Paul McCartney - Oobu Joobu

After putting John Lennon on the chopping block, I felt it was only fair to put another Beatle under the same analysis. Whenever I bring up Lennon or McCartney to others, the conversation usually ends up being an arguement over which was better. While I do appreciate John Lennon as an artist, ultimately a good chunk of his solo output is below average. I think I give Paul a slight advantage because he has never stopped producing music. While you might consider it pop fluff, it usually climbed the charts and was stuck in the world's collective head.

That being said Oobu Joobu represents everything I despise about this former Beatle. From the open self important monologue about how important the world is and the lazy annoying theme songs made my skin crawl. The album did contain some interesting songs, that you cannot get anywhere. Ulitimately it is unsatisfying, since the entire album is only broken up into one track.

This is one of the albums that my dad has passed along to me over the years. Whenever he finds something in his collection that he no longer likes, he usually passes it along to my brother and I before trading it in. I think that is why some of these are so hard to get rid of, is I see them as gifts, but in reality, they were someone else's garbage that I am now hanging onto. If he didn't like it and I don't like it, why on earth am I keeping it around?

Paul I will hang on to some of your other work, but this album is going to hit the road.

Everlast - Forever Everlasting

When Whitey Ford Sings The Blues came out, I rushed to my local Target store which was running a sale where the CD was only $8. I couldn't get the song What It's Like out of my head and I knew I had to hear the rest of the album. I was not disappointed. I even spent the time to read the complete liner notes, which is a rarity. I was a little let down that the lyrics were not included, but I got over it pretty quickly.

I was lucky that my parents never cared if I owned albums with a parental advisory sticker. They figured I heard much worse things at home and as long as I didn't repeat it, there was not harm done. Most of my friends were jealous as they had to sneak their vulgar albums home and listen to them on headphone under fear of being caught. I knew at least 3 friends that had their Adam Sandler "What the Hell Happened To Me" albums confiscated over the years and each one stills holds a grudge against their parents to this day. The one advantage of having such lax rules around language in my house was that I was able to explore music and comedy that many of my peers did not have access to. After Columbine, many records stores became fearful of being prosecuted for selling minors games that were rated Mature and CDs with Parental Advisory warnings, surprisingly I never had an issue buying R rated movies. On one fateful day, I went up to the counter at the local Record Exchange to buy Denis Leary's album No Cure For Cancer and the cashier explained to me the album was considered explicit and he would not sell it to me without a parent or guardian. When I went back to the car and explained this to my dad he was furious. He went into the store and beratedthe guy that he has no business know what he son is listening to and he saw us walking around the store together the entire time and how much of an inconvenience it was for him to have to stand in line with his son just to buy a comedy album. After that day, no one in the Record Exchange ever asked me for ID or a parent.

As for Everlast, once I knew every song on White Ford, I went out and bought all the House of Pain albums and started to memorize all of those as well. A few years went by and I had assumed that I had his entire catalog when I happened upon this album in a Borders Outlet. I jumped at the chance to hear something, but I was disappointed. There were some catchy tunes, but overall nothing really stood out. I had no interest hearing him rap about girl problems or the bible. Overall after a few spins it joined Whitey Ford on the shelf. Hearing this album again, I can now appreciate the funk beats that are littered throughout the songs. While there are no lost classics on this early solo album, it was fun to hear a rapper in his formative years before striking it be with Jump Around.

Songs I Really Enjoyed: F@*% Everybody, The Rhythm

Songs that made me want to stick a Q-tip too deep in my ear canal: What is This? On the Edge

Decision: Like the sample on Goodbye, Nah, nah, nah, nah, hey hey hey, goodbye.

John Lennon - Rock 'n Roll

John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll is a hard album. While I enjoy Lennon's music and have a love of 50's music, this album never quite gels for me. The overpowering horns and production ruin the majority of the songs. The one exception is Stand by Me, which deserves to be on any John Lennon greatest hits collection.

