till this day, whenever i'm in a record store, i find the S section and look for the sublime albums. sometimes it makes me smile when i find it in the punk section. once i even found it in the ska section at the fnac in nice, france. i wanted to protest, but i was stopped by my grade 9 grasp of the language.
one time last year, i was making my way to the tail end of the S section, but a man and a woman were already standing in the spot where the sublime albums would be. i stopped and looked over the stone roses albums in the meantime.
"i already have the self titled one and that one you've got there. maybe i should just get the greatest hits one" i heard him say.
i rarely talk to strangers, but i absolutely had to interject. i explained to him that the greatest album only has 10 songs on it, almost all of which are from the self-titled and the 40oz to freedom albums, which he already had. i took it a bit further and explained that a real sublime greatest hits album couldn't possibly fit on a single disc, let alone 10 songs. he sensed my obsession and asked about bradley's death. i gave him a brief bio of bradley and the band. the woman smiled at me. he said he was a construction worker and after a coworker kept playing sublime at a job site, he was completely hooked. i took a step forward and flipped past the acoustic set and the b-sides album and handed him robbin' the hood. there. "a masterpiece which only a true fan could appreciate", i told him. "it's a little bit different than the other albums, but trust me, you'll love it." he seemed hesistant. "besides, it's only $10, whereas the greatest hits one is $18". he agreed, thanked me and walked away with album in hand. the woman smiled at me again.
i know it sounds dumb, but that was one of my proudest moments all of last year.
but usually, i'm standing there alone. looking for that follow up album to the major label debut that never was, or ever will be. my own little silent tribute.
smiiiiiiiiiile