One Title Per Day

Music Life: One Title Per Day

I’ve got a bijoux project-ette in the works this year; I am trying to listen to at least one full-length CD / LP title per day this year. I arrived at this experiment after realizing that at 50 years, I have been on Earth approx. 18,250 days – and that I have many more music titles than that. So, how to listen to ‘everything’ one more time before I leave? Well, I could start by trying to listen to at least one full-length music title per day. Just one.

To be honest, I have not been able to keep up with it. Some days, I do not listen to any music at all (despite having a small commute and several hours at home with nothing else going on). Sometimes, when I go to bed, I put a CD on – and absorb it in my sleep. Perhaps not the best way to hear music? Let’s not forget Mark Mothersbaugh “Muzik For Insomniaks” 2CD set!

It’s also fairly amusing (to me) that this year, I appear to have fixated on the Bob Dylan & The Band “Basement Tapes” 2LP/2CD set. I bought a book on this topic this year; it illuminated the subject matter, for me. I was pleased that I had kept my 2LP set of this title (there were other Dylan titles I did not keep copies of!).

But even one title per day is a fairly grueling schedule to keep up!

I do the usual ‘record collector thing’ – one title makes me think of another. I’ll get a band’s 2^nd album on CD, and it’ll make me go back and check out the 1^st album… etc. I find that it’s possible to listen to music (particularly 70’s music, these days – for some reason) and hear it in a way not previously possible. My advanced age (50!) is perhaps responsible for my ‘new-found patience’ with some music. “Let’s really give it a chance this time!”

So, the first six month of 2008 yielded approx. 182 titles, with only a few repetitions. For me, no real surprises – and only 3 or 4 titles “didn’t make it”. As in, “Time to get rid of stuff!”. Not so sure I will keep any CD’s on Isao Tomita. Weekend “La Verite” didn’t work for me, really. For the first time, a Hugh Hopper title didn’t immediately click with me, “Numero D’Vol” – perhaps it was ‘noodlier’ (jazzier?) than I anticipated? Several of Hugh Hopper’s titles are among my favorite records ever released!

I’m about a month behind keeping up with this project. It’s much more difficult than I thought it would be. It’s hard for me to find the necessary discipline to actually buckle down and listen carefully to one title each day. But I will persist. I will be most curious to see a list of all 366 (it’s a leap year, folks!) titles that I listened to this year.

I must add that I have listened to quite a few home-made ‘various artist’ MD’s & CD-R’s this year; for my birthday, I made 5 packed CD-R’s to play at my birthday party in Portland (which I gave away, as soon as I was done with ‘em).

With my milestone birthday, it is tempting to come up with projects of this nature; so far, I have been successful in keeping a list of all the restaurants that my girlfriend & I have eaten in together this year!