When I was growing up, everyone was a record album ‘collector’. Well, everyone who enjoyed music at the time. It was more like a living collection . If you wanted to listen to music at home, you had to buy this 12″ plastic disc, place it on a rotating table, then lay a diamond attached to the end of an arm on top of it. Magically music was produced and amplified through speakers. Now I know there were reel to reel tapes available but, let’s be honest, unless your dad was an engineer, you rarely saw one and you didn’t ever use one.
The Most Common Form
It was record albums that brought the music home for the common man. As it did for decades before me. Luckily, my parents had a nice little record collection and loved to play their favorites on a very large piece of furniture that had a record player inside of it. Even when I was a little guy, I had my own ‘little guy’ records along with a portable record player. I had Disney albums, story albums and, most importantly to me, book-records. A beautiful combination of an illustrated book and a vinyl record that read along. Provided hours of enjoyment and took up a lot of space in my bedroom (see: All My Music Is Right Here )
When I became enlightened by music, my record collection went from that kid stuff to popular music. But in the meantime, I was able to enjoy my older sister’s musical tastes along with my folk’s crooner and Herb Albert selections. Their love of music became my love of music. I cannot thank them enough. My first album purchase was the 1975 live album, “Gratitude” by Earth, Wind & Fire . I was as hip as a 7th grader at a Catholic school could be! As the acne started to fill up my face, so the albums started to fill up my shelves. I could not get enough of the music, the artwork, the liner notes or anything else that might make the packaging of an album.
Why Did Things Have To Change?
My personal record collection grew quickly as I would ask for albums as gifts and buy as many as my allowance allowed. I started making real money when I got the part time job at the mall, selling baby shoes! But by that time, my ‘music’ money was being shared between albums and concerts. I continued to buy albums until I couldn’t anymore. Somewhere in the mid to late 80’s, I was forced to start buying CDs. I didn’t buy a lot of cassettes except blank ones for mix tapes and to take my music on the road. The portability of cassette tapes was a game changer for sure! But not nearly as fun as record albums.
So now, imagine a world without ANY new music being released on vinyl records. Compact Discs were/are a very viable solution for music lovers. They are portable and sound fine to the average ear. The early CDs sounded a little less than fine but the technology improved. Still, audiophiles will tell you that the sound from a vinyl record is much richer and fuller than from any CD. Either way, for many years, one could NOT buy new music on vinyl. So my CD collection grew and grew.
When my latest turntable died, I didn’t think to replace it. The only turntables out there were the kind used by dance club DJs for ‘scratching’ purposes. Hip Hop kept the turntable manufacturers in business for many years. Not having a turntable meant that I could no longer listen to my albums. Being the frugal (cheap) person I am, I only replaced my very favorite albums with their counterpart CDs. So many of my albums went unheard for years.
Vinyl Makes a Comeback
I can’t be sure how many ‘non-vinyl’ years I had but let’s just say that after a marriage and 2 kids later, I found myself back in the vinyl world. A couple of things happened: Personally, I discovered that turntables were now being made for the consumer again and they had ones that you could hook up to a computer and ‘rip’ the album. Digitizing my old albums was very attractive to me so I purchased one of these turntables and began dumping my albums digitally into iTunes. I cannot express how excited I was when I was able to play Ted Nugent’s ‘Double Live Gonzo’ on my iPod! I was back in the market for vinyl records and I was going after the older, less familiar (to me) stuff.
I started looking for albums at antique stores and thrift shops. Then record stores started to pop up here and there. Quickly used records became a big business and some rare albums reached new high dollar amounts in value. In 2008, the first Record Store Day was held and some labels released one-offs of new vinyl reissues or special recordings. The ‘Day’ still exists and is more popular than ever!
A funny and beautiful thing happened when I let people know that I was shopping for albums. Two of my friends offered me their collections. To be more accurate: two of my friend’s WIVES offered me their husband’s record collection. One was my old neighbor David. We grew up together and did a lot of record listening together. His collection differed a little from mine in content. Dave was more an R&B guy and loved easy listening. He also was a little more open to different genres than I was. I was more mainstream and guitar orientated rock. It made for a nice rounded listening experience. So now when I am feeling nostalgic, I have almost everything that moved me as a young man at my fingertips.
The other friend, whose collection was given to me, was a little reluctant to let go of his records but he was ‘convinced’ by the wife. What’s interesting here is that this friend is a little older than I am so his collection is a little older. PLUS he had an older sister whose records ended up in his pile. She was into folk music and had some early Bob Dylan among others.
Between these two friends, my own collection and my parent’s collection, I had a nice representation of my lifetime in music. Add to these the many titles I have picked from crates all over the place in recent years and it is a collection that my kids will probably curse me when it comes time to move them.
