Kevin used to give me a bunch of data CDs. His data CDs would have anywhere from 10-12 albums. Instead of building my music collection with a copy of a data CD, I would painstakingly burn each release to an individual music CD. I specifically remember thinking that if I wanted to play a release from a data CD, I'd have to have it in the format of a "music CD" for my CD player in my stereo system to be able to play it. Thus, as I continue through what I hope is my last 200 CDs in the CD to MP3 conversion, I have a lot of CD-Rs that I know were created through that process of burning a music CD for each album on a data CD.
Because I built my music collection in this manner and because I was doing this in the early 2000s, there wasn't such a thing as a "1 Terabyte" external hard drive, which is what I have now. If I could go back in time, I certainly would not have went the route I did with hundreds of CD-Rs. When I take one of these CD-Rs and put it in my CD drive to rip to MP3, there is never any artist, album, or song title information so I rely on the database within Windows Media Player and awesome sites like http://www.metal-archives.com/ to track down the song titles of what I am ripping. It drives me nuts to see MP3s called "Track 01.mp3" within a folder so I am trying to be more conscious of what I am ripping to my e:\music folder.
Another side effect of how my music collection was being expanded through the above methods is that I often was overwhelmed with new music to listen to. If I was borrowing 10 data CDs and there were 10 albums on each, that was 100 new albums being added. For a long time, perhaps too long, I tried to maintain an Excel file and religiously add each new album to it with the intended purpose of trading. I was really into that for awhile, especially with cassettes. I traded cassettes with a guy in Philadelphia at least two or three times and got some most excellent Metallica bootlegs.
What I attempted to do was to keep track of all that information in that Excel file. Again, this was prior to the explosion of being able to have a blog or a free website to post all of the information I was tracking in that Excel file online. I have never been a web developer so the suggestion to create a website and somehow use that Excel file as a database was totally beyond my comprehension. I do remember investigating and trying to understand what that meant and what the mechanics of creating such a website would involve, but before I could implement any of it, I realized I did not have the time resource to invest. As with other things in my life, the requirements of family, work, and other high priorities took the time away from me to both keep the Excel file up-to-date and to create a website that I could use to track my collection. I've resolved that both of those projects will never be attempted.
So that has left me with my DOS batch file that I use to list my MP3 files in my e:\music folder. I've downloaded some free "music collection" software as I know that using Windows Media Player is not a long term solution. I've also realized that a lot of my music collection are bands that I can't recall listening to in the past. That was the case with the CD-R I just ripped. Written on the CD-R is the following information:
X-Sinner
20011013
A5
Obviously, X-Sinner is the name of the band. 20011013 means I created the CD-R on 10/13/2001 - so That was it. X-Sinner is, so it was created approximately 12 years ago (yes, technically, 11 years, 11 months, 3 weeks, 1 day - thank you.) I could not tell you a single song on the release. I could not even tell you if I had ever listened to it on 10/13/2001. Unfortunately, I couldn't use metal-archives.com to retrieve song titles because a search for "X-Sinner" yielded no results. So, thanks to Google.com, I found the band's website: http://www.x-sinner.org/index.html, which boasts a design so amateur and, okay, "ugly", I'm thinking it should be totally redesigned. I did learn, through listening to a few lyrics on the release, that the name of the album is actually called "Get It" and, surprisingly, I liked it but certainly not to the degree that I like Bayside, Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch, and Godsmack. The lyrics to "Steppin' On Toes" are pretty rebellious, perthis website, though, in my humble opinion, "Stompin' On Toes" would have been not as cliche as "Steppin' On Toes." Either way, I like these lyrics.
Authority in my face, looking out for you and me,
It's a battle of spirits all over the place,
Tell me what you want me to be,
The enemy won't let go once they get their hands on you,
They'll chew you up, and spit you out, and stick to you like glue.
I don't see what you want me to be, and I don't care what you suppose,
It don't matter what you see, I don't wanna have to step on your toes.
I don't need my fortune told; the future's already known,
I got my covers, sisters and brothers, to keep me from burning in Hell,
You don't like who I am, or the words that I have to say,
The world keeps turning, fire keeps burning,
The clock keeps ticking away.
I don't see what you want me to be, and I don't care what you suppose,
It don't matter what you see, I don't wanna have to step on your toes.
Oh.
The game ain't over yet; a winner's what I want to be,
Ain't cutting no cards or throwing no dice - luck's got nothing on me,
The choice is made for me: Heaven is the place to be,
You might say I'm crazy, but he'll be coming back for me.
I don't see what you want me to be, and I don't care what you suppose,
It don't matter what you see, I don't wanna have to step on your toes,
I don't see what you want me to be, and I don't care what you suppose,
It don't matter what you see, I don't wanna have to step on your toes, no.
I doubt that X-Sinner will become a band as big as the four I mentioned above, but I have to say, that is my glorious burden with this CD to MP3 conversion - I get to discover bands I have had in my collection for nearly 12 years and it is like I just returned from Best Buy with their CD wrapped in plastic.
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