Changing the order of tracks and/or skipping some

I don't see the point of changing the order of the tracks on an album. I feel that if I play an album in the wrong order too often, then I will be creating an incorrect memory of the album, making the album sound wrong when played in the correct order. I do sometimes skip the less appealing tracks of an album when I don't really have the time to play the full album. However, I do try not to make a habit of doing this, to avoid creating an incorrect memory of the album. But there are albums that I simply stop playing before the final track, and I'm not really concerned about doing this.

Pink Floyd Wish You Where Here, I prefer to listen to Shine On You Crazy Diamond parts I to IX and then the short songs.

Sometimes listening to things out of order or out of context makes them sound different. I often listen to shuffled playlists and a song will come up that seems new and unfamiliar, but it's just a sleeper that finally got its time in the spotlight after hiding amongst other tracks on the album.

None of these are "optimal"

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus: skip side 2
Yes - Close to the Edge: 3, 2, 1
King Crimson - THRAK: 1, 2, 13, 8, 4, 5, 6, 10, Inner Garden KC50, 3, 14
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here: the short songs then Shine On You Crazy Diamond

I guess it's not the most popular opinion to consider these changes, but having my IPod and ITunes, and having my compilations of favorite music in them, sometimes I do like to make lists very close to the albums, but with a few changes. Sometimes it's just including live versions instead of the original ones. Some quick ones I might think. 6 Wives of Henry the VIII, I prefer to listen to it in the chronological order in which Henry was with each one of them. Perhaps even mix my favorite versions between the original and the Hampton Court Palace concert, and adding the Tudorture and Tudorrock songs. I also like adding a few of the re recorded songs from the Arthur album to complete the story on that one (Camelot, The Holy Grail, and Excalibur). Related to 6 Wives, on Fragile I like to change Ricks solo spot for Catherine of Aragon, which I understand was what he intended to use on the album, but wasn't able because of his record contract, and which features the whole Yes lineup anyway (except for Anderson, being an instrumental song).

About Wolf City and as it's documented on Discogs, the first track on the original release was actually "Surrounded by the Stars" - but not on the American where side 2 became side 1 on the vinyl itself, while the cover stated the opposite and thus like originals in other countries, including Canada.

Maybe it's because I'm used to it, but I think of the original non-American tracks order as the best one, while I actually own a copy of the American original LP release.



Edited by David_D - June 09 2025 at 10:25

The one time I did something like this was making KeysStudio and KeysLive albums. Much better than the mix of studio and live tracks originally offered by Yes. Beyond that, I have always rolled with albums the way they were released. Well, that is except for expunging Whodunnit from Abacab.

I always though "Cook with Fire" as the opener of Dog and Butterfly marred an otherwise awesome album. They could have replaced "Cook with Fire" with "Heartless" and had a much better opener. Heartless was floating around at the same time but had been used on the Magazine album which had two version itself, one in 77 and one in 78.

Grumpyprogfan wrote: I don't have any specific examples but I'll skip tracks. However, it's quite impossible to do this with vinyl without ruining the flow, so CD's rule for this.

Yes, but I'd say, you need a programmable CD-player where you can make a playlist for at least the half of an album (if it's not double) and then just listen to it.

Edited by David_D - June 10 2025 at 15:53

I love the studio disc of Ummagumma but dropping Several Species. It's cool enough, but not something I need to hear every time I want the rest.

Sysyphus
Grandchester Meadows
Several Species of Small Furry Animals
The Narrow Way
Grand Vizier

That's a perfect slab of Floyd right there.





Edited by Finnforest - 5 hours 12 minutes ago at 20:28