Vinyl Memories

Trollheart · 04-26-2021, 09:34 PM

Who here is old enough to remember the care we used to have to treat albums with? You remember slipping off the dust cover (always slide it on so that the opening is at the top, though some people preferred either side - never the bottom or you could have a broken album on your hands!) then sliding the actual inner sleeve out, tapping the record gently into your hands, being careful not to touch the surface with the fingers, handling it gently (flat of palms holding the sides carefully) onto the turntable? Lifting the stylus, checking if there was any fluff on it, if so blowing it gently off before lowering the needle?

The annoyance when you accidentally hit into the record player and the album would skip? Turning the album over when side one ended to hear the other side? Flicking through boxes/racks/shelves of albums in your local second-hand record store looking for bargains? Decorating the inner sleeves with your own art? Learning all the lyrics? Admiring the cover art? The smell of the inside cover of a gatefold album?

Share your vinyl memories, from a time when playing an album was more than just selecting a file or pressing play on your ipod, when listening to music was a real pleasure and quite the ritual, when once you'd bought an album you'd listen to it many times as that was the only new one you could afford.

I suppose I'll never go back to vinyl, but it's nice to think of those days.

Tristan_Geoff · 04-26-2021, 10:54 PM

Um, don't the majority of members here listen to vinyl currently?

DianneW · 04-27-2021, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Who here is old enough to remember the care we used to have to treat albums with? You remember slipping off the dust cover (always slide it on so that the opening is at the top, though some people preferred either side - never the bottom or you could have a broken album on your hands!) then sliding the actual inner sleeve out, tapping the record gently into your hands, being careful not to touch the surface with the fingers, handling it gently (flat of palms holding the sides carefully) onto the turntable? Lifting the stylus, checking if there was any fluff on it, if so blowing it gently off before lowering the needle?

The annoyance when you accidentally hit into the record player and the album would skip? Turning the album over when side one ended to hear the other side? Flicking through boxes/racks/shelves of albums in your local second-hand record store looking for bargains? Decorating the inner sleeves with your own art? Learning all the lyrics? Admiring the cover art? The smell of the inside cover of a gatefold album?

Share your vinyl memories, from a time when playing an album was more than just selecting a file or pressing play on your ipod, when listening to music was a real pleasure and quite the ritual, when once you'd bought an album you'd listen to it many times as that was the only new one you could afford.

I suppose I'll never go back to vinyl, but it's nice to think of those days.

Yes got just a few Singles a couple of EP's and a Small to Fair Amount of Albums..Most have been played just the once because Husband always copied them on to other Media Forms. I was 16 when we met so plead innocence to his choice of music back then...Hey, how come I yearn for new stuff every day and he is still stuck in time. I did not handle the Vinyls so any scratches is not down to moi. Can remember having one party which we held regularly, some LP's went missing,. We had friends only at the party so that was a learning curve, never to be ever forgotten. That felt like real pain, still does.Trust is something you can't measure. It's earn't over time....

These have travelled thousands of Kilometres and till almost perfect condition...should not pile really I guess, so will lay them on their sides like the others are....

Trollheart · 04-27-2021, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tristan_Geoff

Um, don't the majority of members here listen to vinyl currently?

Do they? News to me. I know Rostasi and Innerspaceboy do, but other than that I was not aware. Anyway it's not about listening to vinyl now, it's about how it was back then, when that was your only choice. Now, if you want to, you can choose CD, digital download, YouTube, Spotify, whatever. Back then, you listened to albums on vinyl or you didn't listen to albums (except on cassette tape). They're the kind of memories I'm trying to evoke: a time when vinyl was king, when vinyl was a necessity, not a choice.

Dianne: quelle belle collection! (or something) - very nice. I think I have about 450 albums in all, none of which have been played in the last ten years, not since the Great Crash of '02 - literally: my shelf containing my CD player, turntable, amp, speakers and CD Recorder came off the wall and everything fell on the floor. Nothing was actually broken (I think the perspex lid on my record player got a crack in it, but nothing more than that) but I never bothered putting the shelf back up, and shortly afterwards I started playing music digitally and that was the end of that. Bought a USB turntable in about, I don't know, 2010 maybe? It's still in its box.

