We've all been there: I should have made that phone call. I should have bought that lottery ticket. I shouldn't have eaten the worm from that bottle of tequila.... And of course, I should have bought that CD when I had the chance because now it's out of print and the only place I can find it is maybe on ebay or amazon where it will cost at least three times the price of what I could have paid when I saw it in the record store where instead I spent my money on a CD or tape that I don't even care about anymore and now every time I look at my collection there is a void that I know can never be filled because I blew it when I had the opportunity and now I wonder "what the hell was I thinking by passing that over." And now I present a few such examples of such shortcomings in my collection....
Various Artists/No Wave—Now, a rare, hard-to-find sampler featuring The Police, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, et al. Then, a rare, hard-to-find sampler featuring The Police, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, et al. I saw this at ear X-tacy in Louisville (the original store next to Great Escape) around '85 or '86. At the time, I was still a HUGE Police fan and was pretty keen on Squeeze as well. I think I was intimidated by both the fact that I didn't have a turntable at the time and the fact that it was pricey (something like $14.99). I rue the day I didn't make the buy....
Eraserhead Soundtrack—Had several opportunities to buy this at Cut Corner (R.I.P.) in Lexington. I hadn't seen Eraserhead, there were no tracks listed on the sleeve, but it was on I.R.S. (still one of my favorite labels). I had and have bought soundtracks without having seen the movie and without tracklists, so why I dropped the ball on this one is beyond me. I was probably too busy spending my financial aid money on some crap to alter my music collection to impress some girl (I made some really stupid purchases). This is a lot easier to find, but at this point it's hard to justify spending the money on it.
Negativland/U2—Another ear X-tacy find. I must have stumbled across it while looking for New Order. Now, I already owned (and still own) Escape From Noise. I already knew the controversy about this album. I remember there being a handwritten tag on the packaging saying that it was rare and out of print! I failed.
Pylon/Hits—This is perhaps the most embarrassing of all because, gulp, I owned this at one time. I bought it (I think) at Cut Corner and really liked it. Prior to buying, I knew little of Pylon: R.E.M. covered "Crazy" and I had actually seen them open for R.E.M. in Lexington. I really liked that CD, but there came a time in '93 when I was selling off CD's (and plasma) to buy food and pay bills. I swore that this one be one that I'd re-add at some point. I'm still waiting....
