission. On top of that, some of what was programmed into those themes would almost certainly collide with some plugin or widget that was a must-have and, in the end, it was often a choice between using a selected theme or the essential add-on.

To cut matters short, of the seven or so themes I paid for (I run more sites than this one), "Elemental" is the first theme that delivered on all points.

"Elemental" (Basics):
Before I tell you about my setting-up of my site with "Elemental", here is what it in fact has going for it:

• Animated multi-level dropdown menus.
• 12 custom page templates for contact forms, sitemaps, image galleries, blogrolls and much more.
• Breadcrumb options.
• Custom control panel options to control column size, typography, navigation and more.
• Four widgetized regions for flexibility.
• Dashboard widget for upgrade reminders.
• Custom masthead image and logo controls.
• Image thumbnail resizing.
• Support for gravatars, author comment highlighting, threaded comments and paged comments.
• Full localization and translation support.
• Custom widgets for popular posts, social networking, Twitter updates, related posts and more.
• Additional customizable content areas via action hooks.
• Custom admin bar for dashboard shortcuts.

Although all of that, excerpted from their "Elemental" page, sounds great, I had heard it all before. Besides, I didn't really need half of that (yet).

But, in the hope that I might have found the right theme, I sent off a mail to Ben (sorry, Ben) ... and didn't even wait for an answer. I just bought the theme right there and then ($59 for a single license and $149 for a multi-license), also because I had a few hours before New Year's Eve to set it all up. If that ain't an acid test, I don't know what is.

Going Elemental:
Want to go my way? Here's how it works.

Step 1: Purchase
Buying the theme, which is handled by Plimus in an extremely efficient manner, took me a few minutes. A receipt from Plimus and the log-in information from "Pro Themes Design" for me to download the theme and access their various support points (Help Desk, Forums and My Account) arrived within a minute or two.

Step 2: Download
A log-in takes you to a "My Account Page", which is as easy as pie to use (albeit "removed" from the rest of the site's layout. I guess they use separate software to run that part of their site). You can download whatever you have purchased, you can see an excellent and extremely helpful line-by-line changelog for the product you purchased (each code fragment changed or updated is listed here!), you can access the Helpdesk and Support Forum and, of course, you can contact the owners for help if something should go wrong. On top of that, there's a prominent link to the "Basic License" I had purchased.

Step 3: Installation
After an ftp-upload had caused some problems at my end (mea maxima culpa: I found out, by chance, that I was using a PHP version from the middle ages), I updated my PHP version to the current stable one and installed the downloaded zip file via the WordPress theme install page. Took a few seconds and went without a single glitch.

Step 4: Playing around
To get to know the theme, I simply tweaked just about every setting on the detailed "Elemental" options menu (with its own clearly-visible icon) that is appended (in my case) to the end of the WordPress sidebar. That new menu is subdivided into two main parts, the "Options" (Theme Options) and "Extras" (Action Settings) menus. The latter allows you to place content (via so-called "action hooks") at the following locations:

• Page Top
• Page Bottom
• Before Header
• After Header
• Before Main Sidebar
• After Main Sidebar
• Before Footer Content
• After Footer Content
• Before Center Homepage Column
• After Center Homepage Column
• Before Main page content
• After Main page content

In effect, what you get are 12 extra areas that you can tweak to your desire.
Very nifty, that.

The main options menu lets you tweak just about every aspect of the theme:

Step 4.0: Basic Blog Settings

• Set the homepage link;
• Switch top navigation between "Off", "Page" and "Category";
• Switch bottom navigation between "Off", "Page" and "Category";
• Choose between 5 different column sizes (ratio between main and sidebar columns);
• Choose between 5 different font combinations (headings and body);
• Enter your Google Analytics Code;
• Set your site's favicon;
• Set the first year of copyright;
• Exclude certain (also multiple) pages from the generated navigation;
• Exclude certain (also multiple) categories from the generated navigation;
• Hide footer widgets.

Step 4.1: Header settings

• Hide header logo and text (only use background image);
• Use a custom header image;
• Display header as text.

Step 4.2: Search Engine Optimization

• Display site name in page title on all pages;
• Display Breadcrumbs.

Step 4.3: Homepage Settings

• Choose how many, if any, large featured items you want.

Step 4.4.: Post Settings

• Display comment date (instead of "time since");
• Display "allowed html" under text input area.