DianneW · 04-27-2021, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Do they? News to me. I know Rostasi and Innerspaceboy do, but other than that I was not aware. Anyway it's not about listening to vinyl now, it's about how it was back then, when that was your only choice. Now, if you want to, you can choose CD, digital download, YouTube, Spotify, whatever. Back then, you listened to albums on vinyl or you didn't listen to albums (except on cassette tape). They're the kind of memories I'm trying to evoke: a time when vinyl was king, when vinyl was a necessity, not a choice.

Dianne: quelle belle collection! (or something) - very nice. I think I have about 450 albums in all, none of which have been played in the last ten years, not since the Great Crash of '02 - literally: my shelf containing my CD player, turntable, amp, speakers and CD Recorder came off the wall and everything fell on the floor. Nothing was actually broken (I think the perspex lid on my record player got a crack in it, but nothing more than that) but I never bothered putting the shelf back up, and shortly afterwards I started playing music digitally and that was the end of that. Bought a USB turntable in about, I don't know, 2010 maybe? It's still in its box.

I have no needle in the record deck...not sure I will ever play them again not really what I want to hear so much any more. I can remember buying cheap old 78's at a trash type sale and we would warm them and then shape them into fruit bowls...weird when I think of that..don't ever remember looking to see what music was on them ..too young at that time to be thinking music..only everything was more a toy..lifetime ago now..but now enjoy new styles of music, finding something different all the time and some I absolutely love, would not have even thought of listening to outside my comfort zone a few years back. Have a mate that is into rock of all sorts and he and I enjoy time together swapping music we come across....Be good if you get some more stories about the Vinyl scene, especially as it is more popular again now than for a long long time...

Psy-Fi · 04-27-2021, 11:50 AM

I have fond memories of using various gatefold album covers to de-seed cannabis back in the 70's.

**Exo** · 04-27-2021, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Do they? News to me. I know Rostasi and Innerspaceboy do, but other than that I was not aware.

I run/manage a popular tri state area record shop and have 1400 LPs in my collection.

**Frownland** · 04-27-2021, 12:32 PM

I remember Haram selling out immediately and unsuccessfully calling a bunch of record stores to see if they had a copy a couple of weeks ago. Good times.

**Marie Monday** · 04-27-2021, 12:38 PM

I actually started collecting vinyl a few months ago, one of the consequences of corona restlessness

Trollheart · 04-27-2021, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exo

I run/manage a popular tri state area record shop and have 1400 LPs in my collection.

I forgot about you. Of course you do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

I remember Haram selling out immediately and unsuccessfully calling a bunch of record stores to see if they had a copy a couple of weeks ago. Good times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marie Monday

I actually started collecting vinyl a few months ago, one of the consequences of corona restlessness

As a matter of interest, what does vinyl go for these days? I remember seeing an album I already had being "specially produced (reproduced I guess) on vinyl" and it was something like sixty quid. Do record shops (excluding Exo's of course) take advantage of the sudden resurgence of interest in vinyl and charge mad money for them?

@ Dianne: you remember "cowboy hats" - when a record was so warped it would seem to undulate in waves as it went around the turntable?

04-26-2021, 09:34 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Vinyl Memories Who here is old enough to remember the care we used to have to treat albums with? You remember slipping off the dust cover (always slide it on so that the opening is at the top, though some people preferred either side - never the bottom or you could have a broken album on your hands!) then sliding the actual inner sleeve out, tapping the record gently into your hands, being careful not to touch the surface with the fingers, handling it gently (flat of palms holding the sides carefully) onto the turntable? Lifting the stylus, checking if there was any fluff on it, if so blowing it gently off before lowering the needle? The annoyance when you accidentally hit into the record player and the album would skip? Turning the album over when side one ended to hear the other side? Flicking through boxes/racks/shelves of albums in your local second-hand record store looking for bargains? Decorating the inner sleeves with your own art? Learning all the lyrics? Admiring the cover art? The smell of the inside cover of a gatefold album? Share your vinyl memories, from a time when playing an album was more than just selecting a file or pressing play on your ipod, when listening to music was a real pleasure and quite the ritual, when once you'd bought an album you'd listen to it many times as that was the only new one you could afford. I suppose I'll never go back to vinyl, but it's nice to think of those days. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

04-27-2021, 12:32 PM	#8 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	I remember Haram selling out immediately and unsuccessfully calling a bunch of record stores to see if they had a copy a couple of weeks ago. Good times. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x