Vinyl
Alex’s old record player kicked the bucket a few weeks ago. We just got a new one, an upgrade, together. For the first time I’m digging my heels into the world of vinyl.
I started adding to Alex’s collection the other day at Amoeba Records in Berkeley. Alex has a lot of jazz, some classical, and a smattering of rock and pop. I probably will strengthen the rock and folk collections the most. Here are three of my first record purchases:
Janis Joplin – Pearl. Queen – A Night At The Opera. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
I’m starting a list of things that I would love to have in this format. My musically-knowledgable friends are teaching me what to look for, and what to avoid. Any suggestions? What are your favorite records?
Please support record stores, hardworking artists, and your heirloom collection by purchasing music legally.
music so often these days is just background noise. while we drive to work, while we’re at work, while we go shopping, while we scrub the toilet… I find that having a good smattering of vinyl helps keep your relationship with music strong. not only with what you have in the format, but it keeps your appreciation in general. Its a format that makes you an active participant in the experience. you have to look at the artwork and make the association with the music (whether you mean to or not), you have to pull the record out of the sleeve. you have to start the player, you have to stop the player, you have to flip and/or change the record. even before i started getting into vinyl, I used to listen to records in their entirety. listening to music should be a form of entertainment and an activity ITSELF. At least from time to time. I don’t do this as much anymore, which is a shame
So glad to hear it! Welcome aboard. there’s no turning back. My favorite record (and one of my favorite albums on the whole) is the Melvin’s Stoner Witch. their albums from the 90s are long out of print on vinyl, and i found it in an unassuming auction on ebay for about $20. was pumped. great example of an album i could just sit down with.
and those plastic sleeves? i hate those things. I throw them out. This may be seen as sacrilege, I don’t know, but i also don’t care. I like having a shelf full of records to flip though, not a box of comic book relics, bagged and sealed, waiting to be graded and appraised for their value someday.
sorry for my comment surpassing your post in length
I agree completely. I only wish I had gotten into it sooner. Before, Alex’s turntable was Alex’s. I felt like I was going to break it if I touched it. But now that we’ve purchased this one together, I feel a sense of ownership that I have not before felt, and therefore entitlement. I’m excited to see where this takes me. I think part of what was so intimidating about the whole thing is that audiophile mentality that you HAVE to do certain things and you MUST own original pressings, etc. Part of this journey is deciding to politely ignore a lot of that. Though I was excited to discover, after I purchased it, that the Queen record is, in fact, an original pressing.
Thanks for the comment, Brian. And thanks for the warm welcome.