For reasons ranging from time and interest (or lack of either), it’s been more than a year since I’ve done one of these posts. And I have to admit that the topic of this one actually came up in late summer or early fall. But I’m hoping to resume this a bit, if only sporadically.
For a while, the blogroll in the left sidebar contained a category called “The Trinity.” It listed the web sites for Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, my three favorite male recording artists. A couple months ago I was switching off CDs from the house to my vehicle and, for some reason, wondered if that belief was reflected in my CDs. Thus, I went through them and totaled up how many I had from various artists.
Before getting into it, there are a couple qualifiers. First, the counts may not be wholly accurate, what with a couple vehicles and at least one stereo system on each of the three floors of the house. Second, the count is by title, not number of CDs. Thus, a multi-CD release counts the same as one CD. Finally, the count also includes bootlegs, not just studio or authorized live recordings
That said, the numbers confirmed that Browne, Dylan and Springsteen are my musical holy trinity. I have 36 Dylan releases, 24 Springsteen ones (which includes solo and E Street Band) and 22 Browne titles. There are also probably the three artists for whom I have the most bootlegs.
The numbers also surprised me a bit. For example, I wouldn’t have guessed that I had more Neil Young (18), Santana (16), Chicago (14) and Clapton (14) releases than Beatles (12), although the Beatles count doesn’t include any solo releases. I was even more surprised to discover I have as many releases by Grand Funk as the Rolling Stones (10 each).
The results of my jazz collection wasn’t too surprising either. The problem with it is the various combinations. For example, do you count Return to Forever with Chick Corea? Does Cannonball & Coltrane count for both or, if not, for which? Using what was undoubtedly a completely capricious and inconsistent method of counting, the leaders didn’t really surprise me.
I had 19 releases by both Chick Corea and Pat Metheny, my two favorite modern jazz artists. Also not surprising was that Bill Evans was next at 17, followed by Miles with 14. As for Cannonball and Coltrane? Eleven each, although I still have no clue which way I counted the joint CD.
So, not only were my beliefs sustained, it seems the Trinity are pretty well permanently enshrined on my CD shelves.
The best music … is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
Bruce Springsteen
