Maybe it’s the hiss and pop as soon as I put the needle down. Maybe it’s the feeling of removing it from the sleeve. Maybe it’s the anticipation that is brought from the time you hit play until the arm lists off of its rest, rises into the air, moves slowly to the side, and slowly descends onto the spinning vinyl below until the music actually starts playing. It’s probably this plus a million other things, but the fact remains - I love vinyl records.
I can remember being little, sitting in my bedroom with my little record player, and listening to my Disney records with the accompanying book that you could read along with and turn the page every time you heard the “ding.” I also remember a few years, but not too many, past that when I started listening to my mom’s 45’s on a regular basis. She had Chubby Checker, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc. One of my favorites was “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry. I would listen to that one over and over. There were a ton others piled neatly into my sisters dark red record holder with a twist off top and I listened to them all. I think it was at that point that I realized that I didn’t care what was popular on the radio – if I liked the way a song sounded and it moved me in any way, I was going to listen to it (hence my passion for Air Supply).
It wasn’t only the 45’s though. Mom also had quite a collection of 33’s as well. From what I can recall, she had Air Supply, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Steissand, Crystal Gayle, Mac Davis, Bee Gees, The Woodstock Soundtrack, and numerous others. I remember sitting in front of the record player on some of the days that I’d be home sick from school (bugs in my throat), listening to and singing along with all of them. It was the only time I had the house to myself and I took full advantage of it to feed my appetite for more music.
I didn’t really pay much attention to the fact that all these songs were on vinyl, it was just what was available to me. I had tons of cassette tapes, but this was before the days of CD’s and file sharing and iTunes, so if you wanted a song you actually had to go out and buy it. Screw that! If I want to listen to “Copa Cabana”, I’d just put on mom’s Barry Manilow record. No big deal.
I also didn’t really have an affinity for vinyl, I just knew that some things were meant to sound a certain way. Every Christmas season growing up, Mom would play “Andy Williams’ Christmas Album” and every Christmas season I looked forward to it. It may have sounded just as good on CD, but the album was part of a Christmastime tradition and if it wasn’t the record, it didn’t count. I also feel this way about the Grease soundtrack, but it’s not as much of a staple around Christmas and therefore doesn’t hold as much meaning.
My buddy Chris has liked vinyl for as long as I can remember. If I like vinyl, than he loves it. If I love vinyl, he is addicted to it. If I am addicted to vinyl, then he wants to make sweet passionate love to it on a secluded beach in a tropical location. See what I’m getting at? He makes my love of vinyl seem like a childhood crush. As a result, when he and I became roommates I brought as much of my mother’s vinyl as she would let me take.
Luckily for him, our friend Jeff works as a warehouse supervisor for a furniture company. Sometimes on deliveries, he’ll be asked to discard some old furniture. If it’s in good condition, he’ll sometimes offer it to his friends. Well, shortly after we moved in, Jeff was delivering to a home that was getting rid of an old console stereo complete with a non-working 8-track player and a fully functioning record player. It sounded unbelievable and I was jealous every day that it was Chris’s. Actually I still am jealous. This thing was awesome and we definitely put it to good use.
He still does.
Over time, my record collection grew very slowly. I’d get one here and there, but it wouldn’t increase by any substantial amount. Carol got me the White Album as a present and I listened to that over and over. I also somehow acquired Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” which I would also listen to a ton. But I didn’t really start adding to my collection until I discovered:
The Flea Market
I have spent more money on records at the flea market than I’d like to admit. I’m pretty sure that Ron (the record guy) has made a car payment or two from what I’ve spent at his table. For awhile, I would go every 3rd Saturday of the month and visit Ron first thing in the morning. I would go through his 10-12 crates of records and pull anything that interested me. After I was done with that, I’d look at the stack, whittle it down a bit, and then ask Ron how much I owed him. He’d give me a price, I’d head to the ATM, and then I’d come back and pay the man. Most of the records were $3 a piece, but some were more expensive, few were less. Either way, my record collection was growing.
But the problem was, I couldn’t wait for the third weekend of every month. I’d had a taste and now I wanted more. That’s when I discovered the devil known as Ebay. I would sit at my old job on my lunch hour and scroll through pages and pages and pages of records and buying some quite frequently. Occasionally, I would hear a song on the radio or be reminded of a band that I hadn’t heard from in years and I’d go on Ebay, find the album, and bid. The problem with that is that I don’t like to lose. I’d bid a fair price but would get outbid shortly thereafter. Well, no one was going to outbid me – that’s my record! Let’s just say that as a result of this I sometimes paid more for an album than I should have simply because some bastard had the nerve to outbid me.
Ebay is also the reason that I have Debbie Gibson, Tiffani, and NKOTB albums (yes, they ARE awesome BTW).
After a while, though, I got sick of paying shipping and handling. Sometimes it would cost more to ship the record than what I actually bought it for. I needed another outlet, but didn’t know where to go. Enter craigslist.com.
