Alphabetizing Dr. John, Captain Beefheart, Prof. Longhair

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;ivlunsdystf
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Alphabetizing Dr. John, Captain Beefheart, Prof. Longhair

Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:07 am

What's a fellow to do? Do those "titles" like Dr. and Captain count as first names? Or shall I take them as the first word of a two-word name, which would place Captain Beefheart in the "C" category?

Advanced question: Which comes first in the alphabet: Flaming Lips or Flamin' Groovies?

Super-advanced question: Where is Jill Scott? (I mean, relative to Gil Scott-Heron?) I could put Gil first, but then he's got that "-Heron" stuck to the end of his name, which might suggest that he actually belongs after Jill Scott.

Finally, should I divide up the "Sir Douglas Quintet" CDs from the Doug Sahm CDs, or shall I file them all in the alphabet region of Doug Sahm?

I never worked in a record store and now I am paying dearly.

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Post by adhooker » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:21 am

Here's my take:

Flamin' Groovies before Flaming Lips
Captain Beefheart in "C"
Jill Scott before Gil if you're going by last name.
Sir Douglas and Doug Sahm together if you're going record store style, otherwise they should be separate.
and I would say Dr. John is in "D"

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Post by Randy » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:29 am

repellantfeed wrote:Here's my take:

Flamin' Groovies before Flaming Lips
Captain Beefheart in "C"
Jill Scott before Gil if you're going by last name.
Sir Douglas and Doug Sahm together if you're going record store style, otherwise they should be separate.
and I would say Dr. John is in "D"

I agree with Repellantfeed on all but one count. Flaming Lips should be before Flamin' Groovies, because "L" comes before "R."

Names like Dr. John should be treated like band names. If he were a Phd. or a medical doctor and he were billed as "Dr. Malcolm John Rebennack Jr." he would go under "R"
not to worry, just keep tracking....

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Post by apropos of nothing » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:36 am

I've done a lot of clerical and now library work.

If the artist/band is known primarily by a band name that is unrelated to their given and or stage name, that becomes a proper name unto itself. Dr. John would be an example. You're not going to be looking for him under Rebennack, Malcolm John Jr. Similarly, Nine Inch Nails, not Reznor, Trent. Same with your Captain Beefheart example.

Flaming Lips comes before Flamin' Groovies. G=G, but L before R, alphabetically speaking.

You are correct with the Scott, Scott-Heron example. Scott, Jill would come before Scott-Heron, Gil, since in this case we're alphabetizing by last names.

Y'r last question is actually dependent upon your personal preference. If you have an extensive Doug Sahm collection and it would make sense to you to have the Sir Douglas Quintet discs there, then by all means. If you expect other people to be accessing (and refiling!) who may not know that Sir Douglas Quintet goes with Sahm, Doug, then it may make sense to have SDQ have its own section.


Interface first! Determine the applications and the users' mentalities. Proceed from there.

There's a really hysterical debate about this in the novel, High Fidelity.

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Post by adhooker » Thu Dec 21, 2006 10:08 am

apropos of nothing wrote: Flaming Lips comes before Flamin' Groovies. G=G, but L before R, alphabetically speaking.
I thought that the apostrophe came before the "g" or that you would drop it entirely which would put "Flamin" before "Flaming" and ignore the second word.

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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Thu Dec 21, 2006 3:44 pm

Thanks folks. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one hung up on these types of issues.

lg
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Post by lg » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:21 pm

uh, when you're done with yours, i've got a good 1500 or so cd's and about 2500 lp's that need organizing. i'll let you do it for cheap. :lol:

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Post by syrupcore » Fri Dec 22, 2006 12:17 am

I'm with repellantfeed on all of them including Flamin' Groovies before Flaming Lips. Punctuation and numbers come before letters when alphabetizing so ' beats G. 8 years at borders. people used to seriously yell at each other about this shit.

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Post by Johnny B » Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:29 pm

syrupcore wrote:I'm with repellantfeed on all of them including Flamin' Groovies before Flaming Lips. Punctuation and numbers come before letters when alphabetizing so ' beats G. 8 years at borders. people used to seriously yell at each other about this shit.
Depends on if you're filing by word or by letter.

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Post by leigh » Mon Dec 25, 2006 2:00 pm

syrupcore wrote:I'm with repellantfeed on all of them including Flamin' Groovies before Flaming Lips. Punctuation and numbers come before letters when alphabetizing so ' beats G. 8 years at borders. people used to seriously yell at each other about this shit.
Ditto. G ≠ ', and ' beats G.

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Post by craigb156 » Mon Dec 25, 2006 4:26 pm

In the 80's I walked into a used book shop in some small town in Alaska, and was VERY impressed that the entire stock was ordered alpha by author. No sections. Technical books with fiction. Awesome.

Craig

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Post by syrupcore » Tue Dec 26, 2006 1:19 pm

Johnny B wrote:
syrupcore wrote:I'm with repellantfeed on all of them including Flamin' Groovies before Flaming Lips. Punctuation and numbers come before letters when alphabetizing so ' beats G. 8 years at borders. people used to seriously yell at each other about this shit.
Depends on if you're filing by word or by letter.
well, in this case, no matter how you break it down, flamin('/g) G comes before flaming L.

why are we still talking about this? I'm right. everyone else shut the fuck up.

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Post by ;ivlunsdystf » Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:53 pm

Great stuff, folks. Is there a heirarchy among the different units of punctuation? Ie, would a band named "Ab$" be filed before or after another band called "AB("?

Okay, I know, who cares, yeah yeah. Anybody know/care?

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Post by Johnny B » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:14 pm

syrupcore wrote: well, in this case, no matter how you break it down, flamin('/g) G comes before flaming L.

why are we still talking about this? I'm right. everyone else shut the fuck up.
Oh yeah. Oops.
craigb156 wrote:In the 80's I walked into a used book shop in some small town in Alaska, and was VERY impressed that the entire stock was ordered alpha by author. No sections. Technical books with fiction. Awesome.
Waterloo Records in Austin, TX does this. I quite liked that as it made everything much easier to find. I have a hell of a time finding things in stores that have too many genre sections.

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Post by joeysimms » Sat Dec 30, 2006 12:26 pm

I put Beefheart under 'B', Dr. John under 'J', Prof. Longhair under 'L'. Scott-Heron would be under 'S'.

'flamin' before 'flaming'
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