When I was a young adult I decided to try and get all of Sonny Boy's records. Not the original 45s or 78s but the songs on compilations and
reissues or LP. If a double l.p. 'Best of' came out that had a few songs on there I didn't have I would get it. In my world I would go through my copy of the book Blues records 1943-1966 and see what ones I needed. Quite mad really when I think about it now but it was driven to hear the songs, to fill in the blanks. I still have them and about 6 or so seven inches that I bought. I would buy mail order - there were a few specialist blues places that did catalogues of their stock and I would pore over the contents choosing my next batch. I used to say to Susan that I only needed a few more and my collection would be complete but of course that didn't happen. More sessions would become available under the title Previously unissued.
I don't spend much on records these days. In my youth the only way to hear stuff was to buy it - there were few blues radio shows and I didn't know any other collectors. Now we don't need to buy records. A sad truth.
