I have been collecting music in sice the early 60's. When CD's first came out I resisted - until Zappa released his import-only, cd-only version of Does Humor Belong In Music. Shortly thereafter I started to re-buy (not replace but duplicate my vast lp collection. Along the way I made a few choices - some of the music didn't sound as good to me any longer. It took me a while to replace the Byrds and Jefferson Airplane (until they were reissued with bonus material)...some I purchased every time they were released - Zappa, Hendrix, Beach Boys - while still others I bought a comp or two and a select title here and there.

Recently (since Yankee baseball ended in November) I have been reviewing my collection for the remaining "holes"

Some Donovan (Mickey Most production) cd's Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Barabajagal and Cosmic Wheels (OOP going for big bucks)

3 of the first 4 Vanilla Fudge.

a couple of Turtles titles.

The Collector Choice reissues of the Rascals lps from the second one on.

There isn't many, as always once I fill in these holes or gaps I will find more it is a never ending cycle.

...and then there are always the lps you as STILL waiting for to appear on CD (i.e. Elephant's Memory, Splinter- This Is the Place I Love, Mothermania)

It is a nagging feeling (almost but not quite like when you misplace a cd).

What is more of a priority to you

Getting new material (with old artists that is getting harder and harder) or fixing a hole?

I'll admit that From The Vaults is the most valued destination on IMWAN for me. I keep a shelf in one CD rack for current aquistions (whether new or catalog) unitl they've been sufficiently listened to and can be put in their rightful places. I was bragging to myself just a few days ago that my heaviest rotation on that shelf right now seems to be all "new" stuff including: Corrine Bailey Rae, Spoon, The Eels, the Avett Brothers, and (sort of cheating, I know) the Crazy Heart soundtrack.

Then UPS came by and dropped off Here They Come, Midnight Ride, Just Like Us, and Hard and Heavy (with Marshmallow) which filled the holes in my Paul Revere and the Raiders section.

To sum it up, both are important to me --- finding new material (that I actually end up keeping and loving) is exciting and rewarding in a spontaneous sort of way while fixing holes (and usually I end up keeping but not necessarily loving what is there) is meeting up with old friends and family --- not spontaneous, really, but renewing and re-connecting (though, frankly, sometimes "obligatory").

As long as the music keeps playing, it's good.

God, what a freakin' mess I am.

PS -- fixing holes proves to be more expensive for me.

Can't say their are any holes at this point. My collection is pretty complete for me. I'll never live long enough to listen to it all so it's time to slow down (just as the CD becomes extinct).

i'm pretty much caught up. there are some individual titles i wouldn't mind having, but i won't pay big bucks to get them, so greatest hits/best of's will have to suffice.

the one's that frost my _____ are the titles that still have never been on CD, and we know which one's those are.

It's a case of moving through the different genres in my collection and adding what are considered to be the important and indispensable also trying not to ignore the rarer items and unknown nuggets.

I think this goes back to the lack of "record" stores with decent catalog. We all know what's happened to the CD racks in Best Buy, Target and the other big boxes. For the most part my routine has become checking sources like our very own From The Vaults as well as Music Tap and Pause&Play's On the CD Front, finding the new catalog releases, ordering them up on AmazWAN and waiting for them to arrive with the UPS guy. And that's fine. But nothing will ever match that visceral feeling of walking into a Tower Records at 10AM on a Saturday morning and spending hours going through the bins from one end to the other in one genre after another, discovering things long forgotten and going home with a pile of new CDs to enjoy and add to your collection.

Yep, its hard to believe that part of my life is over. I used to love going over to Tower (which was literally 8 blocks from here).

There's a tiny handful of CDs missing from my collection that I've never been able to find for sale anywhere on the Internet, and it's frustrating as all get-out. Aside from those few, I've been all caught up with my music collecting for years, and like Murdog it's now just a matter of continuing to keep up with new releases and upgraded reissues. I probably buy as much music today as I did when I was a teenager, but now half of it is upgraded versions of things I've owned before.

