This post originally appeared back in February on my previous blog site, www.earlsblogazine.blogspot.com. Maybe it's the unexplainable satisfaction I get from using an inconvenient, archaic form of entertainment. My nostalgic side appreciating pulling a ridiculously-sized fragile disc out of its paper sheath, blowing off the dust, and carefully laying it on the turntable. The thought that maybe I'm hearing a more sophisticated recording, the way music is meant to be heard. I don't know... What I do know is that I love hearing that crackling sound of the needle connecting to the vinyl in anticipation of that first cut on Side 1. I'm not an "audiophile", or whatever we're calling the record player fanatics. I can appreciate it, people geeking out over vinyl, or sound in general. If you've got to geek out over something, that's fairly legitimate, I suppose. I just have a shitty $40 record player that probably sounds like a bunch of turds to the trained ear, though. So I'm not that into it...yet. But I can see the potential of geeking out over this. My appreciation for crunchy, dirty, sloppy, dumb 70s rock is part of the reason I can dig a vinyl album playing device. Deep down in my simplistic, tube sock-wearing, Ramones and Foghat digging, van with the teardrop window-driving mind, I want to listen to records because they're records and that's how it used to be and it was outstanding. Granted, I'm not that old. My formidable years came a decade later, but I still had a taste of those times at a young age, and like to think that I would have made a fine Dr. Johnny Fever. Another reason vinyl makes me happy is nostalgia. My folks, like most folks I'm assuming, had a record player. On that record player, I heard Reinhardt & Grappelli, Johnny Cash, Simon & Garfunkel, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Canned Heat, Leon Redbone, Flatt & Scruggs, and a thousand other various artists that enveloped my childhood. My parents certainly deserve kudos for helping shape my broad, yet particular taste and appreciation in music. At any rate, that is surely a contributing factor, if not the main factor, of why I dig records. Another contributing factor: I do not make a secret about my nerdy hobby of collecting old comic books from the 1940s to the 1970s. I'm an incredible fan of the classic pop art--especially the art that dons the comics' covers. The cover art is the main reason I buy an old book, display it in my nerd basement, and stare at it on occasion with a grin. This comic book hobby and appreciation 100% coincides with buying albums. Album cover art is something that we don't get anymore. The cover art, the interior, the liner notes, the back cover, they're all lost in new technology convenience. If I purchase a song on iTunes, I don't get the personality that comes with reading an album cover inside and out. I don't get the connection to the artist and the music. And I don't get that strangely wonderful smell that comes with vintage paper, either. Convenience takes away a lot of the appreciation I gain when listening to an old album. It's the same feeling I get when I find a beautiful old comic with a reasonable price tag. I found it. I didn't just order it online in 30 seconds. KISS Alive sounds much better on a record coming from a dirty flea market with a price tag of $7 than it does downloaded from my phone. Add in the probability that it was purchased and listened to by some kid with shaggy hair in 1975, played time and again--maybe at keg parties when his parents were out of town, good chance he got some over-the-shirt-boob while the album was spinning, and perhaps his parents took the album from him because they deemed it "the devil's music" that encouraged poor decisions and hooliganism. Fast forward 40 years and I own that very record. Fitting. These old albums have stories--at least the good ones do. Drink ring on the album cover? That's character, and adds to the frame-worthiness of the record's art, friends. Make no mistake, I'm no hipster, intent on doing everything the old timey way, with my urban hatchet, mustache wax, man-bun, and satchel full of vinyl. I am just a fan of sitting down in my living room with a glass of Scotch and playing a few records. It may sound like shit to you, but to me it sounds warm and full of character. Just like me. //re.
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AuthorI am Earl. Archives
May 2024
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