Is your Prog Collection too big?

johnobvious wrote: Short answer is yes, too much music.  The dilemma lies in the good and bad in your collection. Not enough time to listen to the good stuff and too much self flogging over the bad stuff that you spent good money on and rarely listen to.If someone could coordinate a huge prog swap meet where all us proggers could get together in one place with all our music and we could trade, then it's problem solved. Someone get on that. Let's shoot for Vegas in the fall.

Self flaggation over stud we can't get into! So true!

Couldn't we start an online swap meet? Maybe a subforum here?

My collection is probably too big, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to continue to add to it and enjoying the effort of trying to give all the old stuff a listen on occasion while trying to also get to know the new stuff. 

zumacraig wrote: samdelrussi wrote: In my case and I suspect with many other people as well, there is a certain aspect of it which loosely falls into the "addiction" category. If I am passionate about something, in this case Progressive Music, then I am compelled to explore it to the maximum degree possible and as with any art form or any other worthwhile human endeavor the wealth of great music yet to come is most likely endless so although I too feel the heat from years of collecting and a music library approaching 5000 albums, I just can't stop. What if I miss something? Digital music has proven to be a lifesaver as far as space concerns go and although I was once an avid audiophile who can no longer afford the luxury, I have found that with a good set of external speakers and an equalizer properly adjusted one can more or less come up with sound that's pretty decent though far from perfection. I'd much rather be able to say that I've seen a halfway decent reproduction of the Mona Lisa than to never have seen it at all. I do however see the other side of the "Quality" argument as well. the problem with addiction is that one is always trying to recapture that first, ultimate high.  unfortunately, those moments are few and far between.  what i'd give to hear Close to the Edge for the first time again.

Yes, I can understand! I once had a good meditation, I stood up and watched a while a my record collection and suddenly though; this is madness. How much can a man want all for himself?

Somehow I feel like a lot of collectors are living by the illusion that they are somehow responsible for what they collect. It gives them a feeling of importance. This is however an artificial feeling, and letting go of this buying- and listeningfrenzy gave me a great feeling.

friso wrote: Somehow I feel like a lot of collectors are living by the illusion that they are somehow responsible for what they collect. It gives them a feeling of importance. .

Blacksword wrote: moshkito wrote: Knobby wrote: Excellent post there ,Surrealist.   Too bad he has never seen anything about music to see that he is confusing the computer with the bathtub of the mind!   The computer is just another tool to clean things up ... of course, if you have to use 10 different soaps and 5 shampoos, I think that some of us might think .... that it is stupid!   Of course, if I use 10 microphones, one for my nose, one for my mouth, one for my armpits, one for my butt, one for my _______ and so forth, we might thing we're overdoing it, too, and then ... the whole thread about a "prog collection" really takes a wash! But at least we know that, hey?   Btw ... 1600 LP's/1600 CD's and over 1000 hrs of Cassettes, now all MP3'd, and some of these were from 1974 on! That's fantastic! No idea what it means, but a very enjoyable read. Wonderful imagery. One minute we're in the bath with a large collection of soaps and shampoos. Then we're sticking microphones in every orifice.. Incredible.

The Bathtub of the Mind - that's a prog concept album if I ever heard one.

chopper wrote: Blacksword wrote: moshkito wrote: Knobby wrote: Excellent post there ,Surrealist.   Too bad he has never seen anything about music to see that he is confusing the computer with the bathtub of the mind!   The computer is just another tool to clean things up ... of course, if you have to use 10 different soaps and 5 shampoos, I think that some of us might think .... that it is stupid!   Of course, if I use 10 microphones, one for my nose, one for my mouth, one for my armpits, one for my butt, one for my _______ and so forth, we might thing we're overdoing it, too, and then ... the whole thread about a "prog collection" really takes a wash! But at least we know that, hey?   Btw ... 1600 LP's/1600 CD's and over 1000 hrs of Cassettes, now all MP3'd, and some of these were from 1974 on! That's fantastic! No idea what it means, but a very enjoyable read. Wonderful imagery. One minute we're in the bath with a large collection of soaps and shampoos. Then we're sticking microphones in every orifice.. Incredible. The Bathtub of the Mind - that's a prog concept album if I ever heard one.   I have no idea what it means either, or why he has a microphone up his butt.

I ca see the Storm album cover now; a woman in a bath tub on a building site, as black clouds billow over head.

"Bathtub of the Mind" 
That is cool.

moshkito wrote: HolyMoly wrote: "Bathtub of the Mind"  That is cool.   Am I getting too cynical or weird for everyone?   The expression was a natural sentence for me! I think I'm becoming a mix of Burroughs and the Magic Theater! Or is that way yyyyyy too proggy for here?

Hey, I said I liked it!  Please relax.


Edited by HolyMoly - June 04 2013 at 13:19

presdoug wrote: I have most of what i want already, and have become very picky and selective about what i will actually purchase in the future. And i find i spend more time on listening to my favorites (for instance, Triumvirat, Passport, Historical Bruckner) with some things unfortunately getting ignored. I guess now when i think of adding something new to my collection, i have to have a really strong reason to want it to go thru with it. Being super picky can have advantages, i guess. I pretty well have just the right amount of selection, so i don't need much more. Not many more will get through my picky, new additions process.

I agree on a ton of what you said here. I think being 'picky' represents a person who knows and understands their 'sound' very well and that is a huge advantage. You most likely don't make the mistake of buying something you completely don't like; thus, wasting your money. We all gravitate towards a certain sound we really enjoy that gives us goosebump city and some of us have a core of bands that we gravitate towards as well. All in all, I'm like you where I am picky and I have high standards as a listener because ultimately I know what I like and it sounds to me you do as well.
Now sometimes we take a 'risk' here and there by buying something from a band that we don't know much about, but I gotta tell ya 9/10 I end up liking it cause I at least know what kind of sound that band produces or if it's similar to some of my all time favs. This is very interesting and I'd have to say overall that my prog collection is well oiled and organized machine cause everything gets a spin now and then, but my cd stack is massive. It takes time to go through it all, but I get around to everything cause i average at least 4 albums a day. :)

Knobby wrote: friso wrote: Somehow I feel like a lot of collectors are living by the illusion that they are somehow responsible for what they collect. It gives them a feeling of importance. .   I AM important. I am a Prog Masterman.   .... A vasty collection deludes the owner into thinking he will live much longer than the average man.   This can only be a proper, healthy misconception - just think of the power of positive thinking.

Edited by dr wu23 - June 04 2013 at 17:57