I think I've mentioned on here before that I work from home and listen to my iTunes whilst working. A couple of years ago I decided to listen to the whole lot in alphabetical order and I'm currently up to L. Lou Reed to be precise. I have a dozen or so of his albums and to be honest, I don't think the words quality and control ever came into his head throughout his solo career. There isn't half some rubbish. Anyway, the last track of Magic and Loss has just finished, so for those famiiliar with his catalogue, I am now a couple of minutes into the first track of the next album (alphabetically of course). So just another 62 minutes of Metal Machine Music to go then! Strewth! Listen through the entire iTunes A-Z has offered its rewards and I have come across a few gems that I had forgotten I had, amongst the 50,000 tracks on there, and have picked up albums where I only had the one track (on Jimmy and Tomi's recommendation I picked up Ed Ball's Catholic Guilt recently), but it's times like this when I wish I'd never started it. I thought three albums of John and Yoko's Unfinished Music were a difficult listen!
have fun with that... Lou had his moments, but MMM not one of them I fear. I used to listen to the Berlin album from time to time ... recording a crying baby on a track is great for the single man to remind him of what he's missing out on!
The baby always throws me. When it came on yesterday I almost sprang out of my chair to see what the matter was, until I realised a) my youngest is now 4, b) he's actually at nursery and c) it's coming out of the speakers!
Wow that is some album collection mate. Taking an average of 10 tracks per album, 5000 is one hell of a lot of listening. I thought I was bad with 2,500 albums but you eclipse me hands down and I wish you well for the coming years listening to the remainder of your collection. BTW you are absolutely correct about Magic and Loss. Utter Dross. Just out of curiosity and maybe an impossible question but what is your favourite Album? Mine is Dark Side Of The Moon.
It changes, but probably Abbey Road or The Man Machine. Or Bringing It All Back Home. Certainly not Metal Machine Music, put it that way, although on to Mistrial now, so ears have stopped hurting. I guessed at 50,000 though and looking properly it's 48,609. The thirty odd Albums worth of Let It Be session outtakes were the hardest to get through. Some of that made Metal Machine Music sound like Debussy.
Metal Machine Music is horrible. Lou Reed stood by it though. He even toured it not that long ago. Self indulgent twaddle. However, if you've bought right, you should have New York and Transformer to come, which are quality.
OK mate now what is the album you have that you wished you had never bought. Mine is The E.N.D. by Black Eyed Peas. Again utter dross. TBH not my music at all as I'm more into heavy rock but after United won the cup in 2010 they played the track "I gotta feeling" as we were presented with the cup and I thought I must get that track to remind me of the occasion, but the rest of the album is truly ***** listening. Normally I'd just bin albums I don't like but because of the track I've kept it. lol
Yes, Mistrial at the moment, which is quite good and then New York next. It'll be a few hours till Transformer though. In fact 4 hours and 37 minutes, cos I've just checked. Then again, factor in pausing it when I get phone calls, pop to raid the fridge and go and pick the kids up from school I might not get to that one till after tea. Then a bit of Louis Armstrong before The Louvin Brothers, Love, Lovin' Spoonful and Lucinda Williams to see me up to bedtime. Should be a pleasant eveninng.
Saw Billy Bragg the day after Lou died and he did one of his long story / jokes about Lou. Basically saying he inspired a whole generation of singers like him and Elvis Costello that can't actually sing. You're a better man than me though dragging your way an uncensored Lou Reed-a-thon. I remember saving up forever to get the vinyl of those John Lennon primal therapy albums to listen to them once ever. Hope you enjoyed Catholic Guilt it's definitely a favourite of mine. Got Cate Le Bn and the BMX bandits on in different rooms at the minute as my little girl will only have a daytime nap with the BMX Bandits playing for some reason.
Just quickly looked at what I have in the L section. Some really good listening. Led Zep, L A Guns, Ronnie Lane, the Law, John Lennon, Less Than Jake, Little Angels, Limp Bizkit, Love/Hate and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think the L's have to be given a play in my house today. LOL
Ruddy heck, now you're asking. I made a pledge to the missus a while back that I'd slim down my collection so it all fits on to two large shelving units (apart from a few box sets), so it stops me from buying things now unless I really want them, as I have a one in one out policy, or one in two out when I buy one of those deluxe editions. I have bought much dross over the years though and I wouldn't know where to start in saying what the worst is, as I'm sure I have umpteen albums that I love that most people would turn their nose up at. So I'll pick one that I bought that I was most disappointed with, but many people rave about and I thought was basically two excellent tracks and three CDs worth of dross - Smile by The Beach Boys. Absolute codswallop, so I got shut immediately. I quite like the Beach Boys, but like most sixties bands whose name didn't end in 'Beatles' once you dig deeper the quality drops off quite quickly (even the Stones were not much more than a singles band until they hooked up with Jimmy Miller in 1968). And Van Dyke Parks is one of my favourite people in the world of pop, but I much prefer listening to him telling stories than actually listening to his music. But between them Smile was pretty awful considering the mythical reputation it had.
As others have said Transformer is an excellent album but I find his other stuff to be pretty average at best and utter crap at worst.
Well you're doing well there then, inducting her into the world of jangly Scottish pop, as mine tend to prefer The Vamps and One Direction! Like you, I saved up and got HMV in Sheffield to import a copy of Two Virgins for me. Took ages to arrive, listened to it once, popped it back into the brown sleeve again to stop me from any accidental glimpses of Yoko in the nip, and that was that. Didn't stop me from doing some work for my mates dad in exchange for his original Life With The Lions though!
Ah no, on iTunes Lennon came under J. And thirty odd albums of Lost Lennon Tapes were quite difficult too. But the end of J through K were fab. Joy Division, Julian Cope, Justfied Ancients of Mu Mu, Kate Bush, Kraftwerk and the KLF, with a variety of diversions in between.
Best out of my J's would have to be Jesus and Mary Chain. Jethro Tull, Joan Jett and Jimmy Eat World.
I'm hoping you don't have a comprehensive collection of Prince or you'll be going through a similar pain in the near future..!!
Yeah fair shout Jimmy but although I have 6 Jam albums myself I never really appreciated them for some reason. Other J's I could have mentioned that I like Judas Priest, Journey, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Oh and how could I have forgotten Jackson Browne.
No, only got 9 or 10, but they're all his more popular ones. Oh, and Batman...chuck it! I do have quality controls's arch enemy, Neil Young, to come before then though.