My brother gave me this CD for Christmas a few years ago. He is a huge Lennon fan and owns all the CDs and knows most of the songs inside and out. When Rock 'n' Roll was reissued in 2004, he planned to re-buy it and passed along his copy to me. I listened to it a few times, but it was quickly filed in the Beatles section of my collection and I've moved on. From time to time, I would put together a Lennon mix and would pull out the album hoping to find a hidden classic to include, but it was never to be. Eventually I bought the Lennon box which includes 6 of the 13 tracks and really does boil the album down to the bare essentials.

Songs I Love: Stand By Me

Songs that do not live up to the originals: The rest of the tracks

Decision: John Lennon was an amazing artist, but had a few missteps in his career. I would consider this CD as one of those. Goodbye Rock 'n' Roll. Ain't That a Shame.

Bloodhound Gang - One Fierce Beer Coaster

I cannot believe this album is still in my collection. There is one redeeming aspect to this album, an appearance by Vanilla Ice. (He is credited as Rob Van Winkle in the liner notes). While I was in high school Vanilla Ice came to play at my home town. I believe he may be the only act to be able to claim that outside of Beatles tribute bands. Some of us tried to attend the show, but unfortunately the show was 18 and over only. Since none of us had a fake ID, we were banished to the parking lot. We were able to hear some of the show from there, but was not the memorable experience I was hoping for. As for Bloodhound Gang, I did throughly enjoy their album Hooray for Boobies. For the time being that CD remains in the collection and their first album Finger Lickin' Good remains in my cassette collection. The reason I do not enjoy this album is not the juvenile humor, but the lack of rhythm to the lyrics and the forgettable beats.

There are quite a few humorous lines sprinkled throughout the CD, that make me smile reading the lyrics, but hearing them executed was another thing. The only aspect of the album that I can appreciate more now than as a teen are jokes at the expense of New Jersey.

Songs I Liked: Boom, Going Nowhere Slow

Songs that can be forgotten to the sands of time: The other 10 tracks

Decision: Another one bites the dust.

Aerosmith - Get a Grip

I decided that I wanted to start with a slow underhand pitch right over the plate. While I enjoy Aerosmith, this album has been sitting on my shelf for years without being listened to and it was time to give it another spin.

I've always had a problem with going to the eye doctor. The thought of putting anything in my eyes including eye drops would cause me to shiver. Unfortunately when you have a -8.0 and -7.0 prescription, you cannot avoid getting glasses. Even though the trip usually resulted with tears in my eyes, there was one redeeming aspect, the trip to Marc's Fun Time Pizza Palace. This was the ultimate video game arcade. It was a converted Chuck E. Cheese, that had two floors of games. The first floor had all the latest games, pinball machines, the theater with the slowly deteriorating Chuck E. Cheese characters where you could eat your pizza, the prize table and skee ball. The basement consisted of all the aging games that were usually a quarter to play and the ball pit. While my attention was usually drawn to X-Men and TMNT, any game with a machine gun controller was worth a look. As I approached, all I could hear blaring music coming from the game. The same song just kept repeating ad nauseum, drilling deeper and deeper into my brain. While I didn't know it at the time, that song was Eat the Rich.

I didn't understand my interest in the game at the time, all I knew was that it had a machine gun that shot CDs, a blaring soundtrack, a cool looking music group and a woman dressed up in leather screaming orders to you. In retrospect, the woman in leather was probably the biggest selling point, just my adolescent brain hadn't figured out why I was drawn to that image. I usually wouldn't make it past the first level, but I was fascinated. I eventually bought the game for Playstation and had those songs even further ingrained in my subconscious. Within the year I owned the album.

