Treasured Archives

The past five months have seen me obsessively combing through my iTunes library, trying to put everything to rights — making sure the information for each song is complete, making sure the year is the year of the song's original release, retrieving the correct artwork, getting rid of duplicates and overlap, deleting songs I never want to hear again, moving others to my music files so I've got them, but don't have to listen to them right now, bringing other files up to date by adding missing songs, etc. So far, I'm only up to the letter "D." And that's only because I skipped through the hundreds of Bob Dylan songs at a rapid clip. I'll go back to them later and address the matter of duplicates and such.

It's been fun in a crazy, obsessive sort of way. So much has changed in the digital universe since I first began building my library, so many old classic albums are now available that weren't available even a few years ago. In the "old days" (2005), I could only get certain songs by buying them off of compilations. Now, the original albums are available as mp3s, and it's enough to make a girl weep. My record collection and turntable are both in storage, but luckily I'm now able to rebuild that library in this format. I'll never find the Nancy Ames LP I played to death, but I've come upon some wonderful stuff. This week, for example, I got my hands on the first Creedence Clearwater album I ever owned: Bayou Country. I've played "Born on the Bayou" every day since, because I cannot get enough! That was not a song that appeared on the compilation I bought, yet it's my very favorite, and hearing it again is like going home — not to a particular place, but to myself, the person I was in 1969 and in some ways still remain. A joyous homecoming of sorts, in ways that only music can give you.

YouTube has several "BotB" videos, including a live performance at Woodstock. But I chose this one because there's nothing to distract you from the song. Turn up the volume!