{"id":23766,"date":"2020-08-17T10:22:06","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T14:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=23766"},"modified":"2020-08-20T08:09:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-20T12:09:55","slug":"odds-sods-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/odds-sods-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Odds & Sods Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Too many things tend to bother me, and the older and (hopefully) more mature I get, I have trouble letting all the little things that bother me rush to the front of the queue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get back, new formulation of a favorite childhood candy, I’ve got a pain-in-the-ass interruption of my hard-earned career aspirations to attend to!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stand down, idiocy of a band ditching its unintentionally racist band name for a sexist one, I’ve got two sons to help through their slow journey into manhood!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s for reasons like these that I have trouble cranking out the daily content I once did here in the Halls of Rock. Trust me, I’m thankful for seeing you all in this context during our Pandemic Relief reboot. I hope I’m doing my part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was thinking about this over the weekend: What stupid thing continues to gnaw at me enough that I should move it in front of my concerns over the health of our planet or the idealism on which my country was founded? Then it came to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It bugs me that, in the digital age, some of my favorite “odds & sods” collections, those albums that collected non-LP singles and their B-sides, have been wiped away. This applies to some greatest hits albums, as well. I suspect I’ve complained about the new mix of “Young Americans” and added tracks to the CD (and beyond) versions of David Bowie<\/strong>‘s ChangesOne<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would rank the The Beatles Again<\/em> album of this odds & sods category, more commonly known as the “Hey Jude album,” among my Top 5 Beatles albums, maybe even as high as Top 3. I still have my cherished vinyl copy from boyhood, complete with its somewhat miserable, Band-inspired photos. I can still get the charge of the snap, crackle, and pop of an album I’ve carried through the ages, from my original green record player onward, from hands covered in sticky sweet stuff to pot residue to a mixture of excrement and baby wipes. But I can’t play The Beatles Again<\/em> album in its original format and sequence on a streaming service like Spotify. This bugs the shit out of me, the way things regularly used to bug the shit out of me. At least Elvis Costello & The Attractions<\/strong>‘ Taking Liberties<\/em> has been carried over from its original form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you miss any of your beloved odds & sods or greatest hits albums…as they were meant to be sequenced and presented?<\/p>\n