writing to CD-R's

[cga2000 <cga2000@optonline.net>]

Maybe this will turn out to be the brain-deadest question of the year,
but I'll risk it .. 

Is there any way I can just write to a CD-R .. until it "fills up" ..
stick in another CD-R ..  etc. using something like dd ..?  And read the
data back to my HD using the same "stream of bits" strategy .. as if it
were a tape..?

Or do I absolutely have to go through an intermediary step where I
create a filesystem on disk .. via mkisofs or other .. and then copy the
contents of the filesystem back to the hard drive..?

I mean .. after all .. why do I need the CD-R to have a file system..?
I'm not ever going to mount the thing and cd to its directories .. edit
files .. etc. .. 

All I'll ever need is to copy its contents back the HD if I ever lose
the stuff (backup copy) .. or feel like playing with it again (archive).

So what's the deal..?

Sorry again for the ultra-naive question, but the backup/archive
"solutions" I've read about over the last couple of weeks or so felt
so clunky that I began to think I must be missing something .. 

All comments welcome .. but no CD-RW's (rewriteable) tactics or
strategies ..  

I don't use those because it turns out that CD-RW's don't play well with
my old CD burner.

Thanks,

cga