The pleasure of old vinyl

Subject: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 09:05 AM

I was going through my vinyl album collection this morning in search of a particular song on a particular album ("Lindy", by the Proximity String Quartet, on the Samuel Charters' compilation Ragtime 2, the Country" mandolins, Fiddles & Guitars, if you must know). I found it and pulled out the sleeve notes insert. I bought this record from the HMV Oxford Street store - the "imports" counter - in 1971, and just reading through the notes was fascinating. What a great compilation... "No Use workin" So Hard" (the Carolina Tarheels)... "They Go Wild Simply Wild Over Me" (the Leake County Revelers)... and many other wonderful songs and tunes. I used to haunt that HMV counter and Doug Dobell's shop at 77 Charing Cross Road in those days.

What was even more fascinating was to turn to the back of the notes insert and look at the adverts on the back, for records on the Broadside Records Label and on the Asch Records and Asch Mankind Series labels. (This particular album, by the way is RBF 18 on the Record Book & Film Sales label). So, I could have bought - for example: BR41 - THE OSWALD CASE - Mrs. Marguerite Oswald reads from her son Lee Harvey Oswald's letters from Russia, with remarks and explanations by Mrs. Oswald - or: AH752 - MARCHING ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS and other American Children's Game Songs by JEAN RITCHIE - An audio-visual experience from Miss Ritchie's treasure chest...

In fact, the advertised records on the reverse of the insert were like a snapshot of liberal America at that time. I started to look at other records I'd bought at that time - now nearly 40 years ago - and rediscovered other riches I'd almost forgotten about. Jug band music, blues singers like Memphis Minnie, Washboard Sam - all beautifully packaged in tough, plain album covers, with a black & white or sepia photo on the front and a notes insert inside. All imports - all quite expensive at the time. If memory serves, some imports were around £5 or £6 - in 1971, remember.

Now I'm sure a lot of this stuff is available in mp3 downloads from the web - and I'm just as much in thrall to the net and the iPod as anyone - but there's something intangible and magical about these old records, and others like them, that an mp3 download can't capture. Now - must go and rummage through my old Leader/Trailer collection for that Billy Pigg, the Border Minstrel album...

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 09:10 AM

Yes, there's nothing like having the thing itself. Downloads (and to an extend CDs) are not quite the same at all.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:40 AM

There really is nothing quite like it. Since Rachel bought me the USB turntable (ostensibly for digitising albums for the car) I've listened to mostly old vinyl. Put on a CD - and I'm away for 70 minutes, whereas a side of vinyl will give you a much more workable 20 minutes or so, consequently not only am I getting more done, I'm spending less time on Mudcat in my downtime. One of the re-discovered delights of life right now is buying old vinyl 2nd hand - 2nd hand CDs never have the same appeal somehow...

A few firm favourites in the Barley Temple:

Flying Teapot & Kip of the Serenes

Bonny Bunch of Roses & Won't You Go My Way

Blue Delight & Witchdoctor's Son

Backdoor, Eight Songs for a Mad King, Dare, Bonny Bunch of Roses, Bananas 7"

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: paula t
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 01:56 PM

I think vinyl sounds much better than Cds or downloads. Much more depth somehow. Stuart got ours down from the loft a few years ago and the memories came flooding back. More like "listening in 3D".

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:04 PM

There's a great deal of opinion that there's a warmth in the sound from vinyl records that's missing from many CDs. It was certainly the case that early digital recording could be very acid, and that early re-masterings of existing vinyl lacked that essential warmth.

For me, it's also the sleeve notes of the time - the inserts, the covers, etc. - that bring some interesting historical and cultural baggage with it. Almost like time capsules.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: mousethief
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:22 PM

And the album art. I'm of an age where part of the fun of buying an album (pop music) was the crazy art on the cover, which just doesn't squeeze down to a 3" square very well.

And pulling the brand-new, glossy-black disc out of the sleeve, looking across the surface for scratches -- like the surface of a whole new ocean about to transport you to who knows where?

It's easy to rhapsodize.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:26 PM

And the album art. I'm of an age where part of the fun of buying an album (pop music) was the crazy art on the cover

Ah - Roger Dean, for example, and those "Yes" albums...!

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 02:28 PM

Got some more old lps last week of material no longer available or not re-issued on current cds; medieval dance and renaissance music.

There is a shop here in Calgary with a large basement full of old lps, well-organized, and I have found several albums of material by lesser known folk singers or singer-composers that has not been re-issued.
My daughter makes cds for me using a good computer sound program (never remember the name).
My turntable is hooked up to my sound system so that I can always play my old vinyl and new discoveries.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:31 PM

I'm waiting for someone to start a thread asking for advice on transferring CDs to vinyl....

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:33 PM

What rubbish.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: mousethief
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:34 PM

There already is that thread down in BS, Gerry.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: mousethief
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:36 PM

Thank you for sharing that, Bonzo3legs. Your intelligence, and the information you impart to the thread, will give us all a lot to think about and discuss.

