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| From | "Frank Padellaro" <kingradio@pumpingstation.com> |
| Subject | Re: ABC ... it's easy as 1,2,3 |
| Date | Fri, 4 Jul 2003 02:52:50 -0500 |
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I love this kind of semantics. boring?!?! what could be more fascinating? I tend to side with the idea that it's my record collection, so anything I think about filing is probably okay. I agree with a lot on this list, but the place I differ is in the foreign language definite article. I never thought it out completely before, but I realize now that I have filed these discs without an absolute rule. I tend to file American bands with the foreign article by the article, hence Los Lobos is filed starting "LOS", but I tend to file bands of foreign origin much the way I would file an english language act starting with The, hence Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are filed under "F". Until this thread, I hadn't thought that was weird and never have been confused about where to look. Now, I find my actions indefensible. :)
Frank.
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com>
Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 01:49:26 -0500
>> Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 08:35:20 -0700
>> From: JBrenneman@macdermid.com
>> To: audities@smoe.org
>> Subject: Re: Lennon-McCartney
>> Message-ID: <OFA2B572A0.70FA2166-ON85256D58.005535C2@mymacdermid.com>
>>
>>
>> From: "crotherskp" <crotherskp@juno.com>
>> >As an full-on A-RO, here's a question for the list:
>>
>> >Where do you file Los Super Seven? Under L or S?
>> >Where does Los Lobos go? Before or after The Lobotomies?
>>
> Good questions. These are issues that have vexed music retailers,
>journalists, and collectors alike for years. Does the J. Geils Band go under
>"J" or "G"? Where do I file T.Rex within my "T" section -- under "Tr" or at
>the very beginning of the "T"'s, since the band's name has a period after
>the T? Does the band called the 45s get filed under "F", or do I put them in
>a separate numerical section alongside 9-Thirty, 10 Heads High, and 999?
>
> I tend to follow the alphabetization used by my home copy of the AMG
>encyclopedia. Given their mission, I'm sure that AMG has thought through all
>of the pertinent filing questions (perhaps Stewart Mason can shed some light
>on this). If you have a similar alphabetical reference tome such as *The
>Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll* or *The Trouser Press Guide* in
>your house, you might want to use it as your alphabetizing guide instead.
>But since a large percentage of my CDs, LPs, and cassettes are Audities
>fodder (read: obscure indie artists) that don't appear in the AMG volume, I
>have to use common sense. Where am I most likely to look for something, and
>where is someone who may be visiting my home most likely to look for it as
>well?
>
> I speak English, not Spanish, so any act that uses a Spanish
>definite article (e.g., Los Lobos, Los Bravos, Los Super Seven) gets filed
>under "Los". Bands who are named after an individual are alphabetized
>according to that individual in traditional fashion. Hence, my J. Geils Band
>albums sit on the shelf betwixt the Gear Daddies and the Georgia Satellites;
>Kenny Howes and the Yeah! find their home after Eric Howell and the Implants
>and before the Hudson Brothers; and Graham Parker and the Rumour get filed
>amongst both Graham Parker and the Shot and the Graham Parker albums in
>which GP didn't share billing with his backing band -- and the two Rumour
>albums *sans Parker* that I own, *Max* and *Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs & Krauts*,
>are ensconced separately from the GP & the R albums. They're at the back of
>the "R"'s in between the Rubinoos and Todd Rundgren.
>
> Martin Luther Lennon and Alice Cooper, bands whose frontmen adopted
>stage names identical to the names of their respective bands, are filed
>under "L" and "C" respectively, since Martin Luther Lennon the band was more
>or less a vehicle for Martin Luther Lennon (aka Tony Perkins) the
>individual, and the king of shock rock who was born Vincent Furnier and who
>gave us "School's Out", "I'm Eighteen", and "Feed My Frankenstein" has been
>identified a lot longer now with the name Alice Cooper than his original
>band ever was.
>
> I file numerically-named bands alphabetically, so you'll find the
>45s under "F" at my house.
>
> Some people file the Dukes of Stratosphear under "X", since the
>Dukes were basically the psychedelic alter ego of XTC. I file 'em under "D",
>since: a) the presence of XTCer Dave Gregory's brother Ian (aka "E.I.E.I.
>Owen") as one of the Dukes makes their lineup ever-so-slightly different
>from that of the main band; b) none of the songs recorded by the Dukes have
>been compiled with XTC material in any Virgin re-release, which means that
>the band's label treated the Dukes as a discrete entity; and c) the Dukes
>have their own AMG entry.
>
> Other judgment calls I've made: I own a greatest-hits cassette by
>the Motown girl group that gave us "Dancing In the Street" and "Heat Wave"
>among others, on which the group is labeled "Martha Reeves and the
>Vandellas". Well, they're far better known as just "Martha and the
>Vandellas", so I file them under "M" rather than "R" in spite of the name on
>the cover. I'm certain that if Ms. Reeves had her druthers, she'd agree with
>me that she keeps better company with Chris Mars on one side and the
>Marvelettes on the other than she would with Lou Reed and the Regulators.
>Both the US and the UK had bands called the Beat back in the late seventies;
>over on these shores, the ska act from the mother country was known as the
>English Beat, and I concur unapologetically with that bit of ethnocentrism
>by filing Dave Wakeling, Ranking Roger & Co. under "E". I could've been
>charitable to them by filing the L.A. power pop act under "C", since they
>were also known as Paul Collins' Beat, but I chose not to. However, the
>Britpop act that was forced to call themselves the London Suede on their
>American releases due to a lawsuit by an obscure stateside act known as
>Suede gets filed under "S" in my collection rather than "L". I don't own
>anything by the American act called Suede, and I couldn't even tell you who
>or what he/she/it was or were. And nobody I know refers to the band fronted
>by Brett Anderson (and which once featured guitarist Bernard Butler) as the
>London Suede. They're simply Suede.
>
>> Do you put your CD's by The Beatles in your 'T's' or your 'B's'? I guess
>> it's really not the same thing though, is it? Hmmmm....
>>
> The definite article of the primary user language ("The" for us
>Anglophones, as opposed to Spanish "Los", German "Das", French "Le",
>Norwegian "Det", etc.) isn't considered alphabetically relevant in any
>cataloging system of which I'm aware. Hence, every music store in which
>you've ever set foot files the Beatles in the"'B" bin and the Rolling Stones
>in the "R" bin, and I can't imagine anybody going against the grain by
>filing either band under "T" in their personal collections. Plus, consider
>for a moment just how many bands over the years have had names that began
>with the definite article. That includes the vast majority of all
>rock'n'roll and R&B acts from the fifties and sixties, a high percentage of
>all punk and power pop acts from the seventies and beyond, as well as a lot
>of other groups. If you consider the "The" to be alphabetically relevant,
>I'm guessing that much, if not most, of your music collection is filed under
>"T" -- which sorta reduces the usefulness of alphabetical order.
>
> I'm interested in seeing how other Auditeers with large collections
>organize their music, although I suspect that this is a subject that
>probably bores a lot of people. I'm as fascinated by the organizational
>obsessiveness of other music collectors as much as I am by my own. I
>remember taking a date to see *Diner* (one of my favorite movies) back in
>college, and howling with laughter at the scene where Shrevie (Daniel Stern)
>lectures his wife Beth (Ellen Barkin) about the importance of his record
>collection and how it exasperates him when she misfiles his records after
>playing them. My bewildered date thought that I must be completely deranged.
>If only she knew!
>
>
> Gregory Sager
>
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