Ramblin' with Roger

So what did I just add to my Amazon list?

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning
Released April 25, 2006.
My first albums by these artists:
Communique, Dire Straits, 1979
Elite Hotel, Emmylou Harris, 1976
(Picture from Knopfler’s website.)

Paul Simon- Surprise
Released May 9, 2006.
My first album by this artist:
Wednesday Morning, Three A.M., Simon & Garfunkel, 1966.

Bruce Springsteen- We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Released April 25, 2006.
My first album by this artist:
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., 1973
My first album by the subject of this album:
We Shall Overcome, Pete Seeger (live at Carnegie Hall), 1963

Neil Young, Living with War
Released May 8, 2006.
My first album by this artist:
Retrospective: Best of Buffalo Springfield, 1969 or
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, Neil Young, 1969

The Beatles- The Capitol Albums Vol. 2
Released April 11, 2006.
The very first LP I ever bought, Beatles VI from 1965, is in this collection.

And I hear the late Johnny Cash will have a new album out this summer, and I’ll want that too.

So, I find myself still leaning on the reliable “brands”, in spite of myself. Well, there it is.

I wondered abou the origins of that phrase, but I didn’t have to look too far. Sol Wachtler, who was New York State’s top judge, once said district attorneys now have so much influence on grand juries that “by and large” they could get them to “indict a ham sandwich.” Specifically, he noted, “Even a modestly competent district attorney can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.”

Interestingly, seven years after the former Court of Appeals Judge made this pronouncement in 1985, a grand jury indicted him for sexual harassment.

How do you arrange your recorded music?

For a while, I used to separate it into classical (defined as the composer is most important) and pop (which was all the rest).

Then, I found that, in the pop section, I had too many compilation discs to keep track of, so I culled them (and soundtracks) into a separate category.

And now, I find myself re-sorting again. I’ve split the “compilations” into soundtracks (movie, Broadway, TV), tributes (to particular artists – got a LOT of Beatles), the compilers (this includes CDs on Motown, as well as discs put together by Eddie, e.g.). Then there are those few albums that I’ve ended up filing by category (folk, R&B), something I disdain in my artist section because I don’t know what it means. If I put THEM in categories, I’d have to split my k.d. lang into country and pop, and that just would not do. An album called Discovery R&B, or Warner Jazz, though, pretty much says it all.

The re-sorting became a function of not remembering. What IS the name of that Richard Thompson tribute album? (Beat the Retreat). How about the Elton John one? (Two Rooms). Or Curtis Mayfield? (A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield). The reshuffling puts all the Motown compilations together under M, rather than some under H (for Hitsville USA).

Of course, some albums fall under more than one category. The Tom Petty soundtrack for She’s the One; file under artist or soundtrack? The I Am Sam album- soundtrack or Beatles tribute?

My first recollection of a World Series was in 1962. It was difficult for me because my two favorite teams at the time were playing. My hometown Triplets was long a Yankee farm team, so I had a rooting interest in the team of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford and Elston Howard. But I don’t know what attracted me to the team now playing across the country in San Francisco, unless it was the players: Juan Marichal, Willie “Stretch” McCovey, Felipe and Matty Alou, and the “Say Hey Kid”, Willie Mays. I thought he was the best baseball player ever – he could hit for power, hit for average, steal bases, play great defense. (The Yankees won that Series, four games to three.)

When I went to Cooperstown one year, I got to buy this plastic figurine of Willie. I loved it. The arms even moved! Then the dog bit off one of his feet, and one of the arms (the one with the glove) fell off, but I kept it for a good long time anyway.

It must have been because he batted .211 in his final season, as a New York Met, that kept some people from voting him into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, but he still got 409 votes or 94.68% of the votes cast anyway and was elected in 1979.

He was present when his godson, Barry Bonds, son of his former teammate Bobby Bonds, tied his home run mark of 660 early in 2004. Unfortunately, Barry’s blasts are mired in a steroidal dispute, whereas the kid who used to play stickball on the streets of New York City, even after he became a star, will have a legacy untouched by such controversy.

Here then, in memoriam, is my obsessive compulsive manner of playing music at work, RIP, May 12, 2006, born from the conviction that if I’m going to own over 1000 CDs, I damn well better find a way to play them:

THE BIRTHDAYS: I got a couple lists, one from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which was somewhat inaccurate and no longer is on the site), plus some other lists, and I play the music of the artists during their birth week. Solo artists are easy. Groups are harder, unless the group member is clearly dominant (Dave Clark in the DC5 – December, BTW). Sometimes, I can’t decide, and I pick two of them (Rolling Stones in July-Mick, and December-Keith). Or because I find a desire to play them at different times of the year (Beach Boys in June-Brian, and December- Carl and Dennis).

Beatles I play thrice a year, in February-George, June-Paul, and October-John, along with their respective solo works. What about poor Ringo (July)? That month I play a lot of Beatle covers, along with his solo stuff. And I have a LOT of Beatles covers.

Birthdays include, BTW, certain non-performers, notably Berry Gordy; I play a lot of Motown compilations in November. And more recently, some of the blogger compilers, e.g. Fred in January, Kelly last month, etc.

THE EVENTS:
Black History Month, which I’ve decided runs from MLK Day to the end of February): lots of R&B compilations, notably Say It Loud!
Valentine’s Day: Yeah, I have some love albums. Wanna make something of it?
Academy Awards: Soundtracks in February or March, depending on the date of the broadcast
St. Patrick’s Day: Chieftains, Clannad, the Coors
Lent: a requiem each week

I also have music for the 4th of July, Halloween and of course, Christmas.