(New) Old Adventures In Vinyl

No, I didn’t purchase a vinyl suit that I’m going to wear to the next karaoke night.

I’m talking about real live records.

My wife and teenage daughter recently got me a small record player for my birthday. And it is on. 

Putting on a record and hearing that snap, crackle, pop at the beginning immediately reminded me of why I fell in love with music in the first place. My daughter commented on how beyond her it was that music can be coming from a needle on a black disc spinning around, being that she is used to hearing music on digital files, coming out of a computer, tablet or a phone. 

It really is a marvel, when you take time to ponder it.

I know what you may be thinking. 

“How nice, rollerboogie.”

Well, I never claimed to be on the cutting edge of the return to vinyl, or anything for that matter. At least three other people in my own family are ahead of me here, and knowing little sis Elise, she probably never stopped. I’m just happy to finally get back into it and of course, I’m going to talk about it.

A little over 25 years ago, my Uncle Ernie passed away. 

He was a very private person, and I never saw the inside of his home until after he died. I don’t think any of us did. His sister, my Aunt Phyllis, took on the task of packing up the house and preparing it to be sold. My mom and I came over to help. One surprising thing that Phyllis had found was a small cache of early Beatles’ albums- Meet the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, and Beatles ’65. 

Uncle Ernie had never struck any of us as a big fan of rock and roll. She asked me to find out if they were worth anything. I went to the library and found a record collector’s guide, and none of them were highly valuable from a monetary sense.

She asked me if I wanted to keep the albums. I said yes, even though I had no way of playing them. 

When I pulled out the records to examine them, I was shocked to find a 4^th record jammed inside one of the jackets, its own apparently long gone. 

I had known about it but had never seen a copy. 25 years after that discovery, I was finally playing it for the first time on my new record player. I was too young to experience the British Invasion in real time.  Sitting there watching that record spin and listening to the sounds that captured the hearts and imaginations of the nation’s youth, for me, was the closest I could get, and it was pretty great.

After listening to the Beatles’ albums, I had a dilemma. I never had a great record collection, and most of what I did have was ruined in a basement flood years ago, so now what would I play? 

Aside from a Tito Puente cha-cha album that I somehow had laying around and a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 soundtrack album that my wife and daughter had given me, there wasn’t much left to explore. I told my daughter that we needed to head to the nearest used record store, and surprisingly, she was willing to go along.

The record store didn’t have a huge selection, but the one album I found made the trip totally worth it:

Seventh Sojourn by the Moody Blues from 1972. 

It was fitting that this would be my first find in this budding new phase. Growing up, both of my older brothers were into the Moody Blues…

I loved that album, particularly the song “The Voice,” but when he dove deeper into his peach crates and put on Seventh Sojourn, something really got a hold of me. It sounded like nothing else I had heard.   Ray Thomas’ flute at the beginning of “The Land of Make Believe” lured me in like the pied piper, and it was in that moment that I knew that I needed more of the Moody Blues in my life. 

Their albums were the first I purchased with my own money, and now history had repeated itself.

Well, that did it. The floodgates were officially open. 

I wanted more albums – and I wanted them asap. My daughter loves to thrift shop and she suggested we hit up a Salvation Army store and check out the used records there. And while we’re there, maybe she will happen to find a pair of black leggings. 

Most of what they had at Salvation Army were the kind of records many of my generation’s parents tended to own, very heavy on classical and easy listening. Would I find anything here? I was rapidly losing hope and then there it was:

Are you kidding me?  This was a fixture in our parents’ record collection and one I remembered fondly.  In a recent article, I spoke of how, as kids, Elise and I would dance wildly to “Zorba the Greek,” the final track on the album. And just days after writing the article, here was a copy in decent condition for $3. I was giddy with excitement.

When we got home, I took Seventh Sojourn for a spin, snapped a picture of the record on the turntable and sent it in a group text to my siblings. All five responded enthusiastically and encouraged me on my journey. Greg replied with a pic of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours playing on his record player. 

A few days later, my daughter and I hit up another thrift store and two used record stores. 

She came away with some jewelry, a top, a skirt, and an oversized t-shirt from the men’s section. 

I snagged 3 more Moody Blues albums and a Beatles’ album that was surprisingly in the $2 bargain bin. 

In what was perhaps a veiled shot at Columbia, the original cover (which is not the one I got) literally had the lads dressed as butchers, draped in hunks of raw meat and decapitated baby dolls.

Did I care about any of this? At first, not at all, but as I continued to listen, it did feel a bit out of place to hear different phases of the band on one album, seeing as how quickly they were evolving in the course of a year. In the end, I decided to be happy that I had another Beatles LP, no matter what the configuration. 

I’m now officially hooked on vinyl, and I am excited about what I might find next. 

Everything old is new again, and I couldn’t be happier. 

To quote from those fabulous Moody Blues:

For those of you that are into listening on vinyl, I’d like to hear about it. 

• How long since you got back into it?
• Or if you are younger, when did you get on board for the first time? 

And what are some of the crown jewels in your collection? 

Do share!

UPDATE:

Dear Diary, since my last entry, it’s been a little over three weeks and I’ve added close to 20 albums to my budding new collection. The highlight was finding The Beatles (a.k.a. the White Album) for $10 at a used record store. I still can’t believe it. Thanks to my sister Marybeth, I am now hitting up estate sales. 

There appears to be no end in sight. Oh well, gotta run. 

If you need me, you know where to find me.

Yours truly, rollerboogie.

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