My wife asks me this on a regular basis.” It’s expensive. It takes up space. Who are you going to leave it too when you die? I’m just going to through it in a bin and give it all away.” As disheartening as that all sounds, she isn’t wrong. Today’s records are expensive. They do take up space.
Back in 1986, I got my first job. It was working at a Pet Store. Still living at home and not paying rent, I had the luxury of doing anything I wanted with my first paycheck. I knew exactly what i wanted to do. Already obsessed with music at that age, 15 at that time, I wanted to buy my first record player. So during my lunch break, Radio Shack was conveniently 3 stores up from the Pet Store, I went in and purchased the record player i had been eyeing for a while. It was a Sony hi-fi system. Complete with cassette deck, amplifier, and speakers. I had a collection of cassette tapes but wanted to branch out. After awkwardly carrying the unit back to my store and putting it in the back room, I made my way to the other side of the mall to Sam the Record Man to pick up my first record.
I knew exactly what I was looking for. REO Speedwagon’s High Infidelity. I had the cassette tape, I wanted the record sound experience because my friend, Booger, had a copy and we listened to it the past weekend in his parents basement. We listened to a lot of records he and I at his house. That’s where I heard and fell in love with bands like, RUSH, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Yes, Supertramp. I could go on, but i don’t want to bore you. I had two big music influences at that time in my life, my Aunt Janet and Uncle Peter, who were disc jockeys, and Booger. Up until I met Booger, my only music knowledge/experience came from the local radio station that I listened to on a Snoopy dog house radio. Man, I wish I still had that thing.
I still remember the album that was playing that day in Sam The Record Man, Billy Squire’s Enough is Enough had just come out and was blaring in the store. As I listened to Billy Squire, I made my way to the R section in the store and found the REO Speedwagon place card. Sadly, they were sold out of Hi Infidelity that day and weren’t expecting a replacement until the following week. So I put my name down on a copy. This left me a bit bewildered looking at all the record, not knowing what I wanted to get. I though about RUSH, but if I wanted to listen to them, I could easily go visit the Boogermiester. I wanted something I hadn’t heard yet. So, I started searching through the A’s making my way down to the ‘G’s’ and that’s where I found it. Genesis, Wind and Wuthering.
I never heard of them, but the album cover spoke to me. It was instant love at first sight, and still remains one of my all time favorite album covers. So, I bought it, not caring of the album was good, all i cared about was owning that album cover. My Manager, Jackie, knew of Genesis because when I showed her the album, she said she liked the band. She was a hardcore biker chick, so, if she said it was good, it had to be good. (My teenage brains way of thinking.)
That evening I got home and hooked everything up in my room. It sounded amazing! After adjusting the sound to my preference, which meant more bass, I opened the new album. The cover felt just like the painting I thought it was, a feeling i will never forget, and to this day, 40 years later, I still love holding it and feeling its texture. I know I held vinyl records before at my Aunt and Uncle’s and in Booker’s basement, but this was different, this one was mine. The curves and grooves on the vinyl were perfect. Like another piece of artwork. A vinyl record is sexy. It looks sexy, feels sexy. It looks sexy when spinning on the turnstile. The way the needle scratches the surface. I have only a few real loves in my life, first an ex who is like a big sister to me now years after we broke up, my two girls, my boxer (RIP), my wife and vinyl records. I love holding them in my hands.
One other thing about a vinyl record is the sleeve. They are like a miniature square wall posters. All of the earlier covers were drawing or paintings. Now a days they are digitally created. Not as nice or personable. When you purchase an album, wether it is a CD or a record, i feel you are a caretaker of that album. This is why physical media is so important. Streaming services have its place for convenience, but physical media can be held and enjoyed, and like record sleeves, displayed as art.
