Reading, and I thoroughly recommend, David Kinney’s wonderful “The Dylanologists”, which is a tremendous study of obsessed Dylan fans and collectors, and by extension describes any obsessive collector. Of course, I’m cheering them along myself, as I read of of the guy who tracked down Dylan’s high chair, and so on.
Anyway, the following passage resonates particularly with the Sproutologist. It’s a great book, can be bought on Amazon US for next to nothing, and well worth the bother.
“Still deeper below the surface were the tapes that were so underground that the men and women who had heard them had sworn to say nothing about them: Tapes That May Not Be Mentioned. A group of preeminent collectors sitting down for dinner would own recordings they could not even discuss with each other…”
I’m saying nothing of course.