Rock On

My background is in classical music. I started playing the cello when I was six. It's what I've listened to, studied, and enjoyed the most but being a Boomer I grew up in the age of Rock and Roll. I was never an Elvis Fan but going to the movies on Saturday afternoon usually meant Elvis movies, John Wayne, Godzilla and since just about every kid in my neighborhood was in love with Annette Funicello I probably saw every beach movie ever made. Anyway Rock and Roll, hard rock, acid rock, progressive rock and the big rock candy mountain all had an impact on my musical development. As an adult I discovered Jazz and it's always struck a special chord within me but Jazz doesn't remind me of places and times like Rock does.

The Beatles, the Stones, the Beachboys, Yes, The Bee Bees, all remind me of different times in my life. I had never really thought of building a 'Classic Rock Collection', I 'm too close to it. With Classical and Jazz I kind of want to play teacher and show people what they are missing but Rock is kind of woven through my life in a way that's hard to step back from. I remember arguing about who was better the Stones or the Beatles but it was a matter of style. The Stones were the bad boys of Rock and Roll and it kind of said something about you if you preferred the Stones over the Beatles. So I was surprised how much I learned when I started looking at Rock and Roll from a collection development standpoint. Not so much 50's Rock. Elvis dominated everybody and those people I hadn't heard of I'd at least the songs, but the 50's was the age of the top 40. It was a rat race for the hit single and the cover to go with it but the 60's began the age of Album Rock. When I was looking at a history of the Rolling Stones, for example, I discovered they were a transitional band that went from top 40's to Album Rock, while in the US the Doors were already totally into the album concept. They would pick out what they thought was a good song from an album and ship it to the radio for a hit list. So anyone looking at what I bought last year to build the Rock collection will notice "Best of ..." up through the early 60's but afterwards I bought albums only. The Beatles Revolver Album, Tommy by the Who, and Pink Floyd's the Wall are all albums really should be listened to as a whole experience.

I didn't just buy best sellers. I got the Sex Pistols for example. They only produced one album and then crashed and burned on their first world tour but they took a wrecking ball to rock and changed Rock music forever. As far as I know I've never even heard a Sex Pistols song but I sure remember the Sex Pistols. Janis Joplin kind of falls into that category. She hasn't fared well with critics over the years but in her time she was a major force. I remember the Grateful Dead and knew a lot of deadheads but a Dead concert was more of an event that you had to experience. I'd be hard pressed remember a single Grateful Dead song but they were so important I had to add them to the collection.

The 80's are an interesting time musically with Punk, New Wave and the last vestiges of Rock. My own personal opinion is that MTV gave mortibound Rock a shot in the arm. Sweet Dreams by the Euryhmics is a great song but I wonder whether it would have had the same impact without the Music Video. That's why I included so many Music Videos in my DVD buy last year. Robert Palmer and ZZ Top were MTV staples and it would be a shame if their Music videos weren't a part of a Rock collection. I think what I got was choice but if I missed something let me know.

I've just been looking my DVD order from last year. I was hired at the end of the budget year and had a frantic month where I had to learn the collection at the same time I was ordering. My DVD order was all over the place. It's a grab bag of classics from silent's like Buster Keaton's the General to more modern movies like John Grishams's Runaway Jury. One of the things I did was buy a lot of MTV type music videos since I was also building the Rock Music Collection on CD and couldn't help noticing that Music videos became an important influence on music of the 80's and 90's. I added MTV video such as Blondie, the Eurythmics, ZZ Top, and Madonna. That got me thinking about other film and television rock and roll that should be in any video/DVD collection. I found the Monterey Pop Festival, Elvis and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, a Hard Days Night, and Yellow Submarine on DVD. Elvis and the Beatles On the Ed Sullivan Show are especially important events in Rock History. The Monterey Pop Festival like Woodstock was a seminal event in Rock History and I got them for their historical perspective more than their entertainment value.

I'm also added to the Television on DVD collection, Honeymooners, Twilight Zone, I love Lucy, Gilligan's Island. We've already added many of these and I will be adding more seasons to what we already have. Two minor things I did was add some Stand-up Comics and some Musicals. I don't know how popular these two areas will be but they seemed to be things a library AV collection should have.

