The Love Of Vinyl

The Love Of Vinyl - Originally Posted March 2, 2009

I went shopping last week and walked into a Hot Topic store that sold some very cool t-shirts and as I was walking around looking at the displays on the walls my eyes were diverted to a rack in the back corner of the store.

What drew my attention at this new store. Was it scented candles? no. Was it posters of the Jonas Brothers? no. Was it adult toys? ahhhh no.

It was a rack of vinyl. Not CD's but real honest to goodness true 12" vinyl. What caught my eye in the first place and drew me to the rack like a magnet was sitting right up in front, a copy of Dark Side Of The Moon in all it's glory with's it's beautiful cover reaching out to me like a beacon in the dark. What is happening in this crazy world?

By now everyone knows I am a music fan (no, really a fanatic). I listen to music every day, sometimes all day and have hundreds and hundreds of CD's and around 6000 songs on my computer for easy access but what I have kept preserved over the years and take out on those special occasions is my album collection.

These albums that I have bought, played, and some even worn out over the years from the 60's thru the 70's and into the 80's are cherished pieces of art to me. For those of you old enough to own actual albums, do you remember buying that favorite album and carrying it home under your arm, peeling the plastic off the cover, sliding it out of the paper sleeve, balancing it carefully on one hand then only touching the sides as you put it on the turntable, lifting the needle off the holder and gently, gently lowering the needle onto the first groove on the album. Hearing that little bit of static as the needle fell into the groove and then magic!

Vinyl brought a warmth to the music that the digital age of CD's from the mid 80's to now can't reproduce. There is a thinness to the sound of CD's where vinyl produced fuller, warm sound. that filled the room.

The vinyl album was also more than that. There is a great scene in the movie "Almost Famous" where the sister moves out of the house and leaves to her younger brother a gift under the bed to "expand his mind". William opens up the backpack she left him and in it was a collection of albums. As he sat on the floor, staring and slowly leafing thru the albums taking in the artwork of these pieces of art, his hand gently touched them, tracing the artwork and lettering like they were alive.

They were alive. Covers used to done by some of the great artists of the time that tried to express what the musicians were saying with their music. The album cover was an extension of the music in another art form. Take another look at Sgt Pepper - The Beatles, Their Satanic Majesties Request - Rolling Stones, Axis Bold As Love - Jimi Hendrix, Captain Fantastic - Elton John, The Court Of King Crimson - King Crimson, Disraeli Gears - Cream, Fragile - Yes, Abraxax - Santana as just a few examples of a lost modern art form. This unique art form cannot be appreciated at 4"x4" or 72 dpi.


Now, I am a lot older and my eyesight is not what it used to be but I don't get that feeling from a CD. I just don't get the same feeling putting on the CD and looking at the cover art, hell I definitely can't read the liner notes on a CD without a magnifying glass. Plus you can't use a CD cover to separate the twigs and boulders (you readers from the 60's and 70's get that one!).
That copy of "Dark Side Of The Moon" in the store drew me back to a great time in my life. I smiled as I walked up to the register remembering buying my copy of it for the first time at the old Shoppe for $3.50.

This time as I took that copy to the register and it rang up at $35.00, it slapped me right back to reality of 2009!


Nuff said, at least till next week
Peace Out
Bear