Get Lucky.

What on earth is more important than memories?
I'm lucky, I have some amazing memories, summer afternoons spent lounging in the sun, particularly good red wine, good meals out with friends, driving and laughing in the sunshine, university, holidays, places I've been, people I know. And music, it's all intertwined with music. Impending co-habitation has meant that I've cleared out and organised my record collection. It all went a bit High Fidelity for a couple of days. There were CDs and records EVERYWHERE. They were laying on every available surface and there were arguments, BIG arguments about what order they ought to be kept in. You see, my record collection is somewhat extensive, and it hasn't been organised properly since I left Aberystwyth four years ago. Organising your records isn't something you do when you are expecting to live somewhere different every three months. Until now I've not really been settled in one place for a while. However it is high time I sorted things out.
Himself doesn't really own any physical music, I think he jumped on the download wagon and has never looked back, so this is MY record collection, because I don't really understand downloaded music. Some quite heated discussions were had on how the collection ought to be ordered, and what, if anything, ought to be given away. With some helpful advice it was decided that the collection should be ordered alphabetically, by surname as they would in any self respecting record store. The idea of ordering the record collection chronologically was mooted, my friend J said he liked chronological as records got to live with the records they first lived with in the bag on the way home from the record store. That however struck me as a little too far, (and I'm sure J won't mind me saying...odd) and the only person who is going to remember that I bought Ryan Adam's - Gold at the same time as I bought the digital remaster of Dylan's - Blood On The Tracks is me.
The real cut and thrust of this post is actually a confession. I can remember where, and why, I bought every one of those CDs and records. Every one means something to me and I own some truely awful tripe because of this. Daniel Beddingfield's - Gotta Get Thru This album reminds me of a holiday I took with the Venture Scouts in Cornwall aged 16, and no, its not good music, in fact, its shit. Grade A cack. But I personally love it. James Blunt's second album - All The Lost Souls bought when I was frankly old enough to have no excuse has the song on it 1973. This song was playing on the radio when one of my dear friends announced he was getting married. And for some reason the lyric As time goes by I will always be in a club with you in 1973 stuck in my head, and I had to own the album. Baz Lurhman's - Sunscreen, equally cheesy, but if I ever need a voice of reason, it is somehow carried in that song. I'd like to point out at this point I do own some fantastic music, and all of that has meaning too, but for that I feel no guilt. The thing that made me feel lucky was explaining to Himself why I wasn't going to part with anything from my record collection, NOTHING, AT ALL because it all had memories attached, even the utter crap. I have some good memories, and a good record collection to remind me of it. Despite the guilty pleasures.
So go on. Tell me what in your record collection counts as a guilty pleasure, why you love it, and why you wont get rid of it....