Cleaning Up in the Record Room...

This is my recorded music room. There's also a musical instrument room but that's another blog post. 

If you are 2 years old and yea tall you are just the right height to stand dead center of the CD shelf on the left hand side of the photo below and to easily sort through all the titles listed alphabetically K thru M and after a brief examination toss them on the floor. Yesterday I tasked myself with cleaning this up and after a donation of a pile of old records by my friend Will and the revelation it was a bucket list destination experience my friend John set as a goal I thought a little organization never hurt anything.  

I think this room might have once been a back porch that was framed in. In my time it was used as a kid bedroom. Long and narrow I think they threw lots to establish who would be confined in here on some kind of rotating system of exchange. After all the kids moved out we put the records in here and I can't remember exactly where all this was set up before that. Back in those days there were not any cds for 2 year olds to toss and there were probably only about 400 records so relatively compact storage was adequate. 

Starting about the year 2000 the cd collection really exploded with us beginning downloads using emusic and purchasing from mostly obscure bands we saw play live. By 2010 we became dedicated used record store and thrift store hounds saving obscure music from the landfill as if on a mission of mercy. 

Since retirement and the institution of the old fixed income I could probably count on one hand the brand new cds I have purchased. Thrift store records have become my main intoxicant. 

Another feature of this room is the concert posters. If we saw a show, usually in a club Cathy lifted the poster, but only after the band finished and advertisement was no longer required so not really stealing but a form of recycling.     

The paint job on the walls was by Cathy and the kids. There are lots of hand prints, footprints and original art that needs scientific interpretation about the walls and I try to gauge the importance of all works so the are not obscured.   

Click the photos to make them bigger. 

You won't find any Springsteen or Stones. 

That's a late 60s/early 70s Harmony guitar. I think I paid $40 for it and then took out the original pickups, installed a lipstick pickup, used only three stings and made it into a drone blues guitar. I still have the original pickup and maybe I'll find another $40 guitar that needs them.  

I mentioned there was a musical instrument room but this room also serves as a drum room. Are drums musical instruments? I don't know how I accumulated so many. I consider myself a terrible drummer even and I turned down a invitation to play a set on cajon with a guitar bass duo this past weekend.  I already had two gigs in that day and also worked in a voter registration booth  

Maybe this gives a bit of indication of the variety of music. I'll always need a Musical Mysteries of the Andes for those special ambient moments. I don't normally collect Steve Miller Band albums, most specifically anything later than 1976 but his second album from 1968, Sailor is the last one featuring Boz Skaggs and is listed as the 353rd on the 1000 best albums of all time. It was made at a time when everyone wanted to put out the next Sgt. Pepper's. Actually I had two of these records and last week I let one go to the thrift store. I should have kept that one because I think the cover was in better shape.    

The box is my favorite swing and polka records and boxed sets so I can find them easily. There's also about 50 cassettes of music that is mostly recorded from the albums belonging to friends that was the coin of the realm in the days when cars had tape players.   

So kids, when I'm gone if you really want to hustle there are probably some titles that might be worth $20 each in this collection. If you happen to feel like quiet quitting is your thing and you sell all cds and records for $1 each which should be pretty easy I think those profits would purchase your old dad a very nice cremation package including urn and everything at one of the more modest funeral homes in town.  

I don't know what ya'll going to do about mom.