In classic rock magazine this month they dedicated most of the magazine to the most amazing records that were ever released on vinyl.
A lot of bands are releasing a lot of their music on vinyl. There has been sort of a comeback to vinyl records. I think a lot of these people were not around back in the day. I think vinyl records stink and I am so glad they are gone.
I used to go to Modell’s back in the day, yes that Modell’s, they were a department store before selling all sporting goods.
I would go with the $7.50 I saved to get the new Molly Hatchet record. All I would think of was their new kick ass tune I have been hearing on the radio, “Flirting with Disaster”.
I would go in, get the record with the cool warrior guy on the horse, ride my bike as fast as I could to get home, and crank the album as loud as I could before my mom got home from work.
The magic moment would arrive and the needle would drop on the record and the first song would kick in “I’m traveling down the road and I’m flirting with, I’m flirting with, I’m flirting with, I’m flirting with.
!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO, IT’S SKIPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back on the bike two miles back to Modell’s, back to the record department where the guy plays the record and says “ It plays fine here” really does it?? Well, I guess I will get all my shit and move into your store because back at the house there’s a problem.
They give me a new album I ride two miles back home put the new record on the turn table and,, I’m flirting with, I’m Flirting with, I’m Flirting with.
With digital it is a thing of the past, record aficionados will say that analog Records have warmth that digital does not.
In the beginning in the mid eighties analog records sounded a lot warmer than digital which sounded very thin but as the years progressed they sound as warm as any record.
In addition, remember the first CD you bought that you had on vinyl. You would here things that you never heard on Vinyl version. Or the first time you heard music on a CD at all. I was dating this girl who had Heart’s new CD at the time “Bad Animals” and the sound just blew my mind.
I am a major Genesis fan I bought an album I had for years on vinyl “Wind and Wuthering “and just to hear the intricate parts without pops and scratches is amazing.
The one thing that I miss in regards to vinyl records are the album covers and the liner notes, as well as the booklets that came inside. My fondest memory was when Elton John’s “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” came out. The album was phenomenal but the album cover, the liner notes, the inner cover, and the booklet was just as important as the music. The whole thing was just an experience. I have the album on CD and it is not the same, and it kind of sucks that a whole generation will never experience something that was so integral to the music.
Also sad is the demise of the record store, I remember when I was a teenager working with my Mom down on Wall Street in Manhattan, there was a record store that I would go to every day at lunch and plan what I would get on pay day. Friday I would go and blow my paycheck on some amazing music. Which are now in crates in my basement.
Yes I know how easy it is to down load music and you can get it sitting in the comfort of your home and have it immediately. But the experience of looking through bins, seeing the new releases in the store window, the whole thing was an experience that has been lost to a new generation.
Please don’t think I am being a codger , if you don’t think having an IPod the size of a pack of matches and the thing can hold every record you ever had isn’t the greatest thing in the world then you’re nuts.
I don’t miss Vinyl, I do miss album covers and if anyone out there misses eight track cassettes they should have their head examined and have to listen to their favorite song fade out in the middle, then hear a “THUNK” when the track changes and then the song fades back in, I’m sure. Just as the artist imagined.
But I guess it’s better than I’m flirting with, I’m flirting with, I’m flirting with.
Damn,, back to the store.