About Collectors and a short review for "The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of"

"The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of" set is of special interest, not only because of the rare gems inside, but to collectors in general. The liner notes poke fun at collectors and the lengths that some will go just to acquire a rare item, only to listen to it once, then stick it on the shelf amongst the thousands of other rarities.

I though I was a serious collector. I'm not. There's reference in the liner notes to the famous Lenny Kunstadt, the man behind the Spivey Records. See more about him here. Anyway, I don't think anyone knows how many records he had exactly, but I've seen pictures of his collection and there's records piled hight to the ceiling in most of the space in his house.

The other famous collectors the notes mention are the eccentric Collyer Brothers in New York, who had a 4-story building to themselves at 2078 Fifth Avenue at the corner of 128th Street in Harlem. Their reclusiveness, filth and compulsive hoarding made them famous. They are said to be one of the biggest cases associated with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, as well as disposophobia, or now known as Collyer Brothers Syndrome, a fear of throwing anything away.

For years they obsessively collected newspapers (they had every NY daily newspaper, which was about 10 a day, for 30 years!), books, furniture, musical instruments, and many other items, with booby-traps set up in corridors and doorways to protect against intruders. Both were eventually found dead amidst tons of junk that they had accumulated over several decades. It took the police a few days to find them, they eventually had to cut through the roof of the building to get in because all the doors had been barricaded and the windows were almost bursting at the seams with junk.

Anyway, the reason I mention all this is because I'm somewhat of a collector myself, and as any collector, I go to some probably unnecessary lengths to acquire things sometimes and probably (no, absolutely) waste more money than I should. But I'm nowhere near as obsessive as the aforementioned cases above. I'm very selective about what I collect, I don't just collect something for its' "collect-ability". What I do collect, I also listen to look at, in the case of design books.

But what is it about the artifact itself? My friend Kelly and I got into it about this subject because I have been looking for a particular CD by Morton Feldman, "For Philip Guston" the Hat Art version that came out about a decade ago, that's now getting harder and harder to find. Well anyway, I have a burned copy of it, which Kelly told me is enough. It's not like the artwork, design or packaging is anything spectacular, it's just two colors, red and black type, typical kind of avant-garde font. But just having a burned copy is not enough! I NEED the actual artifact itself. Why??!! I'd really like to know. Maybe it's the designer in me. Maybe it's the obessiveness of my character which will always be ingrained in me.

The other obsessive thing about my collecting which some would think is "going too far" is buying Mini Paper Jacket versions of CD's that I already own, just to have that pristinely printed Japanese version with the nice smell, Obi-strip and Japanese notes that I can't even read.

So yes, I have spent far too much money on things like this, but you know what? It makes me happy and it's a healthier obsession than collecting ladies underwear, or buying drugs I think. I enjoy the eternal search, the treasure hunt, the sifting through used bins at record stores. It's all very relaxing for me.

That's enough about my collecting. Now let's get to this set "The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of". Whether you know any of these bands or not, if you have any interest whatsoever in old blues and country from the 20's and 30's era, you should buy this set. It's worth every penny.

Some of these old 7 inch singles were never even made available to the public, in some cases only 1 copy exists. A lot of this stuff was acquired through door to door canvassing, which was pretty common back then for hardcore collectors. This whole collection is the result of several famous record collectors pooling their most valuable records to share them with you.

Don't be fooled by the term "blues". I'm no authority on blues but I know this is the real deal. The old blues music from this age has a magic to it which will haunt you. In a good way though. For those of you who think "blues" is George Thorogood, you probably won't get into this set. Hats off to Yazoo for putting this set out. Great package, great cover illustration too by .

Below here are some links of interest pertaining to the people mentioned above:

http://earthdude1.tripod.com/collyer/collyer.html
http://www.search.com/reference/Collyer_brothers
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/2639/LEN.HTM
http://www.spiveyrecords.com/aboutus.htm