Large shinny knobs, and long slender switches stare up at me. I click the largest, one turn left, and the machine awakes. From inside a yellow light illuminates the control panel, radio tubes warm up, and a dull hum emanates from the back. I leaf through a tall collection of colored cardboard, and carefully make a selection. With a gentle swipe of my hand I brush the dust from the jacket to reveal the objects full luster. I carefully remove the contents from its wrapping, first from the cardboard, then from the translucent white tissue paper. With the palms of both hands I carefully hold its edges, and slowly lower it onto a soft rubberized bed. With the push of a button the bed begins to rotate, and the arm release it’s self from it housing and gently glides into place. As the needle contacts the shinny vinyl the first sounds crackle out from the speakers. I lie down on the ground, close my eyes and listen as the LP plays out.
This meditative process is followed every time I listen to vinyl. It relaxes me, and prepares me for the music. I admit, I enjoy the ease of a CD, and the clarity of digital music, but there is nothing that can replace the warm sound of a clean vinyl on a turntable.
ABBA, Close encounters of the third kind, The Band, Vividly, Simon and Garfunkel and Dire Straits. Presently these LP’s sit, un-listened, on my parent’s bookshelf. I absconded with their turntable, under little controversy, several years ago. The needle was damaged, and it was coated in a thick layer of dust. With the HI-FI system I also liberated several LP, again with no protest. Today, the 27 of October 2004, my parents in their infantine wisdom refused to let the aforementioned records to leave the confines of their suburban home.
“We will allow you to take one at a time and you can record them onto a tape, that’s what we did”“If I wanted to listen to them on tape, I had might as well down load them”
“Fine then”
“I don’t get it, when are you ever going to listen to these?”
“When ever we feel like it”
“And what are you going to play them on? Are you going to go and buy a turn table, because incase you haven’t noticed I have been using yours for the past 4 years”
“I’ll just come over and take it back”
“Good luck finding a needle, the one I got cost 60 bucks, and it was the only one I could find”
“I’ll take the needle then, as rent for my record player “
“Are you crazy? Besides, your tape player doesn’t even work, it’s never worked”
“So YOU broke my stereo!”
And the conversation continued like this for several minutes, until finally my mother felt it was time to interject. Her interjection was not the standard voice of reason you would expect however.
“Those records are in mint condition, we only played them once or twice, and we recorded them onto tapes”“I cant record them!, besides I want to listen to the record because I like how records sound”
“They sound so good because they are in such good condition, that Simon and Garfunkel is a collectors item”
“Oh ya mom, here just let me take a look on E-bay, I bet you its just price less, and ABBA Voulez Vous, I bet I could buy that for a whole dollar”
For the record, Simon and Garfunkel; Bridge over troubled water can be purchased for .99 cents. And ABBA Voulez Vous in mint condition is going for an astonishing .50 cents. For the price of one extra large coffee at Stan Makita’s doughnuts I could replace these LP’s. Instead of accepting this as fact, my parents stubbornly sit back in their recliners and turn their attention back to the television. No doubt, in a matter of days the will completely forget about their small record collection. Until that inevitable fine spring day comes by, when those very same ‘mint condition’ ‘collectors items’ will be boxed up with the old winter coats, a lamp shade, some dishes and magazine rack to be donated to Good Will. After all, why should you put something like that to use. We are a society of takers, and takers take just for the sake of taking, with no thought behind an objects actual use. What good is the dollar vale of an item if it going to be left un-admired and un-enjoyed?
I have some albums with a small skip or crackle that, for me, is an important part of the song (a B=52 album comes to mind. also there's a skip in my Psycho Killer). Some of these flawed versions got onto cassettes and I have transferred some of the cassettes to my harddrive. When I hear the pop or skip coming from a song on a harddrive I am very pleased.
Posted by: Two Dishes But to One Table | Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 11:04 PM
The Records are now in my possession. The other day, while visiting my brother, I absconded with the price less vinyl. To my parents I say this “the only way you will ever know they are missing is if you read my blog”. And since there is a fat chance in that ever happening, I am going to lie back in my beanbag chair, and toss on ‘The Band - Cahoots’.
Posted by: Chris | Sunday, October 31, 2004 at 01:21 AM