Wonderland Burlesque's Your Music Collection Quiz

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Your Music Collection Quiz

Well, it is 2021... a brand new year and yet another opportunity to go through all your stuff and assess... do I really need this? 

What better place to start than you music collection?

Share what you got. I am... 

1/ How many CDs do you have? Vinyl albums? Cassettes? 8-Traks? 45's?

Over 1,200 CDs.

Only 143 Albums (I used to have over 3,000 - but abandoned them in Iowa when I moved to Cali - yes, I miss them all.)

2 Cassettes - Melissa Manchester reading Pocahontas, and a worn, stretched out copy of Arylyn Gale's Back to the Midwest Night. The Manchester thing is about being a completist (something I am no longer), and Arlyn Gale's album is not out on CD and I have not found a vinyl copy of it in good condition. He's kind of like Springsteen / Graham Parker and I think he should have been much bigger than he was. Love that damn album. (I used to have a sizable cassette collection, but that got abandoned in Cali when I moved back to Minneapolis.)

I also have a lot of music I performed on cassette. Some from my high school daze, a couple of musicals and a whole album I made by myself in 1986. I have some of my songs on CD performed by other people.

No 8-Traks, I used to. Tons found in cut-out bins.

The only 45 I have is James Taylor singing You've Got A Friend - but only because the flip side is You Can Close Your Eyes - which is a song I played over and over again on this old 1950's phonograph in my basement growing up. It was how I learned to improvise harmonies. Love that damn song.

2/ What are your top 10 recording artists - based on the number of their CDs/albums you own?

I went through a period where I was a completest. With Melissa Manchester, I tracked down everything she ever breathed on. If she sang back-up on it, I found it. The only thing I could not find were a couple of early singles she put out.

I have been that way with a number of artists - not to that extent, but... close. 

Melissa Manchester

Kristine W. 

Donna Summer

Madonna

Bette Midler

Janis Ian

Toni Braxton

Janet

Marianne Faithfull

Stevie Nicks

Crowded House

ELO

Rufus

Concrete Blonde

Fleetwood Mac

George Michael

Leo Sayer

David Bowie

3/ What recording artist have you collected the most of?

So, this is weird, but I went through this e-Bay period where I was selling a ton of stuff and buying a ton of crap. I don't know what I was thinking. This was also the period when I had a bunch of electric keyboards and synths (since donated). 

I kept buying... Gary Numan CDs. 

Yes.

"Here in my car, I feel safest of all..."

He has a ton of them. Like, he just breathes out and there it is... a CD. They are all boring as F (or at least the ones I opened). Seriously? It got to be embarrassing. 

I had this one person writing me through my vendor account asking why I was buying all his CDs. They were very concerned and wanted to know if I realized most them were garbage. 

4/ What CD do you own that would surprise me (and possibly embarrass you)?

I have Metallica performing with a full-orchestra (S & M). 

I dislike Metallica.

With a passion. 

But, I got totally F'd over by a tenant and when I was cleaning out his place, I came upon this CD and I kept it. 

I have never listened to it. 

I just dislike that tenant and Metallica so much!

5/ What are your guilty pleasures - i.e. artists that the music press/public disdain, but you're rather fond of?

I adore ABBA. They are like freaky aliens. And their music sounds alien and perfect at the same time. Don't just own a Greatest Hits CD. To find out how freaky they are you need to buy the albums. It's the deep tracks that will be in awe of.

I adore Macy Gray. She sounds so stoned most of the time, but she is very funny and musically adventuresome, given her voice. Every album she put out has one song that cracks me up. I dig her and think she should be writing songs for Disney musicals. She would also make a great Disney character - not a villain, but more like a guide or sidekick for the main character. Like, she would make an awesome Dori. Or the genie in Aladdin. 

Firefall. I adore their mix of genres. Disliked them intensely when they first came out and then fell in love with them ten years after they left Atlantic Records. 

I adore 1970's sugar pop - AM radio confections that created a ton of one-hit wonders. 

I adore Disco. Classic seventies stuff. Casablanca Records ruled.

I adore early 70's funk. Before electronics got in there and made it sound like a space age computer.

6/ What CDs do you own that are still in the plastic/unopened?

The last three Madonna CDs. 

The last three Bowie CDs. 

These, because Amazon used to allow you to have digital copies, if you bought a physical copy. I would burn the digital versions and just store the CD. There's a reason I do it with Madonna... she is in need of a good editor and also, her albums are typically poorly sequenced. So, once I am familiar with the music, I reorder the tracks so they make sense. There's always a powerful story within her CDs, but she fails to tell it well.

And Bowie? I just can't bring myself to open the CDs. But I listened to the music. A lot.

A ton of Gary Numan. 

Two Claire Lynch CDs. (Bluegrass. Lovely.)

Three Christmas Queens CDs. - All the RuPaul Alum. Got them the Xmas before this one... I might open them next year.

7/ Do you own any CDs you hate?

Other than that Metallica one? Hmmm. Nope. 

I donate stuff all the time. And I never feel sorry for a CD. Someone else will love them...

8/ Do you own any CDs/Albums that you listened to so much that you can't bring yourself to listen to again?

Poor Stevie Nicks. 

I was obsessed. I thought that 'theatre' was a spirit, a muse who lived in the corners of rooms and stages and that they were using Stevie Nicks and her music to guide me through my theatrical journey.

Wait. What?

Yeah. 

Man. You join the wrong cult and you will end up believing the weirdest f'ing things. 

But, nope... can't listen to her first three albums. Love them. But, nope. 

9/ What is the first vinyl album or CD you bought? 

It is either Melissa Manchester's Melissa album (Midnight Blue) or Heart's Dreamboat Annie. 

Adore both... so much.

10/ What are the most recent CDs you bought?

Alanis Morrissette's Pretty Forks In The Road. CD of the Year. Just love it. And I really don't care for a lot of her output (although I adore Flavors of Entanglement). 

Dolly Parton's A Holly Dolly Christmas (can't recommend)

Sara Bareilles' More Love: Songs from Little Voice Season One (really dislike)

--- ---

Okay... your turn. 

You know what to do: leave your answers in the comments section, or post on your blog and leave a link. 

Love learning more about each of you. 

Thanks for sharing... and reading!

--- ---

Baby Universal - Tin Machine

Take The Night Flight - Arlyn Gale