I am old enough to remember people collecting vinyl 45s, but still too young to have collected them myself. I will admit to having purchased some cassette singles (or cas-singles) in my misspent youth, but I thought that the 45 died with disco. According to an article in the Toronto Star last week, the 45 is making a comeback, especially in the UK. I honestly can't see this catching on in North America (unless Steve Jobs can somehow profit from it), but I have been wrong before. Is it time for me to retrieve my record player from my parent's basement?Also, NPR's All Songs Considered discusses the recent trend of artists issuing their music both digitally and on vinyl, and gives a top ten of albums they feel are worth the extra vinyl effort.
The Year On Vinyl: Dropping the Needle
Todd Snider - My Vinyl Collection.mp3
From: Live at the Georgia Theater (~2003?)
2 comments:
I have no doubt vinyl is coming back in a big way. You can hardly find any decent wax at the used shops anymore...ESPECIALLY if its a name act. Every now and then you get lucky and find something no one else is hip to yet. Also the prices are gradually spiking...again mainly for the name acts. Luckily most of the hipsters buying up all the good records steer clear of the country section. This makes it nice for buying old Willie records, but try to find a reasonably priced Neil Young album....try it!!!
I'm not sure vinyl ever went away -- at least not for me. In college, my roommate had a record player and he stole his dad's copy of the "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes and that got a lot of rotation. After college another roommate had a pretty decent stack of 45s. I picked up a lot more in the past 4-5 years after finding a 1965 era console stereo at an estate sale for $18. Since then I've spent well over $100 for quite a good number of records. There's a great used record store in Webster Groves, MO (Euclid Records) that has a really good selection and most of the good titles run about $6. Most I paid was $9 for a double Parliament album. Ray Charles's "New and Modern Sounds in Country Music" was only $6!! The garage sales and antique stores are flooded with all sorts of gems for about 25 cents to a dollar. I haven't picked up any brand new vinyl yet, but I might start. It's too much fun finding the old classics though. To the above, there's a lot of old Willie Nelson titles that are out of print that are quite nice to find on vinyl.
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