'Bout time ...

Late last month I discovered that Sly and the Family Stone's first seven albums are being re-released in March with bonus tracks and new liner notes. This is great news ... except that I already own these albums, and sentimental value will only allow me to sell one of them, 1971's There's a Riot Goin' On, back once I get the new version. (I bought the original at a not-so-great time in my life.)

In 2004 I bought a reissue of Hall & Oates's Private Eyes, mainly because the copy I already had was in desperate need of a volume boost. But did I sell the first copy back? Hell no! I bought it in the fall of '96, which was an amazing time in my life. Maybe it's not a great lesson to pass along to your children, but one day I hope to teach my kids the value of being a pack rat. Memories you can actually hold in your hands deserve your respect.

Warner Bros. and Rykodisc have been threatening to reissue all of the Replacements' albums for a few years now, and when they come out I'll have more "twins" in my collection. So be it. Like a lot of people, my musical tastes matured and solidified (but hopefully didn't petrify) in college; also like a lot of people, my college years (three of them anyway) were some of the best years of my life, so I don't want to part with the CDs I bought back then.

One complaint about these Sly reissues—Epic/Legacy isn't putting out 1975's High on You. This is the one Sly album I wanted that I was never able to find in stores when I was in college, and in the Internet age I'm not that interested in paying for a $40 copy from Japan on Amazon.com. Yes, I'd pay that much on a whim if I found the album in some random record store, preferably in a city I was visiting, but finding an import CD on the Internet takes away the thrill of the hunt.

High on You features two great Sly songs that I know of: "I Get High on You" and "Crossword Puzzle." There may be more great songs on this album. I just haven't heard them yet. You should reconsider, Sony bigwigs.