The feeling of putting that album on the turnstile for the first time, is hard to explain. Only record lovers will understand what i am talking about. Then the needle dropped and the album began. Two things happened that night, one, I instantly became a Genesis fan, the story telling and the music complexities transported me to another world. Especially the song, All In A Mouses Night. When the record was over, I opened my eyes and felt, relaxed, alive. The second thing that happened was, I became a fan of long complex music. they way different instruments blend together to complete one piece of togetherness, one unit, one song. It’s my AMSR.
This was only the beginning of my obsession, my love of music, my love of artists and bands. My jobs changed through the years and one day, I got my dream job. Sam The Record Man. first it was part time, then full time. Still Living at home, I was able to purchase more….a lot more record. at discounted prices! I started collecting some rarities, often limited first editions of different artists. Each record was special to me.
In high school, I hung around with the heavy metal crowd. Some heavy duty metal heads that only lived and breathed metal. This broadened my music horizons as well. This is when I first heard of Judas Priest. Sad Wings of Destiny was my first Priest album and I have been a fan ever since. However, this period of time in my life musically was personally and privately confusing. Here I am hanging out with all these metal heads and when I was at home, I’m secretly playing the Depeche Mode Speak and Spell album. I was a closet Depeche Mode fan.
This brings me to something my Aunt said to me one day when I was over to their place listening to records. “music is universal” She said. “It doesn’t matter who you listen too, as long as you like it, listen to it.” To this day, that has stuck with me and I lived by that ever since, and shared that exact moto to others. Especially my days/years at Sam The Record Man and later at HMV.
I came out of the Depeche Mode closet one day when a few of my metal heads came over late one evening to my house for a visit and I was sitting on my floor chilling out to Speak and Spell. The look on their faces were priceless, but I’m sure my face was even more so. But, they didn’t care. They joined me and we fired up some joints and we got lost in the music together. That being said, drugs really heightened the music experience.
By 1994 I had well over 200 albums. Each one meaning different things to me. I was proud of my collection, it made me happy. Then something happened that changed me. Hurt me. Depressed me. I had recently relocated to Kingston, Ontario Canada with my current job. 3 weeks here, during a twelve hour shift, I came home to my front door open, when I walked inside my apartment, I quickly realized that I was broken into. All my music was gone. 300 CDs, 200 records, gone. My world shattered. Only on record was left behind. The Beatles White Album. They didn’t just take my music, they took my stereo, my VCR, most of my audio visual stuff. Except for my old TV.
I fell into a music funk after that. I didn’t buy any more records. I bought CDs, but that wasn’t as regular as it use to be. I thought about my records everyday. I would have been happy if they stole anything else, but why my records? Anyway, time moved on, I got married, had a couple of kids and priorities changed. One thing that didn’t change was my regret for loosing my music.
Fast forward to 2024. The kids are gone, and suddenly I was looking at music again. I was reawaken by Robert Smith. After 16 years The Cure released Songs Of A Lost World. A masterpiece. It was like a neuron snapped in my brain. It was my first album in 30 years. When I removed the plastic and looked at the album, there it was, the sexy grooves, the sleek circular vinyl. I fell in love all over again.
Due to the over pricing of records in todays market, and my current age, I would never be able to replace my lost collection. Some of those records are not available any longer anyhow. But, what I decided to do was only replace the albums that I considered perfect. Like a sort of greatest hits collection. I would also, like I did with Songs of a Lost world, only buy my favorite record of the year. The rest of the new releases that year that I liked I would buy on CD.
As for the other collection, it’s slowly coming alone. Slowly. My wife doesn’t understand my obsession. Just having them in my house makes me happy. I smile every time i see them. When my mother passed away, I inherited my parents collection, it’s not much, but a lot of old rarities. It’s amazing fun pulling out an old Engelbert Humperdick or a early Tom Jones album. My parents were huge Elvis fans as well.
So, why vinyl? its an obsession, love. Do I care what happens to them when I die? As long as they go to someone that will play them and appreciate them, I’d be smiling in heaven.
Mr. Hydes Playlist Bizarre 