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 04:54 PM

Yes, I was also wondering whether "What rubbish" applied to one or more particular posts or to the sentiment expressed in my original post.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:02 PM

We were wittering away in another thread about the pleasures of old 78s (by Frankie Laine, among others).
Handling and playing vinyl does, of course, come a close second.
What really is nice is that, unlike 78s, vinyl records are still being made.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:08 PM

Some artists still make their music available on vinyl as well as more conventional CD and mp3 download - Neil Young being one.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:27 PM

I wouldn't mind copying my CDs to LP - a lot easier to keep tidy, and so long as you look after them, last longer.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 05:30 PM

Well, I bought my first LPs around 1962 - and I still have them, and most of them play as well as they did when I first had them. I'm very fond of my CDs as well - just wonder how long they'll last...

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: GUEST,Millindale
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 07:10 PM

Will Fly,
I have some CDs which I made around 5 years ago and there are some among them which are unusable due to the deterioration. These have been stored away from light and dust in good quality sleeves.
We were told that CDs would be a permanent way to store music/ data but this is proving not to be the case. I would caution every body to check their home recorded CDs before it's too late.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 07:49 PM

Last I estimated I had about 1500 LPs and glad to have 'um... I keep them in my studio which stays cold (unless I'm out there) in the winter and hot (unless I'm out there) in the summer but, hey, they seem to be happy... I have an old wardrobe that I put shelves in and store them in there... And, of course, they are all ahphebatized an' all that...

The nice thing about havin' 'um out there is that it's such a long walk that when I go I usually got thru the entire collection and bring in a dozen or so at a time for listenin'...

And yeah, I love the cover art... People just don't do art like that anymore...

B~

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Artful Codger
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 09:15 PM

Does anyone else get an excited tingle when they draw out an LP and see one of those simple but elegant Columbia, EMI or RCA labels?--like the gold and black on muted green or silver-grey, or solid red with the little dog-and-gramophone symbol? They are among the stand-out memories of my youth, and I get a sort of synaesthetic experience when I see them now.

I also feel a direct connection when I lift the tonearm onto the platter, or just watch the arm tracking across the platter. With CDs, there are no observable grooves, and the workings of the players are all enclosed; the music just comes out of nowhere, as if totally divorced from the physical medium. MP3s are even worse--they're practically a conceptual cloud, drifting from device to device, splitting like amoebae, but never tangible or directly observed. I'll never be able to feel about modern recording media the way I do about LPs--the personal connection has been reduced to nothing.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 09:43 PM

Thanks, mousethief, I never go below the line so I would have missed that thread. So I was beaten to the idea by about an hour and a half. That's OK, I'm usually beaten by 20 years and more.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: maeve
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 10:15 PM

My husband's collection of 2000+ records ranged from Edison records to modern recordings, and encompassed early stereo, special effects, spoken word, traditional from around the world, blues, jazz, Big Band, classical, rock, pop, country, humor... They can not be replaced.

He gathered equipment and repaired it all himself. His special talent was to play the carefully chosen recordings on the right equipment to create the optimum sound. He would listen to the music with such joy!

It breaks my heart that it's all ashes.

maeve

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 01 Feb 10 - 11:51 PM

Not just the vinyl, but the cover art on LPs is/was better.
Well, it was bigger.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Clontarf83
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 01:20 AM

Maeve--your story touched my heart. I wish you happiness.

I am an old geezer with about 500 lps and 1000 cds-the kids will raid it upon my demise. And that's ok.

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 03:27 AM

"And yeah, I love the cover art... People just don't do art like that anymore..."

What, like this or this or even this...

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 04:46 AM

"And yeah, I love the cover art... People just don't do art like that anymore..."

How about this? And that's from 1979, folks! Makes you proud, don't it?

There are some great CD covers around; my wife bought Karen Dalton's Green Rocky Road at the weekend which has a gate-fold cardboard sleeve almost as exquisite as the music.

I have some CDs which I made around 5 years ago and there are some among them which are unusable due to the deterioration

They would be CD-Rs, which people often call (& pass off) (for full price) as CDs but are a different beast altogether. Even the best have a limited life. The oldest actual CDs in my collection are holding their own quite nicely and I'm still playing cassettes from 30 years ago. Vinyl, on the other hand, will always be my first love.

How can you roll a decent spliff on a CD jewel case?

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 04:47 AM

Oh Spleen, Spleen! Where on earth did you dig up these? They're surely not from your own collection, are they? Please tell me they're not... They are rather wonderful, though, aren't they. I particularly like the 3rd one - just for the hair...

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: maeve
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 06:14 AM

Clontarf83- Thank you.

Will Fly and the rest: I'm apologize; I shouldn't have posted on this altogether cheerful and interesting thread. It's been over a month since the fire, but it feels very recent to us. Enjoy the discussion, friends.

maeve

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 06:55 AM

Oh Maeve - why on earth apologise to us - don't even go there! I can guess, I think, what your precious belongings meant to you, and to see them go up in smoke must be a tragedy indeed. If this thread can bring a smile to your face, then it's worth something. :-)

Subject: RE: The pleasure of old vinyl
From: maeve
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 10:03 PM

Thanks, kind Will Fly. Do, please, continue the conversation.

m