by vivrant thang on musical gifts

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! At least that’s what I’m trying to tell myself. Viv is struggling a bit to get into the spirit of her favorite holiday. However, I’m sure as I start decorating and shopping, things will seem brighter.

There won’t be a whole lot of gifts under my tree this year. (Won’t be buying that many either). But I do plan to treat myself to a few things to satisfy my musical sweet tooth. Over the next week, I’ll be doing a couple of posts with gift ideas for the music lover in your life.

As much as I like to pretend I know music, I still have much to learn. These are just a few of the books and box sets that I’d like to add to my collection that I can use for historical context for much of my writing. A lot of these books and box sets have been out for a several years and so you should be able to scour the web and find them at deeply discounted rates. Which is important since we’re in a recession and all!

• Respect Yourself: The Stax Record Story (DVD box set)
• Standing in the Shadows of Motown (DVD)
• Chicago Soul: Music in American Life (book)
• Jazz: A Film (Ken Burns) (DVD box set)
• Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of American Music (CD box set)
  I’ve owned this one for a while now and absolutely love it.
• Tom Dowd & The Language of Music (book)
• Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia (CD box set)
• I Got The Feelin’: James Brown in the 60s (DVD box set)
• Real Thing: In Performance  1964-1981 (CD box set)
• 50th Anniversary (Miles Davis) Kind of Blue [Collectors Edition box set]
• To Be Free (Nina Simone) (CD box set)

Any additions to this list? Or perhaps you have some of these already and want to share your thoughts?

I’ll be back soon with another one of my Music Therapy posts, which should also generate some gift ideas for the music lover in your life. I’ll also be giving you my thoughts on a few of the Christmas albums that were released this year.

update: I just found out about this Motown: The Complete #1’s box set after “Stevie Wonder” sent me a friend request on Imeem (nice page).

Love, love, love the packaging. It’s not cheap at $120 but you are getting 10 discs with 191 songs. This is definitely going on my wishlist for when I land that elusive sugar daddy.