There is a delicate balance between the act of full on hoarding of any and all music stuff at any cost and simple collecting what moves you. I’ll admit there are times in my life when that balance was off kilter, but every now and then I congratulate myself on walking away from a purchase.
The Zappa tape collection comes to mind:
It takes control sometimes and you briefly tip that balance. Today I was out shopping at Frugal Muse (my favorite book store) and while perusing the vinyl spotted this classic image out of the corner of my eye in the CD section.
Turns out it is at least part of a box set of Pink Floyd CD’s. They are in all black jewel cases and the spines form that iconic “Dark Side Of The Moon” image.
I mean, these are friggin cool, no doubt about it. $4.98 each, so about $40 for all. I grabbed them at first… then I started thinking about it. Do I love Pink Floyd? Yep. Is $4.98 reasonable for a CD these days? Yep. Would these look awesome on a shelf? Yep.
I held them in my hand and gazed lovingly at them for a while.
Then I started thinking… and that ruined it.
I have all but one of these on vinyl. I have them all digitally, of course.
I looked these up and they appear to be from the “Shine On Collection” and selling for far more than $40, but the slip case is missing, and the collection itself does not include “The Final Cut” (huge mistake in my opinion) and it occurred to me that these would end up next to my “Pink Floyd – Pulse” CD with the blinking light and I would probably never play the actual CD’s.
I put them back, walked around the store and considered while I picked up some books, then came back to look at them some more.
In the end, I realized that it would be foolish for me to buy them. So, I took the above pictures and walked away. Proud of myself. Sigh.
Now… if “The Final Cut” had been in the collection… who knows.
The Aural Retentive 