For more than twenty five years I’ve carted around boxes of old LPs. It’s been at least 12 years since I’ve listened to the crackle and hiss of a tune played on a turntable. Yet, I continued to move boxes of this dead weight around from province to province, city to city, house to house.
I learned to appreciate this music format more than 30 years ago. My older brother, Gary, went to Alberta to work in the oilfields and brought back several albums… Aldo Nova, Meatloaf, Supertramp, Greg Kihn, Alice Cooper, Steve Miller. He took good care of his albums and I adopted his approach. The more carefully you handled the vinyl the purer the sound remained. Somehow when my brother moved on again I inherited his record collection. Soon, I began to add to that collection with my own additions. Eventually, my collection grew to more than 300 albums. I skipped the cassette format altogether and vowed not to purchase CDs until you could record onto them. When it became clear that you would never be able to record onto CDs, I caved and started collecting CDs instead of LPs. Even though I duplicated much of my collection, I still kept the old faithful LPs. My turntable became orphaned from my stereo and started gathering dust on a shelf. Eventually, my CD collection fell out of date and fell in preference behind MP3s. Assorted tapes and CDs (yes… news flash. You can record onto CDs now!!!) have taken second place to MP3 players and FM transmitters.
Still, I kept my record collection. I didn’t know exactly why though. I never had any grand illusions that my Prince albums would fund my retirement. I mean, Raspberry Beret is a pretty good song, but… Then this past weekend I answered an ad from someone looking to buy old LPs. They guy came out to my house and quickly looked through my collection. Of the 300 albums he said he was only interested in 30 of them and he’d give me $60 whether or not I gave him just the 30 or all 300. Apparently Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister are marketable, but Randy Travis and Roy Clarke are not. I talked him up to 75 bucks and then realized that I had this sick feeling in my stomach. My music collection was a very personal thing… it had sentimental value. If the guy had given me $500 I would have felt the same way. Yet… I purged the vinyl out of my basement and pocketed the 75 smackers and swallowed the feeling that I had somehow let an important part of my youth disappear into the back of a minivan headed for the nearest flea market.
There’s no real point to this post other than to blab about how much these LPs meant to me. I hadn’t even realized it, but they were mementos of my musical past, a chronicle of my youth and transition into adulthood. And I pawned it off for 75 bucks!
Don’t worry Mom. I kept the Elvis picture disk along with the other Elvis albums and Nan’s Slim Whitman and Liberace albums. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
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jody
July 7, 2009 at 8:33 am
I got rid of my dad’s and my albums a few years ago at a store in downtown Moncton (across from the Marriott): Elvis, Beatles, Doors, Beethoven, Mozart… It hurt. I still have cassettes. Next thing will be CDs.
Funny, we never owned anything by Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Randy Travis… seems we (my family) were only interested in music from dead guys or stuff that was 10+ years old, although we did have Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, ZZ-Top – so there were some exceptions.
I sometime regret getting rid of the vinyl: I miss the large cover artwork (I once wrapped them in clear plastic and tacked the albums covers on my bedroom wall in my youth); I miss the ritual of delicately pulling the shiny black plastic out of its sleeve, holding the edges, eyeing its surface for dust and scratches, then placing it on the record player and carefully placing the needle on the outer ring. I remember shopping for record player needles.
Good ole daze.
Phillip
July 7, 2009 at 10:09 am
I miss the artwork of vinyl. The big pictures. Looking at them while listening to an album. I miss listening to albums as albums, straight through, beginning to end, going for that ride. Listening to random MP3s, which is pretty much how most people listen to music these days, isn’t the same. I still have CDs, and still make my own compilations from time to time, so I can listen to albums as albums, as a specific sequence of songs. I can do the same with my MP3 player, with a playlist, but it doesn’t feel the same. It’s not the same as physically “putting on an album.” There’s more personal investment (and history) in the physicality of the medium. I miss that the most.
I would never sell my books though. Most of my books I know I’ll probably never read again. But I love looking at my book shelves. Again, it’s the sense of connection to my own history, remembering where I got each book, how much I enjoyed each book, at what time in my life I read the book, etc.
Listening to music is the same. What else is more evocative of a time and place than music?
A few years back I lived in a house for a few months that had a turntable and I thought, “Cool, I’ll play some of my old records!” Didn’t play it once.
Steve
July 7, 2009 at 10:42 am
I felt like I was rambling on and on with my post and both of your comments have confirmed that I’m either not that crazy or we share the same affliction. I agree with you Phil… I was always more likely to listen to the whole album, song after song, side A to side B with LPs. Not all albums told a story, but I did get to become a fan of some songs that never had much air play. And it was a ritual with me too. Carefully opening an album, balancing the vinyl with a forefinger in the hole and a thumb at the edge. I’d set up a pillow on the floor and move the speakers close by, facing each other. I’d commit 20 minutes to lying down and focusing in on the tune… There was a proud feeling that the record remained in good enough share to truly enjoy the sound. There was a feeling that every time you listened could be the last and that a clumsy moment could scratch the surface and ruin it forever. It made listening that much more precious.
There I go… rambling on again!
tommyboy
July 14, 2009 at 7:15 am
Wow…jody you and your dad probably had a great collection. I still have mine, have not been able to take the next step. I just ordered a “moonrock needle” (.. a nod to steve martin..)
I just cannot not part with nana and roger