Through Craigslist, I acquired a good chunk of my collection. Through various individuals and near mob-type shakedowns (don’t ask), Chris and I both added a ton of records to our collections. The good thing about Craigslist is that a lot of people are trying to unload a bunch of records at a time. So, instead of paying $3 or more per record, we received almost 400 records for around $80. Now, a lot of what we got was crap, but we most definitely got our $80 worth. My collection was growing.
As of today, I have close to 700 records. Not a lot by some collectors standards, but way too many according to other people. I’ve definitely acquired some from wonderful people who were just looking to clear out their basement, and I’ve definitely paid for more at various yard sales. Either way, I have a ton of records and I love each one. I have classic albums, one hit wonder albums, never heard of them albums, and what the hell is this albums. I have never been opened albums, looks like they’d never been opened albums, and looks like they got run over by a car with chains on their tires albums. For a while I tried to listen to each one as I got it, but when I started buying in bulk, it got a little more difficult. Either way, I love my records and listen to them every chance I get.
Now, the question remains as to why have I felt the need to collect so many records. Couldn’t I have just saved time, gone on to one of the free file sharing websites out there and just downloaded any of the songs that I wanted? To be honest, I have no idea. Once I started buying them, I couldn’t stop. Every time I got one album that I had wanted, I came up with a different one that I wanted. It was like crack in vinyl form. I don’t regret for a second any of the albums I have ever purchased (well maybe Bruce Willis’ “The Return of Bruno”) as Ben will have an entire library of good to great to iconic music to listen to as he grows up. Also, it has given both myself and Chris the opportunity to pool our “lesser albums” and open up an online record store. Our goal is to sell our records at a reasonable price so that we can make money to buy more albums for our personal collections. It will be a slow moving process, but we’ll get there and have a lot of fun doing it.
Also, it will be an opportunity for us to get together and listen to great albums together.
Some people claim that the sound on a record is superior to that of an Mp3 or any of today’s music. It may be. It may not be. I don’t care. I love taking a record off of my shelves, admiring the artwork on the cover, opening up the gatefold to look at the inside, slipping the record sleeve out, taking the record out of the sleeve, admiring the shine and glow that a pristine record offers, placing it on the player, and pushing play. It brings back memories from as far back as I can remember. It brings sounds that I associate with various points of my still very young life. It brings a sense of happiness that music is meant to bring.
I think tonight may be a “The Coasters” night.
I can remember being little, sitting in my bedroom with my little record player, and listening to my Disney records with the accompanying book that you could read along with and turn the page every time you heard the “ding.” I also remember a few years, but not too many, past that when I started listening to my mom’s 45’s on a regular basis. She had Chubby Checker, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc. One of my favorites was “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry. I would listen to that one over and over. There were a ton others piled neatly into my sisters dark red record holder with a twist off top and I listened to them all. I think it was at that point that I realized that I didn’t care what was popular on the radio – if I liked the way a song sounded and it moved me in any way, I was going to listen to it (hence my passion for Air Supply).
It wasn’t only the 45’s though. Mom also had quite a collection of 33’s as well. From what I can recall, she had Air Supply, Kenny Rogers, Barbara Steissand, Crystal Gayle, Mac Davis, Bee Gees, The Woodstock Soundtrack, and numerous others. I remember sitting in front of the record player on some of the days that I’d be home sick from school (bugs in my throat), listening to and singing along with all of them. It was the only time I had the house to myself and I took full advantage of it to feed my appetite for more music.
I didn’t really pay much attention to the fact that all these songs were on vinyl, it was just what was available to me. I had tons of cassette tapes, but this was before the days of CD’s and file sharing and iTunes, so if you wanted a song you actually had to go out and buy it. Screw that! If I want to listen to “Copa Cabana”, I’d just put on mom’s Barry Manilow record. No big deal.
I also didn’t really have an affinity for vinyl, I just knew that some things were meant to sound a certain way. Every Christmas season growing up, Mom would play “Andy Williams’ Christmas Album” and every Christmas season I looked forward to it. It may have sounded just as good on CD, but the album was part of a Christmastime tradition and if it wasn’t the record, it didn’t count. I also feel this way about the Grease soundtrack, but it’s not as much of a staple around Christmas and therefore doesn’t hold as much meaning.
My buddy Chris has liked vinyl for as long as I can remember. If I like vinyl, than he loves it. If I love vinyl, he is addicted to it. If I am addicted to vinyl, then he wants to make sweet passionate love to it on a secluded beach in a tropical location. See what I’m getting at? He makes my love of vinyl seem like a childhood crush. As a result, when he and I became roommates I brought as much of my mother’s vinyl as she would let me take.