For me it's a constant dilemma whether to buy obscurities or more reissues of big names. I've got limited funds and at this point in time I'm concentrating on completing or extending runs of the big names. Those albums appreciate the most in price when they go OOP.

And boy, do I miss browsing, starting in the A rack, looking for more Animals! And ending with the Zombies!

I think the only holes are where the Archives are starting to split at the seams.

Looking offhand, I have.....
Fixing A Hole - The Beatles
Sea Of Holes - Yellow Submarine orchestral score
Hole In My Shoe - Traffic
Down In The Hole - Rolling Stones

I'm sure I have more holes in my collection.....need to look.

What holes ever a Friday List?

I have no Gene Simmons solo material in my collection. So I certainly have an asshole hole in my collection.

I doubt I'm the only one who'd be curious to see Linda's Holy Grail list...

Oh, I've found images of them, I've found catalogue numbers, I've just never been able to find anyone who's actually selling them. These two discs are my holy grails:

The Gigolo Aunts' Japanese CD EP of "Mrs. Washington", which includes a cover of Funkadelic's "Can You Get To That":

---

A 1994 (or thereabouts) RCA promo compilation CD called December Songs which includes The Gigolo Aunts' cover of The Kinks' "Father Christmas":



There are a few others, but they're just so I can be a completist. The above two I would actually sit down and play with some regularity, the Aunts being second only to Big Star in my personal pantheon of American musical giants. Not that anyone else would agree ... or, indeed, bother to stock these titles.

Probably getting new material, even if that is getting new material in the form of bonus tracks to complement what I already have. The only glaring holes in my collection at this point are a few Diana Ross discs (both solo and with the Supremes) for which I've not been willing to spend $75-$150. I figure that Hip-O Select will get to them eventually and reissue them with better sound quality and bonus material at less than half the price. And I can always listen to the vinyl until then. I'd also really love to have Dionne Warwick's "No Night So Long" on CD, but that one's a long shot, given that, according to Wikipedia (and I believe it): "This album was reissued on CD by Nippon/Phonogram-Arista in Japan in 1988, but only 500 copies were pressed. None were made since."

Broken Hearts Are For Assholes - Frank Zappa

I guess I have at least 1 asshole in my collection.

Does Jimbo have that?

Doubt I'd come across the former, but the latter sounds like something just waiting to be inadvertently discovered in a dollar bin somewhere...

In all seriousness...

I've been steadily working on my Dylan collection lately, probably because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Last year I made it my business to pick up all of Zimmy's 1990's EP's with live B-sides; his other collaborations have led me to explore the catalogs of both Joan Baez and the Band (I also just ordered a used copy of the 1990 Byrds 4-disc box set for less than twenty bucks so I could have an official CD copy of Bob's backing vocals in a live version of "Mr Tambourine Man" from 1990).

I've picked up the Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Grateful Dead and Jimmie Rogers tribute comps with Dylan contributions, but still need the Warren Zevon and Woody Guthrie collections.

I think I have most of the essential Dylan tribute comps covered--I have the gospel, country, and reggae collections (the reggae collection is two discs!), but I still need "Postcards of the Hanging: The Grateful Dead Perform the Songs of Bob Dylan".

I shelled out some $$$ for the "Hearts Of Fire" soundtrack, but I still need "Feeling Minnesota", "Flashback" and "Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood", among others.

I managed to get a used copy of Bette Midler's OOP "Songs For The New Depression" album ("Buckets Of Rain" is a Midler/Dylan duet) which means I now need to pick up "No Reason To Cry" (Clapton & Dylan sing "Sign Language") and Ron Wood's "Not For Beginners" (Bob plays guitar on "Interfere" and "King Of Kings"). Luckily, most of these discs are available used, and rather cheaply--but not so the OOP "Sun City" and "We Are The World" discs.

Tracking down all of the official DVD's with exclusive Dylan material is but a dim future possibility at this point.

And I'll probably never get my hands on any of the original promos containing unique Dylan tracks that have trickled out over the years--and there have been quite a few such tracks. Luckily, that's what iPods are for.

But hell, in the meantime, I'm up to 135 discs.