Step 4.5.:Contact Page Settings

• Enter an e-mail address for the contact page;
• Enter an e-mail subject for the contact page.

Step 4.6.: Reset

• Screwed anything up? Reset everything to the default settings.

Step 4.7: Tweakable Templates, Style Sheets and Functions
Of course, you also have access to all of the template and function files via the "Appearance" editor:

• 404 Template (404.php)
• Archives (archive.php)
• Attachment Template (attachment.php)
• Comments (comments.php)
• Footer (footer.php)
• Header (header.php)
• Main Index Template (index.php)
• Page Template (page.php)
• Search Results (search.php)
• Sidebar (sidebar.php)
• Single Post (single.php)
• Theme Functions (functions.php)
• archives.php (archives.php)
• author.php (author.php)
• captcha.php (captcha.php)
• gallery.php (gallery.php)
• home.php (home.php)
• init.php (init.php)
• pageTemplate_archives.php (pageTemplate_archives.php)
• pageTemplate_authorList.php (pageTemplate_authorList.php)
• pageTemplate_blank.php (pageTemplate_blank.php)
• pageTemplate_contact.php (pageTemplate_contact.php)
• pageTemplate_gallery.php (pageTemplate_gallery.php)
• pageTemplate_links.php (pageTemplate_links.php)
• pageTemplate_loggedIn.php (pageTemplate_loggedIn.php)
• pageTemplate_noSidebar.php (pageTemplate_noSidebar.php)
• pageTemplate_redirect.php (pageTemplate_redirect.php)
• pageTemplate_redirectFirstChild.php (pageTemplate_redirectFirstChild.php)
• pageTemplate_sitemap.php (pageTemplate_sitemap.php)
• pageTemplate_tagCloud.php (pageTemplate_tagCloud.php)
• postTemplate_commentSidebar.php (postTemplate_commentSidebar.php)
• postTemplate_leftSidebar.php (postTemplate_leftSidebar.php)
• postTemplate_noSidebar.php (postTemplate_noSidebar.php)
• singleMoreDetails.php (singleMoreDetails.php)
• timthumb.php (timthumb.php)
• wide_page.php (wide_page.php)
• layout.css
• print.css
• rtl.css
• style.css

Step 5: Setting up livingwithmusic.com
If you look at the above-listed options and possibilities, it should be clear that any blog can be run successfully without having to do anything else. Enter the data, hit "Go" and you're off and running.

Because I'm anally retentive about some aspects of my site, I did things a bit differently and, to say the least, it was the smoothest ride I've ever had with this kind of theme. Here's what I did:

I set up a child theme. Yes, I'm the total noob in that regard, but "Pro Theme Design's" video tutorial and (thank God for that) downloadable example file, entitled "Blue Sky", by Darren Hoyt had me up and running in approximately five minutes.

• I integrated a simple site header (1 minute).
• I got rid of the featured larger-sized post and made it look like the rest (1 minute).
• I increased the number of words for each subsequent post displayed on the home page (4 minutes because I had to check where to do that).
• I rearranged the page order via the WordPress "Edit Pages" screen to fit the new site (2 minutes).
• I changed the various sidebars (main sidebar, center homepage column (not needed at the moment), footer content (hidden) and home sidebar (20 minutes of experimenting)).
• I got rid of threaded comments, which I don't like (30 seconds).
• I set up a contact page via a provided template (30 seconds).
• I got rid of images. "Elemental" pulls out an image within your post and automatically resizes it and includes it on your homepage for that post. Nifty. Nevertheless, months ago I decided to forgo any images in my posts in order to not have to invest more time into making them (10 minutes for deleting past custom fields via SQL).
• I changed some spacings in the sidebars via my child theme style sheet (3 minutes)
• I changed the background image/color via my child theme style sheet (1 minute)
• I checked/changed all the theme settings to accommodate my site (3 minutes).

Done.

