have you ever given away (whoopee!) music because you thought someone else might appreciate IT more?

yeah, that first guns and roses ep. my friend didn't like it either, but kept it anyway. now it's worth big dollars. ouch

two sides to every story.

I hole hearedly gave to the unsuspecting public p'orrige & adrian borland's SOUND.

plus peele wimberly's soundrack to the Connels deep south '92 tour.



Post Edited (11-19-08 23:05)

No, but I've had an album STOLEN by someone who thought they appreciated it more than I did. Sad thing is--she was right.

Damned if I can remember what it was she took. Whatever. They're both long gone and I hope she's happy with it.

I gave away a bunch of my cds and made copies of them to my ex .
perhaps i made copies of them cause subliminally i thought we werent going to last.
i recently gave away some of my vinyl cause i knew the person i gave them to was so into it that their happiness would 10 times surpass mine having it collecting dust.

unfornately i gave up on giving away my cassettes and threw them out.
i put and ad even on craigs list and tried to give them away and asked every friend or friends friend or even anybody who is into music if they wanted a few hundred cassettes . no deal

No, but I was once gifted a copy of the first Faust album for that very reason. It took a few years for me to finally "discover" its charms, though. Thanks, Matt, wherever you are.

My wife stole the Jayhawks' Tomorrow the Green Grass on our first date and has yet to give it back.

No, but I've been the grateful recipient of such gifts.

The kid across the street gave me two albums he'd gotten from his record club (for not sending back his card on time), on the notion that I'd like them a lot more than he did: More Songs About Buildings and Food and Armed Forces. He was so right.

My brother bought Remain in Light and U2's first album, both on the strength of the then-current buzz. He decided to give them to me, because he didn't like either of them very much.

I've always been the bearer of musical gifts, through rarely appreciated and almost never reciprocated. I've had much better luck with mixtapes, but it's long been since I've found new meaningful friendships around music; that's why I have to slink off to grimy backwaters on the internet to indulge my obsession.

In the early nineties, I gave my copy of Pop Will Eat Itself's Box Frenzy (1987) to my oldest friend (whom I met on the first day of first grade in 1976). As it was released by Rough Trade, distribution was spotty even before they went bankrupt. The thing was practically OOP about the day it came out, and my friend had been trying unsuccessfully to track down a copy for at least 2 years at that point.
Out of sympathy, I gave him mine. Of course, I found a used copy of it about a week later. It was $3.
Sanctuary came out with a deluxe Box Frenzy reissue in 2003.

I got Phil Ochs' Pleasures of the Harbor for my 13th birthday from a girl named Danielle. I had a massive crush on her and was chuffed that she inscribed it but when i realized she wasn't crushing back i gave it away in anger. would have liked to see what it said later on. plus it's a great album that i had to reacquire.

Yes indeed. I dumped an entire box load of cassettes on a used record store back in the late 90s. I think it came down to "make me an offer for the entire box and don't tell anyone you got this junk from me." Must have felt like it all was utter crap, as I can't recall more than a few titles or bands without a little help (by scanning the A-Z lists on this very web site, thank you). This list is by no means complete:

Slammin' Watusis
Tar Babies
Balaam & The Angel
The Connells
Dead or Alive
Face to Face
Fishbone
Flesh For Lulu
Game Theory
Husker Du
The Royal Court Of China
INXS
Lone Justice
Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction
Mental As Anything
Peter Murphy
Ned's Atomic Dustbin
Oingo Boingo
Railway Children
Rave-Ups
Shriekback
Sting
That Petrol Emotion
Echo & The Bunnymen
Three O’ Clock
Thrashing Doves
Ultravox
Vapors
Woodentops

Before anyone starts sharpening their knives, allow me to point out that in some cases (That Petrol Emotion’s “Chemicrazy,” or Husker Du’s “Warehouse: Songs & Stories” for example) there was only one lame album by an otherwise decent band in my collection and it turns out that I was right to junk it anyway. Others (“Wooden Foot Cops” by Woodentops comes to mind … or any major label release by The Rave-Ups) represent later releases by good bands that just didn’t possess all the quality of the debut or better parts of the catalogue. Some (“Echo & The Bunnymen’s “Reverberation”) were just outright garbage and I should have known better. That, or I was reaching. THAT, or I just wasn’t ever going to “get it” (see: Game Theory. I know a lot of people like them. Allegedly!).

Mostly, there are no regrets on the aforementioned list. Some of those old Shriekback titles weren’t awful. The Zodiac Mindwarp tape was a guilty pleasure. But life has not suffered on bit from dumping those titles in the hopes that they would find a loving home elsewhere. I wonder if they ever did.

The burning question I have now is:

Why in the name of all that is holy did I keep all those stupid Gene Loves Jezebel tapes?

(((“note to self …”)))

Personally, I admire anyone who could persuade a used store to take cassettes at all, no matter who they're by.