Collection Filler

The dislike for Theater of Pain has always puzzled me...especially it being regarded as a sell out record. I'll give you HSH and Smokin'. I don't care for those either, but the rest of the record is an extension of Shout to my ears. Maybe not quite as raw, but a sellout record? I don't know, maybe in 1985 it was. I started getting into this kind of stuff around '88, and was a kid, so Theater had a nice raw sound to me, compared to the more slick stuff coming out in the later 80s.

Anyway...I hate owning stuff. So I really have to like it a lot if I'm going to resign to owning it. Thus, if only one album in a band's catalog of 30 CDs sucks, there will be that one hole in my collection. No time for crappy records, even if the ink on the disc and paper is in the shape of the letters that my favorite band calls themselves.

I used to be OCD about collecting stuff and then one day I just realized I didn't like being like that, so to combat it I sold every DVD, comic, CD and LP I owned, donated all the tapes (except sold a couple demos that would actually sell for something) and felt a huge weight off my back. It wasn't permanent. I still own things and buy stuff some times. But very rarely and am so selective, and it made any kind of OCD burning go away. Back then I'd look at my collection and be more annoyed by the stuff that was missing, the gaps that needed filling, etc., than I was appreciative of the albums I had to enjoy.

A side effect of all of that is I've realized that a lot of bands I once felt I really liked and needed most of their discography, I really don't. I could make 2-disc cherry-picked comps or so of Motorhead, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Priest, 80s and beyond KISS, etc. and all of those 2 discs would be more than enough material from that band to suffice...I realized that though I basically enjoyed every AC/DC or Motorhead album, there is absolutely no need to own 15 discs (or whatever) for each band.

Ha, so basically, owning the 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 CD collections some of you do would make me hyperventilate. Heh.

Iron Maiden: Dance of Death and A Matter of Life and Death. Dont really like the "proggy" 2000s Maiden (The Book of Souls was good though), so i dont really know why i still own these.

Manowar: The Triumph of Steel: Dull album with lots of pointless intros. It pretty much gets zero airplay from me anymore, really no point to owning this one.

They aren't "proggy". They are just long.

I have lots of greatest hits albums, why I collect these types of albums is beyond me, but I usually get it for the unreleased track, while that track may not be terrible, there is usually very good reason that song never made it to any official album.

The reason I have Greatest Hits albums is either because it sums up most of the material that I liked by the band, or that I used it as a sampler to get familiar with their work before advancing to the rest of their material provided that I liked any of it. Mind you, being of the younger generation, I never listened to classic rock stations much in my life, so listening to Greatest Hits by Aerosmith for instance doesn't leave me with the same overplayed weariness, and for the most part I don't even know most of their most popular songs that well besides Dude Looks Like a Lady and Dream On, or even Just Push Play. Kind of a good thing when you're learning the history of an artist. I often feel it's my obligation to understand these's artist's signature songs as well as their more obscure, fan favorites.

In most cases I ignore "Greatest Hits" albums from my favorite artists, cuz if I'm really "into" a particular band, I usually own all the albums that the songs on a G.H. comp came from already.

I do own a fair share of Best-Of collections from bands that I'm a casual fan of, or just haven't had time to delve into very deeply, tho... (offf the top of my head I can think of Rush, Rainbow, Blue Oyster Cult, Ted Nugent, Winger, and Slaughter, to name just a few) - and in some cases I've begun digging into a band's back catalog after digging what I hear on a best-of.

In fact, just recently I picked up a couple of G.H. comps at Goodwill for 99 cents a pop - Quarterflash, .38 Special, and ZZ Top. None of the above are particular favorites of mine but each has had a song or two that I enjoy, and all of them are represented on these discs, so they'll fulfill my requirements just fine.

manny wrote:

I have lots of greatest hits albums, why I collect these types of albums is beyond me, but I usually get it for the unreleased track, while that track may not be terrible, there is usually very good reason that song never made it to any official album.

I solved that problem by simply purchasing the unreleased track(s) off amazon, since (most) of them can be bought seperately via download.

I make my own Best Of collections for bands that I don't need to own full albums by. I never agree with the tracklists chosen for collections (I almost always prefer album tracks to singles) so I've decided the only way I can find a satisfying compilation is to program it myself.

A few years back, when my love of music was being rekindled, I bought a lot of GH and Best of... comps to be a completest. But now I see that it's a pointless and futile effort as I usually already own the songs or they just keep churning out these comps year after year after year. I have actually started to just give them away to be benevolent and to maybe turn some coworkers and friends onto our style of music.