Extending and Tweaking:
At this point, my site would have been running smoothly. As mentioned above though, I wanted a bit more and took "Elemental" for a real spin:

• I integrated "Clean Archives Reloaded", which was already present on my site (10 seconds).
• I fought with the Twitter widget (my fault ... old PHP version) for a while and got it to run smoothly (10 minutes).
• I set up a "Tags" page via a provided template (1 minute).
• I integrated "del.icio.us for WordPress" by Ricardo González to display my latest links (literally only 2 minutes ... download, set, go ...).
• I reactivated all my plugins, all of which worked without a single glitch (Google XML Sitemaps, No Self Pings, Semmelstatz, Spam Karma 2 (a life-saver), Subscribe to Comments, and Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. The latter integrated nicely without me having to tweak a single thing (2 minutes).
• I installed "NextGEN Gallery" to finally have my galleries as part of my site instead of hosting them elsewhere (not a single glitch; 5 minutes only because I already had a few galleries available on my host server from a ZenPage installation).

That's all folks:
A simple addition of the time needed for each step brings us to about 70 minutes.
If you are anything like me, 70 minutes is absolutely nothing. Let me repeat that please:
70 minutes!

I had never spent less than a day - often several days and sometimes weeks - to get things up and running and/or fighting with incompatibilities.. This time I was finished before the drunks could assemble on the old town hall square I live next to to celebrate New Year's in their "style" (puking and making very loud noises).

I can't stress this aspect of "Elemental" enough. It's really a breeze to set up and tweak into submission within a fraction of the time needed for other themes I previously "owned" (most pro themes you buy don't let you own anything).

To-Do:
Yes, there are several things that aren't quite right yet. I will hit the "Pro Theme Design Forums" to try to clear those up, but not until the people there have had a chance to recuperate from their various New Year's Eve hangovers. I'll also add an addendum here to let you know how that turned out.

• The "Post Author Details" does not appear on single pages, although I want them to. Needs fixing.
• My 404 page does not work. Needs fixing.
• The NextGen Gallery (not a part of "Elemental") isn't doing what it is supposed to do yet. Needs fixing.

Conclusion:
Darren Hoyt and Ben Gillbanks of "Pro Theme Design" recommend using a child theme to rellay bring forth the power of "Elemental". They suggest, for example, to use "The Local", an add-on for "Elemental" with "custom widgets for "Google Adsense, Maps, YouTube, local Twitter updates, weather and more."

All I can say is that the basic "Elemental" framework was more than enough for me. I admit to being a traditionalist and "Elemental" does forgo all these flashy site details so common to all the Web 2.0, 3.0 and whatnot sites that use huge background graphics and each users' bandwidth to hide behind a nice outfit. "Elemental", in it's basic outfit, suits me nicely, thank you very much, and although I might add one bell and two whistles along the way, in an age of dying weblogs and dissipating "live streams" with users hitting your site via a feed reader or some other gadget, "Elemental" is still nice and rock-solid enough to get my motor running, ready to go.

"Elemental" comes highly recommended by me.

Finale:
And, for all of you music freaks and geeks, regular programming will continue after this message. Just wanted to add my 7 cents to promote a product well-done.

P.S.:
This entry was written to the blast that is the "Led Zeppelin: Definitive Collection Mini LP Replica Boxset". It was sent to me by an (unknown) avid reader of this site.

Thanks a million, whoever and wherever you are !!!!

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I have seen some badly-produced reissue boxed sets in my life, simply because I seem to be buying too many of them, but this one really is the icing on the cake. One could argue that for a reasonably low price, customers shouldn't complain that much, but collectors being a larger part of the target audience for this one (despite the fact that collectors already have most of the Miles Davis they'll ever need), Columbia/Legacy went out of its way to ruin this one.

As I also managed to get hold of a box at a drastically-reduced price, I can confirm all but one mistake for my boxed set as well:

1. The lid on my box was split at the left corner which makes it pretty much unusable. The powers that be decided to use cardboard which isn't nearly strong enough to hold all the CDs.
2. Most single cardboard sleeve replicas are not glued properly and come apart at the seam. In my box, this was the case for each and every one. Had I kept the box, I don't think a single sleeve would have survived 2009.
3. 12 CDs in my box either had glue residue or scratches marring the surface of the CD.
4. Some people received CD 1 of a double-CD twice. CD 2 was missing altogether.
5. The size and weight of the box also didn't really seem to jell with Amazon's way of packing and shipping this kind of boxed set and many people reported dented or otherwise damaged sets.

In the end, many people paid between $250 and $350 for a boxed set that is neither complete (hence, as usual, the title of this boxed set ... I guess) nor packaged in a way to get any real enjoyment out of the box. I do believe that those people who keep it will have to remove the CDs and move each and every one into jewel cases along the way and what was the point of the boxed set in the first place then?

