An ongoing series in which the blogger shares his budget orientated music and / or movie purchases, revealing something of both his refined taste and an unwillingness to shell out any decent cash for it.
What? Beatles Box Set – 11 albums, plus the Yellow Submarine and Rarities making 13 bits of Beatles vinyl, all in a cool gold box.

Why? I’ve been after one of these for a while. I first heard The Beatles at David Nichols’ place when I was about nine – his parents had The Beatles box, and we’d listen to them over and over. David was a mine of information – “they’re all recorded in Mono… this bit’s so high pitched only dogs can hear it…” and so on. My favorite song then was ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’, the horrible little story of a serial killer with a whimsical melody from Abbey Road.

A few weeks ago I sat down (after a few beers, something I never had at David’s place), and listened to Abbey Road again, and yes, side 2 is the best side in the history of music. And when I had a day to listen to the whole box in one go, it was quite overwhelming. There’s just so MUCH of it, and the difference between then and now is I’ve got all this Beatles lore floating around my head – the post-touring ones are the ‘real’ Beatles records, they did ‘Let It Be’ hardly speaking to each other and let Phil Spector rescue it, ‘Rubber Soul’ is the stoner record, not to mention the whole lot was done in ten short years give or take (THAT blows my mind). There’s the subsequent history to consider as well – John and George are dead, Paul did Wings and Ringo is Thomas the Tank Engine.

Still, I’ve got them all now, and forever to listen to them – I never bought Beatles albums or CDs, I made do with ‘1’ and ‘Imagine’ on my iPod, becuase I knew one day I’d want the whole lot in a box like this. I love seeing it in the shelf and thinking “I’ve got all The Beatles”.

Best bit Fark me. I’m going to go for last track, side 2 Abbey Road – The End.

Damage? $130 bucks from TradeMe