1000 Recordings
Mar. 31st, 2009 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gonzaiOver the weekend, I mentioned vaguely that I've gotten myself involved in a personal project. Well, the project revolves around the 1000 Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die. It's a http://www.amazon.com/000-Recordings-Hear-Before-You/dp/076113963X/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238533255&sr=8-1, written by musician/music critic Tom Moon, in which he catalogues, well, 1000 recordings you must hear before you die. Also some secondary and tertiary recommendations, more recordings by the artists, and playlists ideal for certain circumstances, like a road trip. All in all, a LOT of music to listen to. http://www.1000recordings.com/
I first came across this a couple weeks ago as I tried vainly to keep up with my NPR podcasts (I've given up on 2007 and for 2008, I'm only pulling the ones that sound interesting - hence I managed to put this one on the MP3 player, and finally listened to it earlier this month. The podcasts (there's 2 of them) consist of Moon talking with Bob Boilen about his choices and playing some of the music; the podcasts were very interesting and I heard some nifty tunes I hadn't heard before as well as artists completely unknown to me. So I checked the book out of the library. After a couple weeks with the book, I conceded I needed to buy it because the need to make notes and check off recordings I have was just too great. I bought my own copy of it Saturday and it's already highlighted out the wazoo, not always correctly! There were many items I thought I had but can't find, or didn't know I had and I do, etc. In particular, the list has inspired me to go back through the vinyl collection I haven't looked at in a long time. (As a result, said vinyl was dusted, vacuumed, and the storage crates rotated to keep them from buckling under the weight. Overdue project right there.) The book has also gotten me to search through my ITunes library to confirm what I do or don't have - during which I discovered a lot things have disappeared from my library. Some I can find searching ITunes (they're not showing in the library on their own, but do through search) or searching the hard drive directly. ITunes isn't being cooperative about adding them into the library, however. And some things are outright not there - I own two copies of Steely Dan's 'Aja' but neither of them are on the hard drive at all. This is not good. After numerous tweaks, moves and reimportings, the library and the hard drive are getting close to matching. That is, the library says it has 169GB of music in it. The drive says it has 174GB of music in it. So I have to figure out what 5GB is missing yet, and that doesn't count what's missing outright, like 'Aja' and the Jayhawks' 'Blue Earth'. It could be a very long time before I can confirm everything's on there. Sheesh.
The other big part of the project is - finding the music I don't have. I've cross-matched the list against my library (obviously) and against the holdings of the Baltimore County library, and I've started searching out, checking out, and listening to the library's holdings. I figured now is a good time for this, as Molly is out for 6 weeks I should have a little more leeway to listen to things at my desk. Not so much metal or free-form jazz, but a lot of it. Once I finish with the library, time to start matching it with other music sources. And besides getting me to listen to stuff I don't normally listen to, I'm now working towards completing my collections of a lot of artists I always have liked.
Which leads to the real booger of this book - Moon has everything. I do mean, everything. Record labels and artists send their stuff to him directly. So he has access to tons of recordings, free, and from all over. The list is pretty top-heavy on world music, I'd argue it's excessively so, and most of it you just can't get in the states. Not to mention how many picks he makes that are out of print, rare, super-expensive, etc. There is no way people can find a lot of his choices, which I think is contrary to his purpose in making the list. If you MUST hear it, it makes sense to me that you should be ABLE to hear it. Surely there are recordings out there that are readily findable that are high up on the must-hear list? I find that aspect a bigger problem than the 'based on quality, does it belong on the list or not' arguments. And I do question some of his choices in that regard, too, I mean, I didn't get past A without a dispute. Arcade Fire on the list? OK. Picking 'Neon Bible' over 'Funeral'? Is he kidding me? Nothing wrong with Neon Bible, mind, but 'Funeral' is freakin' brilliant. So there's plenty to debate regarding whether it belongs on the list.
Overall, though, the list and book are a darn good source for putting together a good base for any music collection and also for any musical education. I recommend the book. Just...make sure ITunes is working for you and you have time to be obsessed with something!