Along with the fact that the cover reproductions aren't even close to the standard many Japanese reissues have set time and again (the Beatles' boxed sets being but one example), what we get is a pretty useless boxed set, albeit at a competitive price of something like $2 something per CD.

No matter where you stand on this issue, Columbia/Legacy blew this one big time. The mind also does more than boggle at the absolutely shoddy quality control of the people in charge. Either they didn't give a hoot about their customers, or they had to submit to a majority vote by people higher up in the hierarchy who perhaps noticed the faults of this set and decided to go ahead anyway. In my mind, the serious problems with this boxed set can not have gone unnoticed, so what I'm left to believe is that they actually thought they could get away with it ... again. If you have spent as much time as I have researching various collectors boxed sets and reissues, you also know that, for example, this wasn't the first time that Sony/Columbia have had problems with glue residue on CDs.

All of this just reminds me of an apparent disdain for customers - especially collectors - that crops up again and again when we talk about any kind of collectors item (the German complete Carl Barks collection at way over 100 Euro per volume was marred by faulty slipcases which constantly had to be replaced, various complete DVD editions of TV series changed either packaging or format (4:3 to 16:9) after a few volumes, CD boxed sets contained unplayable CDs (The Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens, for example), etc., etc., etc.

I don't think that the companies releasing this shite into the wild know what kind of pain in the neck it is to constantly have to return faulty products. In a globalized collectors market, people don't always order from the nearest dealer and, for example, to have to return this Miles Davis boxed set to the States from Germany (which I thankfully don't have to do) or to return hardcover tomes that weigh half a ton practically the day you get them is just asking too much of any customer and shows that not much thinking (if any at all) has gone into a product before it was released.

All this really achieves is that people like me, who are the lifeblood of the industry (you know, the idiots that actually shell out all the cash for these collectors items) simply stop buying them. I haven't bought a DVD in this country for nearly two years. I've (almost) stopped shelling out money for collectors boxed sets until I've checked each and every online site for quality reviews, and I have simply stopped searching for these kinds of items on a regular basis. Once bitten, twice shy. Hell, I used to be on the lookout for new and exciting items each and every day, today I check once a month at the most. Actually, this year I didn't search for any at all and was merely alerted to them via two or three forums I'm a member of. After this disaster, I'm also thinking of turning off notifications re these kinds of items altogether and resort to having a look once a year when the Christmas sales hit the various online retailers (but not before having checked what is actually worth my money).

So, in short, the industry has scared away one customer, me, and if many others are at all like me, a large number of collectors who would have been willing to support the various reissue programs.

Actually, amidst all their constant and extremely annoying whining, complaining and suing of their customers, the various record labels and publishing houses are doing their own very damn best to shoot themselves in the foot time and again. It's only a matter of time until they're either gone altogether or unable to give us collectors what we really want. They'll be dead and although I would be the first to moan their absence, their untimely demise will probably be well-deserved, simply because of the unbelievable stupidity apparent in so many of the products that could have been ... but weren't.

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I haven't even had time to sample more than a tenth of the music I bought these past months and I haven't given up hope that there will be that one weekend coming up on which I can sit down and do one of those monster 62-hour sessions interrupted by only the most basic sleep to be up and running again. I used to love those kinds of weekends, but they are few and far between. Actually, they have become extinct.

I did spend a little time programming something to help me avoid wasting money once and for all: I've started putting my CD collection online in form of an alphabetical A-Z text list. I've only done letter "A" and am almost finished with "B", but I'm not going to post a link here. Yes, it's time taken away from my other online activities, like this site, but I discovered - while rearranging my shelves once again - that I did have too many duplicate copies of certain recordings. Not different masterings, mind you; the same damn CD three, four or even five times. Like I said: I'm getting old.

This extremely simple list has several purposes:

Many years ago, I had to sell several key sections of my collection to raise a serious amount of cash ( today I would say that one-third of what I had, the nitty-gritty, was offered up on the altar of necessity). Out went the audiophile (gold) CDs, 98% of my heavy metal collection (surprisingly enough, collectors of 80s "hair bands" often pay more of a premium for some obscure release when compared to the Blue Note nutcases who do the same for some rare vinyl) and quite a few rare boxed sets that crazed eBay shoppers shelled out tons of money for. Looking at it from today's vantage point, I was glad I had those kinds of items that pushed me over a 5-digit dollar sum, which I desperately needed, but it also hurt, badly. So, in a way, I wanted to see what's left. Unfortunately, many cheap reissues and not as many high spots as I would have liked. Still, enough to last me that short time span I have left in this very universe.