I guess I'm big in integration. I rebuild the Rock Music to the CD collection so I have to add MTV, and I evaluate the Classic TV collection so I get Children's to add Rocky and Bulwinckle. I mean how can you have a classic collection of film without Bugs Bunny.

I am sort of mad at video companies. I tried to get the classic 2D double feature length Popeyes. I mean they are even on the Library of Congress National Film Registry but they are out of print. It is amazing how much vintage and classic film and TV is out of print at any given time. Makes me want to pull my hair out.

The Horror The horror

Okay for the serious Horror fans out there I just finished inputting my Horror order. It will be dribbling in all spring so don't haunt me just yet but this is what I've done. From the silents I got the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Phantom of the Opera. It's not comprehensive but it is choice.

The thirties were the golden age of Hollywood Horror. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, King Kong, the Invisible man, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. How many times have these golden oldies been remade? The forties were good also just not as famous. I always want to put the Wolfman with the thirties crowd and the Val Lewton horror films are classics that are under appreciated. I did order Cat People, Curse of the Cat People, I walked with a Zombie, and the Body Snatcher.

The fifties saw sci-fi horror fusion with the Thing (From Another World), Creature from the Black Lagoon, Them!, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Godzilla, and the Fly. And a new crop of horror stars took over from Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Vincent Price with House of Wax and Hammer Productions made stars of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee with the Horror of Dracula and the Curse of Frankenstein.

The sixties saw Hitchcock dominating horror with Psycho and the Birds with other mainstream horror including Cape Fear and Rosemary's Baby. Village of the Damned was a vintage British sci-fi/Horror crossover and the Haunting is still regarded as the best haunted house movie ever made. George Romero changed Horror movies forever with Night of the Living Dead in 1968.

The 70's brought us blockbuster Horror with the Exorcist in 1973, Jaws in 1975, Carrie and the Omen in 1976 and Alien in 1979 while teen scream Halloween led the way for Friday the Thirteenth and Nightmare on Elm Street in the eighties. And don't forget the Abominable Dr. Phibes and the Changling!

By the 80's Horror is in full production. The Shining, the Howling, Poltergeist, the Dead Zone, GhostBusters, Beetlejuice, and the Lost Boys are just some of our 80's Horror, while Arachnophobia, Silence of the Lambs, and the Sixth Sense are just a flavor of 90's Horror.

If you want a good scare Check us out!

Movie Right Along

At the moment I'm working on building the DVD collection. I started with classics, Academy Award winners and various lists of 'the one hundred best'. I haven't gotten around to the Library of Congress National Film Registry yet but I suppose that's coming up soon enough, but when I looked at those kinds of lists I notice a serious lack of fun stuff. Western, Horror, Science Fiction, Action-thrillers, the kind of fun movies people want to see. So I'll be mixing classic Horror with my Academy Award winners. This summer's reading program theme is paws, claws, scales and tales and the YA librarian will be doing Creature Features so I guess I'll be making sure we have a complete set of Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. Scream Queens like Fay Wray have to be in the collection somewhere and I'm really curious to see some of Val Lewton's RKO horror. I remember Cat People and I can't wait to see I Walked With a Zombie.

A beginning.

Building a collection is the fun part for librarians. I love helping people and I love being a know-it-all but collection building is selfish narcissistic ego boosting Nirvana. I want to hear people say "Wow! You have this! I'd never seen it before. This is great!" I also love digging into new areas of study and finding the core, the classics, the gems. I'm a jazz lover and while researching Latin American Music I discovered Tito Puente. I always knew there was a big band jazz sound in Latin Music that I liked but I was blown away by Tito. He got the very best musicians to play with him so if you like a big band sound with hot pure jazz try Tito Puente.

I just started here at Rogers and barely got in an order at the end of last year. I spent what cash was left on rebuilding the Rock Classics and got halfway through C&W. First thing this year I'm finishing Country & Western and doing a big Latin Music buy. I'll also be building the core collection of Motion Pictures DVD's. For those Rock fans out that drop by, I tried to integrate Rock classics with our DVD collection. Look for the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the Monterey Pop, and MTV classics. 50's rock were 45's, the sixties and seventies were album rock, but the eighties belonged to MTV. Check it out.