I’m Not Saying What I Did Was Right … Trying to Break Out of the Ghetto Was a Day-to-Day Fight

It’s Day One of the “Quest for 24,000 Songs” I began last night. Starting with The Jackson 5′s “ABC” and finishing up with Somerville’s The Charms banging out “Action,” complete with a really solid Farfisa organ hook, I got through 89 songs today. A few observations:

• David Bowie’s cover of “Across the Universe” is quite good.
• But do I really need five, count them, five, versions of it by The Beatles? One, maybe two … not five.
• While I have not waived my “no skipping “rule, I have relaxed my “you have to listen to the entire song” rule. Sorry lengthy instrumental jams from Camper Van Beethoven!
• Best three-peat: Cavedogs “Acoustic Bed of Nails” (I think that probably should have been tagged “Bed of Nails (Acoustic)”; this has been a good exercise to clean up my music), followed by U2′s “Acrobat” and Bobby Womack’s soulful “Across 110th Street.” Although I think his vision of Harlem is a little dated; according to this piece in yesterday’s New York Times, the lyrics should now be something like “Across 110th Street, young professionals buying furniture that’s teak” rather than “pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak.”

You can read my fascinating observations in real time as I plow through 24,000 songs on Twitter at www.twitter.com/harrison3, hash tag #24ksongs.

From “A-Punk” to “ZZ Top Goes to Europe” and everything in between

I like being a consumer. What do I like about it? The whole consumption part. You know, buying stuff, getting bored with it and then buying more stuff; using “stuff” as a replacement for whatever else is missing from the occasionally soul-sucking daily existe …

(Note: the author appears to have surfed away from WordPress)

… OK, I’m fine now. What? No, I just had to go to the bathroom. What do you mean, show you my browsing history? Fine, I bought a goddamn Slap Chop. Happy now? I know I am. Eh, I’m bored with that. Where was I?

For some reason, I’ve been feeling guilty about my conspicuous consumption. Whether born of a recognition of the soullessness of being an avid consumer (nah!) or just because I needed something to write about (ding ding ding!), I’ve decided to start dabbling with anti-consumerism by limiting my purchases of new music.

I have a lot of music on my Mac. An insane amount. Perhaps a criminally insane amount, should the RIAA check my download logs and some of the CDs my Dad has made me as (*ahem*) archive copies of his music. Other than my legendary weakness for Hummels, new music is probably the largest line item on my discretionary income budget (if, in fact, I kept a budget). So I’m going to cut back on music for awhile — to $0 per month.

But the nice thing about starting my “new austerity” with music is that, as I’ve written before, I have shitloads of music already (24,000 + songs) … so I can consume what I already have! Suck it, anti-consumer zealots!

In the spirit of responsible consumerism and austerity, and because I keep forgetting if I already own music before I download it, I hereby vow to not purchase any more music until I have listened to every song that I own … (here’s the wrinkle) … in alphabetical order.

Starting with “A-Punk” by Vampire Weekend and ending with “ZZ Top Goes to Egypt” by Camper Van Beethoven (author’s note: there’s a bunch of songs that start with numbers and/or punctuation, like “1970″ by The Stooges or “?” by Outkast … I’ll get to them too, but I really liked the elegance of the whole A-Z thing), I am going to listen to the 24,000+ plus songs I have on my hard drive. I’ll give an update as to how far I get each day. If I started now and didn’t sleep or take breaks for eating and the fulfillment of other biological needs (as well as, say, go to work), I could bang this out in … hmm, 63 days.

But I don’t want to “bang this out.” There’s a lot of music I forget I own, or haven’t heard in years. This is a chance to try and find those hidden gems while sucking all the fun out of it through a strict regimen that teaches me that through self-denial comes greater self-understanding, or at least something good to help with writer’s block.

Here’s a few rules I’m laying down for myself:

1. I don’t have to listen to multiple versions of the same song by the same artist, unless I want to. I do have to listen to multiple versions of the same song by different artists.
2. I can skip Christmas music. Dammit, it’s my stupid quest.
3. I won’t subject my family to this — if the boys want to hear Thriller for the 433rd time this month, so be it. However, any time I’m alone (at work, in the car, etc.) I will continue my quest.
4. I cannot buy any new music until I get through all the songs. However, I did pre-order the new Vampire Weekend album that comes out next week, and I have a handful of iTunes gift cards. The cutoff for purchasing any new music (only via gift cards) is when the new Vampire Weekend album arrives at my doorstep next Tuesday. That’s it.

I will provide regular reports on my progress until I grow weary of this whole cockamamie idea and abandon it, much as I’ve abandoned every other creative endeavor I’ve ever undertaken (other than the creation of my sons … I’ve stuck with that one). Also, I’ll be sure to highlight any hidden gems I uncover both here and on Facebook/Twitter (follow me at www.twitter.com/harrison3).