I first came across this a couple weeks ago as I tried vainly to keep up with my NPR podcasts (I've given up on 2007 and for 2008, I'm only pulling the ones that sound interesting - hence I managed to put this one on the MP3 player, and finally listened to it earlier this month. The podcasts (there's 2 of them) consist of Moon talking with Bob Boilen about his choices and playing some of the music; the podcasts were very interesting and I heard some nifty tunes I hadn't heard before as well as artists completely unknown to me. So I checked the book out of the library. After a couple weeks with the book, I conceded I needed to buy it because the need to make notes and check off recordings I have was just too great. I bought my own copy of it Saturday and it's already highlighted out the wazoo, not always correctly! There were many items I thought I had but can't find, or didn't know I had and I do, etc. In particular, the list has inspired me to go back through the vinyl collection I haven't looked at in a long time. (As a result, said vinyl was dusted, vacuumed, and the storage crates rotated to keep them from buckling under the weight. Overdue project right there.) The book has also gotten me to search through my ITunes library to confirm what I do or don't have - during which I discovered a lot things have disappeared from my library. Some I can find searching ITunes (they're not showing in the library on their own, but do through search) or searching the hard drive directly. ITunes isn't being cooperative about adding them into the library, however. And some things are outright not there - I own two copies of Steely Dan's 'Aja' but neither of them are on the hard drive at all. This is not good. After numerous tweaks, moves and reimportings, the library and the hard drive are getting close to matching. That is, the library says it has 169GB of music in it. The drive says it has 174GB of music in it. So I have to figure out what 5GB is missing yet, and that doesn't count what's missing outright, like 'Aja' and the Jayhawks' 'Blue Earth'. It could be a very long time before I can confirm everything's on there. Sheesh.
The other big part of the project is - finding the music I don't have. I've cross-matched the list against my library (obviously) and against the holdings of the Baltimore County library, and I've started searching out, checking out, and listening to the library's holdings. I figured now is a good time for this, as Molly is out for 6 weeks I should have a little more leeway to listen to things at my desk. Not so much metal or free-form jazz, but a lot of it. Once I finish with the library, time to start matching it with other music sources. And besides getting me to listen to stuff I don't normally listen to, I'm now working towards completing my collections of a lot of artists I always have liked.
Which leads to the real booger of this book - Moon has everything. I do mean, everything. Record labels and artists send their stuff to him directly. So he has access to tons of recordings, free, and from all over. The list is pretty top-heavy on world music, I'd argue it's excessively so, and most of it you just can't get in the states. Not to mention how many picks he makes that are out of print, rare, super-expensive, etc. There is no way people can find a lot of his choices, which I think is contrary to his purpose in making the list. If you MUST hear it, it makes sense to me that you should be ABLE to hear it. Surely there are recordings out there that are readily findable that are high up on the must-hear list? I find that aspect a bigger problem than the 'based on quality, does it belong on the list or not' arguments. And I do question some of his choices in that regard, too, I mean, I didn't get past A without a dispute. Arcade Fire on the list? OK. Picking 'Neon Bible' over 'Funeral'? Is he kidding me? Nothing wrong with Neon Bible, mind, but 'Funeral' is freakin' brilliant. So there's plenty to debate regarding whether it belongs on the list.
Overall, though, the list and book are a darn good source for putting together a good base for any music collection and also for any musical education. I recommend the book. Just...make sure ITunes is working for you and you have time to be obsessed with something!
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Date: 2009-04-01 01:44 am (UTC)More importantly, though, because of this list I discovered that I own 'Ghost' on vinyl. I didn't remember that. But I don't have ANY Police in digital format. I didn't realize that either. Will rectify, needless to say. (Also have Outlandos & Zenyatta on vinyl, and Sync on cassette.) I'll be working on rounding out discographies for a while, I daresay. And I never heard of, for instance, Sister Rosetta Tharpe or Erik Satie before. Good stuff. Tharpe is amazing.