The Big Vinyl Comeback

 Have you heard that vinyl is making a comeback? Young folks are buying classic rock albums on vinyl for inflated prices because they sound better than the digital files that replaced them. 

Of course there was a brief period of insanity where we thought 8-tracks were the solution.  Then we dumped our 8-tracks for the convenience of cassettes because they sounded better. Music nuts like me bought them all.  I owned the album Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl, then 8-track, then cassette.  When CD’s began to hit the market, my first purchase was the Pink Floyd classic. The first time I heard that album without scratches and pops and hiss, I knew my vinyl days were gone.

I grew up listening to music – especially records. I bought Beatle 45’s in 65 and bought my first lp in 1969 (Paul Revere and the Raiders).  By 1999, I had collected closer to 1000 albums.  Combined with hundreds of cassettes and CDs, my music collection was either impressive or silly based on your point of view.

Like many reading this column, I started listening to music by playing my parent’s records.  Their collection included about twenty random albums and one 78 rpm gem. There was no logic to the records that were stored in the bottom of our bookcase. Still, I remember almost every one of them because they were the only records in our house – at least until the Beatles invasion.

A favorite was Burl Ives singing folk classics like Froggy Went a Courtin’ and Goober Peas.   Yes, the golden voice behind Frosty The Snowman was quite the folk entertainer in his day.  There was also an Eddy Arnold lp that we never listened to.  It stayed at the bottom of the stack with the corny Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra’s albums.  

One that got played often was the movie soundtrack to South Pacific.  I knew nothing about the show but loved songs like There’s Nothing Like a Dame and Bloody Mary.  That album helped me learn a skill that I perfected in later years called dropping the needle – as in skipping the first two songs and finding the start of cut three.

The only record in the cabinet that was officially a kid song was a 78 rpm disc that a babysitter gave to my older brother.  It was the 1958 classic One Eyed-One Eared-Flying Purple Eater by Sheb Wooley.  Years later I heard a digital version and realized I’d never heard it without the crackling and scratches.

Years later I blended my parent’s records into my own collection. They never got played but the covers were a strong memory of home and that old hi-fi.  

I replaced my record collection with digital versions years ago and have no regrets because they sound great and can be heard anywhere at any time.  Still, I miss the feel and look of the old albums. The covers are an instant reminder of the music inside and I do miss liner notes.

I’m not going back to vinyl though.