She's a star collector, collector of stars (The Monkees)

12 Zappa albums (the other 48 not pictured)

Wie geht's?

This one is about fatal attractions and a peculiar set of obsessions. 

It's also dedicated to Noel Forth (an Aussie friend from the mid seventies who I've never met but he's still a close friend because he certainly gets me and shares my obsession) and Greg Knowles/ Kevin Simms (two of my close friends who recently told me that I need to write longer posts on this blog - get yourselves a beverage boys and strap in).

On my phone I have a list of records that I'm searching for. That will not be a surprise to anyone who knows me.

It's divided into two parts: really hard to find ones that I need to find to complete certain parts of my collection or Noel's (yes - 'need'). The second part has the ones that are more readily available and I'm keen to buy them if I come across them but only for the right price. I love a bargain.

An example from that first list are rare Beatles records or albums on the Apple Records label. Some are things that Noel is searching for - NZ Apple albums with an orange apple on the record label or a NZ copy of Ringo's Beaucoup Of Blues on Apple Records. That sort of thing.

That first part is made up of albums that we need because we are obsessed with owning everything that was ever produced by an artist, like the Beatles. And we are special slaves to Apple Records (Parlophone doesn't grab us like Apple does).

Okay, now that's impossible if you factor in every Beatles record made in every country of the world for the last 60ish years. So we rationalise our way through this dilly of a pickle (we're not crazy). In Noel's case he wants to own every album that was released in NZ using the orange Apple label. Fair enough.

I don't care about the country - I just want a copy of every record The Beatles and Apple Records produced. 

This need is a strange one I grant you.

Many people collect weird and wonderful things - there are many arcane museums throughout the world dedicated to bizarre collections that appeal to some pretty esoteric people.

The choice is down to the individual but the same drive to accumulate stuff is common to us all.

Kevin is a fanatical collector of Split Enz material for instance. Something lit a fire in his imagination and that desire and purpose burrowed deep under his skin. I get it.

Greg collected Jim Croce and Monkees records until he gave all his Monkees albums to me - the force is strong in that one!

It was a growing obsession with John Lennon's records in the mid seventies that started it all for me. Once I had the easily accessible albums (Imagine, Sometime In New York, Mind Games and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band), I wanted all his previous albums that were impossible to find in the early seventies.

So I wrote to music papers in the UK (which felt like posting to Neptune back then) asking where I could find The Wedding Album, Two Virgins, Live Peace in Toronto and Life With The Lions. They printed my letter and Noel Forth read it and wrote to me.

Then the obsession took root for good and proper because Noel turned out to be a godsend. He helped me find those records. But not only that - he was a musician - a drummer with his own band - Tortis (which changed into Vertical Hold) and he was/is insanely knowledgeable about music with some great rock'n'roll stories.

Weirdly we also have the same wider tastes in music and he's a fellow Arsenal supporter. Big brother figure? You betcha! 

Recently we discovered a shared interest in Frank Zappa's music, although neither of us are Zappa obsessed completists. He has 38 Zappa albums, I have 60. This got me thinking.

Out of all the groups who have ever been, why is it that I have a list of around 30 Bands/labels/musicians* that I call Fatal Attractions on my phone? What is special about them? And why is it Zappa isn't on the list, although I have 60 of his albums in my collection?

* It's mainly music I'm obsessed with - William Goldman is the only writer who I'd put in this category.

First though - let's compare two lists (yes, you know I love lists)

Here's List A:

• The Rolling Stones - I own 34 albums
• Bob Dylan - 39 albums
• David Bowie - 16 albums
• Grateful Dead - 17 albums
• David Gray - 13 albums
• The Kinks - 9 albums
• The Hollies - 21 albums 
• Crowded House - 6 albums

Let's call this the Zappa list. These albums are by musicians I love but I don't feel the need to own everything they've ever done (although I do need to own all of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue albums - go figure).  

Yes, even though I own 60 records by Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention, for some reason I'm not drawn into getting Cruising With Ruben And The Jets, The Yellow Shark and the other missing pieces.

Here's List B - the Fatal Attractions:

• Apple Records label (+ Dark Horse Records)
• Bark Records label
• The Beach Boys (+ solo except for Mike Love)
• The Beatles (+ solo)
• Big Country
• Jack Bruce
• Crosby Stills Nash and Young (+ solo CSN)
• The Datsuns
• Deep Purple
• Emerson Lake And Palmer (not solo, but + The Nice)
• Faces 
• Rory Gallagher
• The Guess Who
• Hot Tuna
• Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starhip/ Starship (+ solo)
• The Marshall Tucker Band
• Moody Blues (+ solo)
• Mountain (+ solo)
• Porcupine Tree/ Steven Wilson solo
• Procol Harum (+ Gary Brooker solo)
• Raspberries (+ Eric Carmen solo)
• Santana
• Patti Smith
• Bruce Springsteen
• Tears For Fears
• Ten Years After
• Yes (not solo)

That's the list where I'll forgive shoddy and weak albums as I must have the complete picture.

How to explain all this? Why Steven Wilson but not David Bowie? Why Patti Smith but not Bob Dylan? Why The Datsuns but not Crowded House?

obsession

/əbˈsɛʃ(ə)n/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind.

   • plural noun: obsessions

     "he was in the grip of an obsession he was powerless to resist"

Hmm - I'm not continually reoccupied, but I guess I am pre-occupied at times with the need to own some albums, but not others.

This differentiation doesn't make sense to me.

I guess, fundamentally, this is a manifestation of Obessive-Compulsive Disorder - but in my case it's a mild case, as it doesn't cause me distress. Quite the opposite actually - I get great great pleasure from collecting records.

Apart from some rare albums I lost in a house move a few years ago, I don't lie awake at night and dream of records I don't have. That house move will haunt me forever though. 

And I suppose I could go to Discogs with my list and clean up some of the few remaining holes in my collection. But, for some reason, I don't. I prefer to wait it out and experience the thrill of the chase. 

I love browsing record bins and finding another part of the jigsaw (like when I found a Beatles' bootleg at Real Groovy Records recently called No Obvious Title, a record Noel sent me some 50 years ago but was among those lost in that house move).

I'm also not prone to the compulsions part of OCD, nor have my obsessions taken over my life - apart from needing a room to house them that is. 

And so, back to those questions - why one, not the other? I can justify each one pretty succinctly.

Why Steven Wilson but not David Bowie? Why Patti Smith but not Bob Dylan? Why The Datsuns but not Crowded House?

Often a run of dire albums, or even one disaster, can turn me away. I was a keen Dylan collector until Self-Portrait did me in. I was with Neil Young all the way until the bizarre 80's albums on Geffin.

With a lot of the Fatal Attractions it's because they are constantly providing different looks with sustained quality - hence Patti Smith and Steven Wilson. Bowie is an interesting anomaly. I somehow lost focus on him around the mid seventies.

The Datsuns provide a personal connection (Cambridge High School) over Crowded House (even though I sat a few rows behind Neil Finn at the Auckland McCartney concert). 

But then there are the arbitary ones like The Marshall Tucker Band and Tears For Fears. Bands that somehow got their hook into me.

Like I said before: it often doesn't make sense.

Bottom line: although Jacky often introduces me as a 'vinyl junkie', collecting records is still a hobby for me. One that I share with hundreds of other New Zealanders if the Vinyl Lovers of NZ group on Facebook proves anything, and it's harmless enough, right?

Okay - now. Where's that copy of Frank Zappa For President? I have a hankering to play that one today!

Love and peace - Wozza