Have you ever done this? Had stored records then been forced to face them all as a giant bulk object? I started to think how ridiculous the collection was in some ways. And it's not that I don't like the records. I sat down and fondly looked at many I bought as a teenager, I know pretty much where each one came from. So there's all that memoire stuff wrapped up with them, but as an object they are actually a nuisance or even a burden in some ways. And still I gathered some of them up, like Alberni string quartet playing Rawsthorne on the defunct 'Argo' label. Played it and loved it. Some Yello albums, Kraftwerk what-have-you.
For me, records and books are not just objects but are also repositories of memory. There are memories triggered by taking a record or book off the shelf that simply would not be triggered or recalled without the prompt. They are, for me, what madeleine's were for Proust.
An example: when I played Poco's A Good Feeling to Know a month or so back, I was back in my bedroom parents house with windows open, with long hair and a cheesecloth shirt and my collection of ZigZag magazines on the shelf. It's not a great record, and nothing like the stuff I listen to now, but one intrinsically linked to time and place and bringing back a whole host of memories. A lot of the records in my collection can trigger memories of a whole world, they expand out to include the furniture and decoration in the house, smells, the cars in the driveway, the journey to school, our garden, the neighbours garden. There's nothing else that triggers memories in quite the same way. The Wonderstuff's first record, similarly indifferent in terms of quality, takes me back to the world I inhabited being a skint young father in a small modern terrace.
If I was ever to tell write my life story I'd certainly use records to structure the memories and bring back details, even more so than photos. It's not quite every record tells a story - plenty are dull and have little significance - but plenty have really string associations and bring back a whole host of details from my life.
Some records are, of course, just beautiful works of art independent of connotation that still give huge pleasure. I could easily sift out the great records from the ones that have more of a personal significance and reduce the collection by at least 60% but those memories would then maybe get lost.
Seeing the collection in terms of bulk or how much it's worth financially seems to be somewhat sad. Sure they take up a lot of physical space but they also occupy an important psychological space. For me the way a collection connects to memory is an important part of why they are so valuable - not the monetary worth.
I have, however, also asked Mrs KJB, who is a decade younger than me, to sell the collection off when I peg it, after the kids have taken anything they fancy, to help pay for burial costs, and give the rest to charity. Given my propensity to pre-order, I have also warned her that records might well keep arriving for at least a month or two after I've died!