Luckily for him, our friend Jeff works as a warehouse supervisor for a furniture company. Sometimes on deliveries, he’ll be asked to discard some old furniture. If it’s in good condition, he’ll sometimes offer it to his friends. Well, shortly after we moved in, Jeff was delivering to a home that was getting rid of an old console stereo complete with a non-working 8-track player and a fully functioning record player. It sounded unbelievable and I was jealous every day that it was Chris’s. Actually I still am jealous. This thing was awesome and we definitely put it to good use.
He still does.
Over time, my record collection grew very slowly. I’d get one here and there, but it wouldn’t increase by any substantial amount. Carol got me the White Album as a present and I listened to that over and over. I also somehow acquired Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” which I would also listen to a ton. But I didn’t really start adding to my collection until I discovered:
The Flea Market
I have spent more money on records at the flea market than I’d like to admit. I’m pretty sure that Ron (the record guy) has made a car payment or two from what I’ve spent at his table. For awhile, I would go every 3rd Saturday of the month and visit Ron first thing in the morning. I would go through his 10-12 crates of records and pull anything that interested me. After I was done with that, I’d look at the stack, whittle it down a bit, and then ask Ron how much I owed him. He’d give me a price, I’d head to the ATM, and then I’d come back and pay the man. Most of the records were $3 a piece, but some were more expensive, few were less. Either way, my record collection was growing.
But the problem was, I couldn’t wait for the third weekend of every month. I’d had a taste and now I wanted more. That’s when I discovered the devil known as Ebay. I would sit at my old job on my lunch hour and scroll through pages and pages and pages of records and buying some quite frequently. Occasionally, I would hear a song on the radio or be reminded of a band that I hadn’t heard from in years and I’d go on Ebay, find the album, and bid. The problem with that is that I don’t like to lose. I’d bid a fair price but would get outbid shortly thereafter. Well, no one was going to outbid me – that’s my record! Let’s just say that as a result of this I sometimes paid more for an album than I should have simply because some bastard had the nerve to outbid me.
Ebay is also the reason that I have Debbie Gibson, Tiffani, and NKOTB albums (yes, they ARE awesome BTW).
After a while, though, I got sick of paying shipping and handling. Sometimes it would cost more to ship the record than what I actually bought it for. I needed another outlet, but didn’t know where to go. Enter craigslist.com.
Through Craigslist, I acquired a good chunk of my collection. Through various individuals and near mob-type shakedowns (don’t ask), Chris and I both added a ton of records to our collections. The good thing about Craigslist is that a lot of people are trying to unload a bunch of records at a time. So, instead of paying $3 or more per record, we received almost 400 records for around $80. Now, a lot of what we got was crap, but we most definitely got our $80 worth. My collection was growing.
As of today, I have close to 700 records. Not a lot by some collectors standards, but way too many according to other people. I’ve definitely acquired some from wonderful people who were just looking to clear out their basement, and I’ve definitely paid for more at various yard sales. Either way, I have a ton of records and I love each one. I have classic albums, one hit wonder albums, never heard of them albums, and what the hell is this albums. I have never been opened albums, looks like they’d never been opened albums, and looks like they got run over by a car with chains on their tires albums. For a while I tried to listen to each one as I got it, but when I started buying in bulk, it got a little more difficult. Either way, I love my records and listen to them every chance I get.
Now, the question remains as to why have I felt the need to collect so many records. Couldn’t I have just saved time, gone on to one of the free file sharing websites out there and just downloaded any of the songs that I wanted? To be honest, I have no idea. Once I started buying them, I couldn’t stop. Every time I got one album that I had wanted, I came up with a different one that I wanted. It was like crack in vinyl form. I don’t regret for a second any of the albums I have ever purchased (well maybe Bruce Willis’ “The Return of Bruno”) as Ben will have an entire library of good to great to iconic music to listen to as he grows up. Also, it has given both myself and Chris the opportunity to pool our “lesser albums” and open up an online record store. Our goal is to sell our records at a reasonable price so that we can make money to buy more albums for our personal collections. It will be a slow moving process, but we’ll get there and have a lot of fun doing it.
Also, it will be an opportunity for us to get together and listen to great albums together.
Some people claim that the sound on a record is superior to that of an Mp3 or any of today’s music. It may be. It may not be. I don’t care. I love taking a record off of my shelves, admiring the artwork on the cover, opening up the gatefold to look at the inside, slipping the record sleeve out, taking the record out of the sleeve, admiring the shine and glow that a pristine record offers, placing it on the player, and pushing play. It brings back memories from as far back as I can remember. It brings sounds that I associate with various points of my still very young life. It brings a sense of happiness that music is meant to bring.
I think tonight may be a “The Coasters” night.
Do you remember playing over and over (and dancing around the living room - you, me and Mom) Robert E. Lee from The Jazz Singer soundtrack? Good times. :o ) And don't forget another Christmastime staple - The Oak Ridge Boys.
ReplyDelete~Lissa