I make no apologies for my previous collecting habits. I unashamedly went for volume not quality. I’d buy great swathes of records because they were cheap. I went to car boots (yard sales) and bought huge amounts of records because they were a pound or less. It almost didn’t matter who they were by and I ended up with a dozen Commander Cody and Leo Kottke albums that were rarely if ever played. Even so, just having them was a lot of the pleasure. I know so many collectors who feel like that. And not just of records.
That urge was the main thing to overcome when letting them all go. It’s an itch which could be reawakened at any time, I know that, I’ve had it for 50 years and it’s not likely to evaporate now. Even now, if I come across a lot of half decent records going cheap, I just want to buy them all. Psychologically, I think I relate this acquisitive instinct with security. It makes me feel warm and safe. Because I started collecting when home life was becoming dysfunctional at 13 years old, that is precisely the role they played in my life. I retreated into the world inside my albums because it was a better place to be than reality. And that has, in some way, stayed with me ever since.
But I just can’t live like that any more. It’s just not practical or even desirable. I’ve got to inculcate a different mindset that acknowledges life has changed and I don’t have any use for this sort of thinking. I’m not 13 any more, though I wish I was.
I’ve also got to establish a neat way to store any new acquisitions and not just on 10 feet high shelves as previously
So what to do? One thing this 50 years of collecting has given me is a huge knowledge of all aspects of rock from around 1965 to 1979, as you’ll know if you've done any of my quizzes. So I pretty much know what artists' best albums are. Maybe this is a way ahead. Focus on putting together the best records from an artist's or band’s discographies. Be more selective and worry less about buying arms full of cheap records. Trouble is, how do you say which is the best album of so many bands.
Which is the best Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Zeppelin, Floyd, Yes or Genesis record? It’s impossible to say, so I’m afraid it falls down as a concept in many cases and I think I’d have to be flexible and collect a top three but it’d work for some second division bands by using their Best Of... Compilation. And I might collect the expensive rare stuff that I used to sometimes avoid.
It might be easier when it comes to 45’s. And it’d be nice to get some rare Japanese releases.
We’ll see how it goes. It really is like having CBT to get over some sort of trauma, reprogramming my brain so I don't default to old attitudes. There are worse addictions to conquer I guess and this shouldn’t be so difficult but after 50 years it’s a hard habit to break.