ZombieHavoc said:
The dislike for Theater of Pain has always puzzled me...especially it being regarded as a sell out record. I'll give you HSH and Smokin'. I don't care for those either, but the rest of the record is an extension of Shout to my ears. Maybe not quite as raw, but a sellout record? I don't know, maybe in 1985 it was. I started getting into this kind of stuff around '88, and was a kid, so Theater had a nice raw sound to me, compared to the more slick stuff coming out in the later 80s.

I have always liked this album, in fact it's my second fave behind Shout. I remember vividly, cranking this cassette on my Walkman in junior high.

S.D. wrote:

They aren't "proggy".  They are just long.

The problem is too much attention deficit disorder these days

thejokeriv wrote:

S.D. wrote:

They aren't "proggy".  They are just long.

The problem is too much attention deficit disorder these days

Most of the music I listen to these days averages between 7 and 15 minutes per track.  It helps to have been a child in the 70s back when they still taught "patience" to children.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Anyway...I hate owning stuff. So I really have to like it a lot if I'm going to resign to owning it. Thus, if only one album in a band's catalog of 30 CDs sucks, there will be that one hole in my collection. No time for crappy records, even if the ink on the disc and paper is in the shape of the letters that my favorite band calls themselves.

I used to be OCD about collecting stuff and then one day I just realized I didn't like being like that, so to combat it I sold every DVD, comic, CD and LP I owned, donated all the tapes (except sold a couple demos that would actually sell for something) and felt a huge weight off my back. It wasn't permanent. I still own things and buy stuff some times. But very rarely and am so selective, and it made any kind of OCD burning go away. Back then I'd look at my collection and be more annoyed by the stuff that was missing, the gaps that needed filling, etc., than I was appreciative of the albums I had to enjoy.

A side effect of all of that is I've realized that a lot of bands I once felt I really liked and needed most of their discography, I really don't. I could make 2-disc cherry-picked comps or so of Motorhead, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Priest, 80s and beyond KISS, etc. and all of those 2 discs would be more than enough material from that band to suffice...I realized that though I basically enjoyed every AC/DC or Motorhead album, there is absolutely no need to own 15 discs (or whatever) for each band.

Ha, so basically, owning the 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000 CD collections some of you do would make me hyperventilate. Heh.

I'm starting to realize this as of late, too, Zombie. Being a fan and collector of foreign music, having something exotic in your collection to show people or start a conversation about is fun in the beginning, but eventually becomes tedious. Japanese albums in particular have some really lavish art, even if the music itself sucks. Sure, I'd prefer to listen to most of these artists over the options I'm given to what's popular here in the States, but some bands are too repetitive and not distinguished enough from song to song, album to album, despite the potential in them that exists, but there are songs on each album that stand out well enough, at least sometimes. My korean CDs are sort of the same. It's mostly because Korean music in general is hard to find that isn't even that old, so it's kind of fun to have something rare, but I started selling the ones I didn't like because well, they just didn't stand out or were too derivative. I'd rather let someone else enjoy them. So recently, I've been considering the same thing as you as to whether or not some artists I like are really favorites. Some of their albums I can't stand to listen to except the odd song here and there, and some I've never bothered to venture into further because it's hard for me to recognize the tracks because they're so repetitive.

S.D. wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

S.D. wrote:

They aren't "proggy".  They are just long.

The problem is too much attention deficit disorder these days

Most of the music I listen to these days averages between 7 and 15 minutes per track.  It helps to have been a child in the 70s back when they still taught "patience" to children.  

There's also a question of how someone is wired. I know my mind tends to race from idea to idea and I can be turning over a couple of things in my head at any given time. That said, music is actually a great way to train your mind to sit still and just get inside of what you're picking up. I've been working at jazz and classical on that end.

When it comes to bands I probably wouldn't have gone out of my way to collect all discography entries for, they usually end up in my collection via "collected albums" box sets as it's a tidy way to really dig into a new artist. I also figure that, if they turn out to suck, it won't be as hard to flip a box set and make money back (especially if I get it for a good price to begin with). Those box sets also tend to take up a lot less shelf space than an entire row of jewel case clad albums.

Well, as I was going through my CD's and reorganizing/ sorting the past years purchases into inventory I came across another one:

Motley Crue - Generation Swine. Sub par song writing with no melody that doesn't sound like the Crue of old; which is really kind of inexcusable since it's a reunion disc. The S/T effort three years prior is streets ahead of this one.