How do you deal w/ all the music you'll never hear?

[David Ayers]

My life will not be complete until I have heard Tyrone Washington's Train Wreck.

I used to think that.

I never used to think that... until I read this thread... and now I am beginning to think that maybe my life won't be complete, until... you know....

[Alexander]

"Do what you can with what you have and where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

[Christiern]

I take comfort in the assumption that much of what I will never hear isn't worth hearing, and in the knowledge that much of what I have heard had a positive influence on me.

Bad music makes good music sound gooder.

[AndrewHill]

I've got a lot of cd's still in the shrink wrap...gotta change that.

[A Lark Ascending]

The anxiety of missing things you have not heard is clearly widespread enough for the record companies (and smaller band based operations) to tap into.

Think of how in recent years we've had made available recordings of every concert a band or performer has made on a particular tour.

I've probably got more live CDs of the '72-74 King Crimson than I really need. But a dozen shows from the 1995 tour? I'm not sure what is to be gained for the ordinary listener from going through all of those. And how many times would you do it?

But there's clearly a demand. Fear of missing something you've not heard?

[Big Beat Steve]

While doing an online search for a particular late 40s recording that I had only been aware of an a long-OOP late 70s reissue LP (that, to make matters worse, I had failed to buy at the time), I stumbled across a CD I had never heard of before last night and immediately found an affordable copy on Amazon so placed an order, especially since - in addition to the recording I had been looking for - about 80% of the other tracks on that CD were new to me and my reissue awareness too.

And while at it, I did a bit more browsing on internet sales lists and came up with 5 or 6 more CDs, most of which held an amazing ratio of stuff I knew existed but had not come across on reissues before.

Am now eagerly awaiting my Amazon shipments.

So more than ever now I am inclined to agree with what Paul Secor said above:

There's so much music readily available - good, bad, and in between - that I can't be bothered worrying about something that I've never heard.

Plus, I've been around long enough to have found that, in the end, just about everything gets reissued in some form or other.