Of course, I didn't take the easy road ... as usual. I simply take out each CD, type up an entry which looks more like a typesetter gone berserk, and I use a magnifying glass (yep, I'm virtually blind) to decipher some of that font-size 1 text so common to many reissues today. An entry might look like these two (single, "simple" CD versus more "complex" boxed set):

Adams, Pepper. Pepper Adamas Quintet. Mode Records / V.S.O.P. , 1957/1987. [1 CD | 5 tracks | jewel case | V.S.O.P. #5 CD | Mode 112 | 7 22937 00052 5 |  Stereo digital mastering, engineer: Dayton Howe.]

Beatles, The. The Beatles (Stereo Box Set). Apple Corps Ltd. / EMI, 1962-1970/2009. [16 CDs | boxed set (hard black glossy lift top with magnet clasp | slipcase | CDs packaged in three panel digipak with digital mini documentaries) | Remastered by Paul Hicks, Steve Rooke and Guy Massey | Note: All 13 Studio remasters plus "Past Masters" | Albums: Please Please Me (1963) | With the Beatles (1963) | A Hard Day's Night (1964) | Beatles for Sale (1964) | Help! (1965) | Rubber Soul (1965) | Revolver (1966) | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) | Magical Mystery Tour (1967) | The Beatles (1968) | Yellow Submarine (1969) | Abbey Road (1969) | Let It Be (1970) | Past Masters (1962–1970); Note: contains every song not included on 12 original UK Beatles albums or the Magical Mystery Tour LP that was commercially released by EMI from 1962 to 1970. The majority of the album consists of the A- and B-sides of the band's singles (including single versions of songs that appeared differently on albums), plus the full contents of the UK-only Long Tall Sally EP, two German language recordings, a song recorded for the American market and a track used on a charity compilation complete the collection | The Beatles: The Mini Documentaries (2009); Note: DVD of all 13 mini-documentaries (Running time: 40 minutes).]

Secondly, I noticed that every single CD shop I frequented these past 10 years has an Internet connection, usually a PC somewhere close to wherte the cash register is. These fall holidays I spent a few days frequenting my old haunts in Copenhagen and Odense, Denmark, and I stood in those shops like a three-hundred pound monkey who couldn't remember his own name. I spotted rare issues and simply didn't have the foggiest notion if a) I had them, b) I once had them and c) needed them. I hated that feeling and actually picked up three CDs I already had, but you know how we collectors think: Better safe than sorry (besides, I can "unload" them onto my dad, who has a very similar taste in jazz, at least).

Thirdly, once typed up, it might be a basis for another website that goes into more detail with each single item. Wishful thinking, as I can't even handle the sites I have, but I'm me ... and that's that. Thank you very much.

So, if you, yourself and you would like to have a link to this (extremely) slowly growing site, use the contact form on this site, tell me who you are/have been and I might send you a link. :).

I don't think I'll ever integrate that list into this site. I do tend to think it might be an incentive for drug-crazed maniacs to raid my place for stuff they can sell to finance their various addictions but, on the other hand, I've already posted so much info here that I might as well be upfront about the rest as well.

No idea.

A good Dutch online friend, who has gotten totally lost in the din that is the Internet, once took me to task for starting too many things and never finishing them. I can only shout out a resounding "Yes!" to that accusation, but not all hope's lost. The Mosaic discography project will continue next week (not that it really needs to because it's already reached close to 30.000 downloads (!) and is eating server bandwidth like crazy!), and posting will pick up here again once the family-related issues are resolved, but do remember one thing: This site is for me, myself and I. It has always been that and will always be that.

As Martin Luther King once said so poignantly: "I have a dream!" Yes, I'd love to expand, have lots of ideas, etc., but these past three days, I worked 19 hours each and every day. Nuts, I know, but I also enjoy that. At the moment it's both push and shove and when the calm sets in again, this site will pick up.

I have often thought that I would turn this site into a full-day job once I won some 50-million lottery, but, alas, it won't come to pass as I have never invested a single cent into any gambling of any kind. I preferred to buy a new Dave Brubeck CD, which I already had three times.

:)

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