In these days when we are all living longer more and more of us will be faced with be faced with spending our declining years in sheltered housing.  It goes without saying that most of our possessions will not be going to the home with us.  There is not the room in sheltered housing to accommodate a lifetime’s collection of memorabilia, ornaments, and keep sakes.

As that time approaches for me I have begun to think of what CDs I will take with me.  (Do not talk to me of downloads, compressed files etc.  I want to have things to hold, treasure, pore over, and remember when and where I bought them – or the original vinyl).  

Anyway, it would seem to me that any reasonable home would allow about 100 CDs, after all, they take up little space.  The problem is how to pick my essential 100 albums.  I have a dislike of “best of” albums.  The tracks are out of context and invariably, not all the tracks chosen are the ones I want.  I do not want to spend lots of time burning tracks onto my own “best of” CDs.  That, in turn, means that I can only choose one or two albums from every artist or band to ensure I get a good spread. 

With most bands restricting myself to one album is easy.  Take the Beatles as an example, there is only one album worth having, Revolver.  Revolver is the epitome of the perfect pop record and so an obvious choice – if I decide I need anything by the Beatles.  Zappa is the complete opposite.  There are just too many great albums, Freak Out, Joe’s Garage, Chunga’s Revenge, Hot Rats to name just 4.  Deciding which one or two to take is going to be a problem. 

Over the coming weeks I will start making decisions and update you on my choices.  Please feel free to suggest albums that I should include in my list of essential 100 albums.