Saturday, April 01, 2006

Goin' Back

There's a line in the Bruce McCulloch song, "Doors", that goes:

"And if you want to be a Doors fan, don't just go buy a greatest hits album. Greatest Hits albums are for housewives and little girls."

And, although slightly misogynistic, its' sentiment does sum up my feeling about people buying greatest hits albums instead of diving in and getting actual albums from that artist. Or should I say it did sum up my feeling. It's come to my attention that I may have become the exact music consumer I used to hold in distain, back when I worked in the music retail industry. Here are the last 3 albums I've purchased recently:

Chicago - Greatest hits (Chicago IX)
Beasty Boys - Solid Gold Hits
April Wine - Greatest Hits

Do you see my dilemma (aside from my musical selections)? I'm on my way to becoming that person. Usually, I buy greatest hits albums to sample the overall body of work of that particular artist/band in hopes that it will give me an insight as to where I can enter that artists'/band's catalogue comfortably. Case in point, I bought a Roxy Music collection that spanned the entirety of the band's output and, through listening to the disc, found that I was very interested in the early material but cared much less for the later stuff. With that knowledge, I began picking up the older part of their catalogue, albums like For Your Pleasure, Country Life, Siren and their self-titled first album.

My purchase of the Chicago Greatest Hits disc was made with this purpose in mind, as well (mind you, this hits collection focuses on the early part of their career). After listening to it a number of times, I can tell you right now that I will be purchasing at least one of their first few albums. Truth be told, I love the whole disc from start to finish!

My purchases of the Beastie Boys and April Wine, however, were not made with such motivation in mind. With these discs, I was looking to just get the hits. Simple as that. I will say that I already own a Beastie Boys album (Check Your Head) and really enjoy it, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy the rest of their catalogue just to get the last few songs of theirs that I know I like (ie. No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Hey Ladies, Sabotage and Intergalactic).

The April Wine, on the other hand...... chalk that one up to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) and it's 35% Canadian content regulations. 35% of all material Canadian radio stations broadcast must have Canadian origins. So, due to the lack of a significant number of Canadian performers, the radio listeners of Canada were give the same material from the same few bands year after year after year. Thus implanting an affection for bands like Chilliwack, Trooper, Loverboy and April Wine through constant repetition. So the bastards finally wore me down and I found myself wanting to soak up the sounds of my youth.

Who said you can't go back?

Last post's title was a song title from:
Sin After Sin by Judas Priest

This is a great album... and I'm not saying that just because it has a cover of a Joan Baez song.

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