Records
I’m not talking about school records or grades. I’m referring to albums, LPs!
There’s a great obsession with MP3 players and storing music in external hard drives (which is a good idea). However, the tangible tactile process of listening to and handling a record is incomparable. There’s something meditative about handling a record. Taking it out of the 12×12 cover, checking it for dust, placing it on the turntable, waiting for the needle to touch the record and produce that non-digital sound.
I aver that listening to a song on vinyl is a more focused activity than listening to the same song on an MP3 player. The mobility of the MP3 player, which is what it is good for, is just asking me to do something else while I listen. But the process of listening to a song on vinyl compels me to concentrate.
Records are an anti-technology that have remained in spite of 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, and c.d.s, and, I’m sure, MP3s and whatever else follows that. I was not surprised to find many of my students are selective and zealous record collectors. To them it’s new and a viable alternative to the ipod.
The savvy artists provide incentive for fans to purchase their music on vinyl. Some have alternative packaging. Some include a c.d. in the album sleeve at no extra charge so the album can be put on an MP3 player. Several albums have never been released on any other format than vinyl.
As a record collector you begin to develop a nose for records. You spot the good ones at thrift stores. You ask your friends parents if they have any sitting in their attic. You scrounge at garage and estate sales.
One night I saw a few boxes of LPs in the alley behind my house about five houses down. They were in stellar condition sitting on top of a couch. Someone had just moved and left me a present.
Here are a few that I found:
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