Listening to the album now, a few songs still stand out as classic Aerosmith. Eat the Rich opens with the Steven Tyler's great spoken word intro and a sample from Walk this Way and plows into the opening song. Get a Grip and Fever continue this energy and kept my interest peaked. Livin' on the Edge brings me back to listening to Weird Al's Livin' In the Fridge, but that is a story for another review. If I wasn't determined to listen to all this albums complete, I would have skipped the next two songs. Flesh and Walk on Down were a test of my patiences and I really was not a fan of Joe Perry's vocals on the latter. The album contains a ridiculous amount of songs that eventually became singles, 7 of the 14 were released as singles in some fashion and I even new the song Line Up from the Ace Ventura soundtrack.

Now it's time to make the final decision, does the album stay or move on to a new owner.

Songs I Loved: Eat the Rich, Get a Grip, Cryin'

Songs I Never Want to Hear Again: Flesh, Walk on Down, Gotta Love It

Decision: Goodbye Get a Grip. While there are songs I enjoy, the majority of them also appear on Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology which I also own. The only song that will leave the collection that I may want to hear again someday is Get a Grip, but ultimately it's a song I can live without.

I chose this album because I thought it was going to be an easy choice to sack, but going back I realize that it was a decent album with a fun sound. I'm worried that if I'm having a difficult time with this one, by the time I get to day 365, I will really be struggling.

The Start of a New Project

I have a tendency to be a bit of a collector. I have stacks of comic books, overflowing bookshelves, an entire chest full of old VHS tapes and racks of DVDs. Although none of these rival my music collection. While I still have my fair share of records and cassettes, my CD collection has taken on a life of its own. With over 1,500 titles, its started to become overwhelming as you can see above.

How did I let my collection go from a rack that held 25 CDs to being partially stored in boxes in my closet? My exposure to music collecting started even before I could walk. My dad would push me around the Record Exchange and record conventions in my stroller. Most of the time I would come home empty handed and if I did get anything it was usually a superhero record. Realistically I just enjoyed spending that time with my dad. My real interest in music began in 1994 when my brother and I received our first stereo for Christmas. This was the first CD player anyone in my family had owned and my bother and I instantly wanted something to play. My dad rushed us out the record exchange and we began combing the racks for something we both would enjoy. Being 10 and 8, my brother and I did not know much about music outside of a few radio hits and what our parents listened to, but we both shared a love of Weird Al Yankovic. My brother and I pooled our money and brought home Weird Al's Greatest Hits Volume 2 and the Mighty Ducks 2 soundtrack for $5 apiece.

Our collection remained pretty stagnant for a number of years, we were too preoccupied with making mix tapes and taking cassette tapes out of the library to really be bothered with buying CDs. All that changed when our parents got divorced in the summer of 1997. Instead of seeing both our parents everyday, we now had a schedule to stick to. My dad wanted to make sure that we spent all the time we could together, so we started going to the library every week and also we began taking our weekly pilgrimage to the record exchange. We usually didn't venture outside of the budget racks, but we always came home with something. Over the years I learned more and more about music to become closer to my dad, since it was always a subject I knew we could always relate to. We started heading out to new record stores and would always find something new and exciting to bring home.

Music eventually became the way I related to people. When I got to college, I befriended the local record store owner and every time I would come into the store he had more recommendations and would even bring in albums from his personal collection for me to listen to. I eventually became a DJ at the college radio station which gave me even more expose to music. As all this was happening my collection continued to grow and grow. I would occasionally weed out a few stinkers, but almost everything remained.

For a long time, I looked at my CDs as a collection of memories. Each one bringing me back to the time it was added to the shelf. It is only now that I realize that I will still have those memories whether or not I own the physical CD. Realistically my collection will keep growing since there will always be new music I want to explore, but as I move forward I have to start saying goodbye to albums of yesteryear.

Which brings me to my current mission. Each day for the next year I plan to choose one of my CDs at random and give it a listen. I will then come back and write up my thoughts on the album and any memories I have associated with it. Then I will force myself to decide whether it is worthy to remain. If any of the albums or stories bring back memories of your own or inspire you to take on task of your own, I would love to hear from you.

I will be back tomorrow with my first post.