Thursday, March 09, 2006

The Desert Island Follow-up:

Paulie brings out a good suggestion in response to one of the expected problems people raised about doing the current Desert Island Discs meme that I sent around [NB 29 people so far: can we get over 30...?!]. Quoting his friend Anthony, who suggests that on a desert island it would be AC/DC over Captain Beefheart, Paulie fesses:
I don’t think I could like a record that I wouldn’t be prepared to put on in front of my hippest and most intolerant friends. As a kiddie, I used to find a really hip LP and take it into town two or three times (in the old yellow Nottingham Selectadisc bags, natch) so that anyone I ran into would be able to see the LP that I ‘just bought’.

White Light White Heat and The Human League’s Reproduction are two LPs that I recall doing this with.
Despite this tendency, Paulie still completed the DID meme and probably gave as fair a reflection of his taste as any of us have done. But what he goes on to suggest is this:
Perhaps [this] would be a better task for Rullsenberg to be demanding of us?

Eight LPs that the reflected glory of owning them eclipsed the pleasure of actually listening to them.
So come on guyrs, fess up those albums that you actually don't like that much, but which you have flaunted to acquire kudos from your mates.

You know you have...

9 comments:

Gordon said...

I have given this some thought and can happily say that no I've never bought an album for 'cool points'.

I HAVE bought albums based on 'cool' recommendations though, not sure that's the same (as I didn't then carry them around with me).

John said...

Kangaroo, by Red Crayola

http://www.freaksendfuture.com/upl_images/title1530.jpg

Anna Lowman (annawaits) said...

I went into Selectadisc the other day and they DIDN'T HAVE THE CD I WAS LOOKING FOR! Surely this is some sort of a first! Great shop :)

Anonymous said...

White Stripes, Elephant.

Sheer Drivel.

Amazing that I had managed to get into the second half of my thirties before getting caught

Paul 'Fuzz' Lowman said...

I'm not sure I dig the 'carry cool LP around town in order to impress people' tactic is sound. If you run into some hipster in the arndale centre with a copy of White Light/White Heat under your arm, they're gonna be all like 'hey, dude, whatcha bought, what's that LP shaped thing in your bag you keep glancing at?' and you're gonna be all like "aw, yeah, I jus' bought this, shucks, how embarrasing, yeah, I just bought the second Velvets LP, I guess I'm sort of a bad ass, hey, uh, I'm in a band, well, it's not a band yet, I'm just, you know, looking for people to jam with, kind of a Velvets-Can-Beefheart-Abba sorta thing..." then they're just gonna be like "WHAT? You've only just bought WHITE LIGHT? I've been listening to this album since I was three years old! And you want me to be in your stupid band? Fergeddaboudit! I'm not hanging with no Johnny Cale Lately who's never heard Sister Ray Says, jeez, you'll tell me you haven't got 'Raw Power' next. Where you been, man?"
The trick to impressing hipsters, surely, is to wear a band t-shirt or, even better, a badge. This says 'I've been into this band for ages, longer than you, I like 'em more than you and so what, I've got the live bootlegs from '72 and a video of the time they were on The Old Grey Whistle Test.'

I gotta say that I haven't bought music my friends like, or would impress them particularly, for a long time. My particular group of 'hip & intolerant' friends is almost entirely imagined; I figure if DJ Shadow came round my house he'd be pretty happy flicking through my records, but he almost never does. I buy records for fantasy dinner parties of the mind.

Marie said...

I once managed to impress two blokes in a supermarket by wearing a 'Zippy and Tigger World Tour' T-shirt that my sister's then boyfriend had made. Zippy and Tigger were my sister's dogs...

Rob said...

Like Gordon, i can honestly say that AFAIK I have never bought a record in order to look cool, though I have bought ones one the basis of zillions of reviews saying how cool they were that have lasted one playing or so. Most recent example of that was Devendra Banhart's first album, though Belle and Sebastian's "The Boy With The Arab Strap" only made it to two and a bit playings, and there was one by Gorky's Zygotic Myncki that made one and a half.

Anonymous said...

OK, I'm going to dive right in here with both feet: ANYTHING by Dylan or The Beatles! Sorry, but I just don't have the necessary genes for these dudes. I didn't get any of their stuff to 'be cool', rather in order to pay my dues, and I can kinda see it in each case, but man the former can't sing in any acceptable earth-way and the latter bore me to flat-lining levels instantly. And while we're on the subject, I've never gotten all the way through Troust Mask Replica without developing a headache, apart from one time when I had to pop out in the middle, but I don't think I can count that...

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Fancy taking cover George?! The incoming fire could be almost as bad as when I dared to criticise David Bowie!

Run for the hills!