We all know how powerful music can be in bringing us back to old memories. I was reminded of this recently when my husband got a new needle for his record player.
A few years ago, he decided to move his record player up to the family room so we could make use of our (giant) collection of record albums.
No sooner did he have the thing set up and plugged in than my son decided to grab the needle. Why? I'm not sure...just one of those things that little kids do. Needless to say, the needle broke and dad was upset. So upset, apparently, that he just this week finally ordered a new needle.
I took a trip to the basement to look through our many albums and then took a walk down memory lane. This Big Country record reminds me of my pre-teen years. In the eighties, I was into the New Wave movement. My friend Priya and I would sit and listen to Depeche Mode albums for hours. We knew all the (depressing) lyrics.
In high school, I briefly moved on to a "batcave" phase. I felt the desire to buy not one, but two Alien Sex Fiend albums. I still like The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Through the nineties, I was all about bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam. Yes, I wore plaid shirts. And why did we wear those jeans that came up to our ribs? So unflattering. I mostly bought cds by then, but I thought this Pearl Jam album was cool.
I also eventually came around to the classic albums, like those by The Rolling Stones. I resisted for a long time because my brother tortured me and my sister by blasting his Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd tunes at extreme levels whenever my parents weren't home. I guess the songs rubbed off on me.
My parents have all kinds of albums too. I have taken a few greats from their collection over the years.
This falls under the category of "Where the heck did that come from?" It must be my husband's.
Do you collect albums? What kind?
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What a great Post!!!!! Love Bette Midler and the Stones! Lucky Girl ,you have all the nice Records <3 :)
ReplyDeletexoxo
Thanks! But I think we might be turning into hoarders. ;)
DeleteI used to have several albums when I was little. I used to love the crackling sound that a record player made right before the song comes on :)
ReplyDeleteOh, I love that sound too. :)
Deleteamazingly done
ReplyDeleteI miss albums...I actually remember when record stores had to start retrofitting their bins for the changeover to compact discs. :) Mine albums are all long gone, but I loved looking through your collection!
ReplyDeleteI guess one day the cds will go too! But obviously I'll still have mine. ;)
DeleteI no longer have any old records but really want to get a record player to buy vintage records I find in thrift stores. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI don't even want to get into that. Another collection will cause the house to burst at the seams. ;)
DeleteI used to have a crush on the Big Country singer :) My first record was a gift for my birthday, '1982 Hot Hits'. Our old family record player needs a new needle too. Putting on a record was such an event, nothing like putting a CD on these days!
ReplyDeleteOh, I would love to see what's on the 1982 hits record. :)
Deletei love viewing album covers as art. they say so much about the style of the moment. and there is something about the original crackles, pops and hisses that you don't get with re-mastered. fantastic collection!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chrissy! Some of the old album covers are amazing, for sure!
DeleteA real walk down memory lane! I kept only one album - Layla, by Eric Clapton. I want to go to heaven listening to it. I am going to frame the cover, it's beautiful. My kids took all our old classic albums for the covers. You have a great collection. Enjoy! xx
ReplyDeleteThose frames for album covers are great. My husband framed a few favourite covers for his music room wall. Enjoy Layla! :)
DeleteSo many awesomes!! I love audio trips down memory lane-- & I have no idea what those 90's jeans were about...what were we thinking?? Of course, I was a little earlier-- the Dexy Midnight Runners overalls with rope belts & fedoras with brims bent up & pinned with vintage costume jewelry ...sigh. So very weird :)
ReplyDeleteOh, the jeans. We had nice young bodies and ugly clothes. Your outfit sounds very cute. :)
DeleteI was also a huge Depeche Mode fan! And Alien Sex Fiend and Jesus and Mary Chain, hadn't thought of them for years. I just found some of my old records a month or so ago and had forgotten so many great albums I had like Psychedelic Furs, Bongwater, Iggy Pop. Ah...the 80's & 90's!
ReplyDeleteFunny how we forget. I was surprised to see the Alien Sex Fiend albums! Those were fun decades for sure! :)
DeleteHi there - new follower from the linkup! Cute blog, can't wait to read more! Hope you have a great day! :)
ReplyDeleteRachel
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Hi Rachel, Thanks for visiting and following. Have a wonderful day!
DeleteJoann
Awesome records Jo! My bf collects vinyl and some of those goodies are in his record crate right now. I still listen to Depeche Mode and JAMC, the song 'just like honey' never gets old, so great!
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to Depeche Mode very often, but I should. I agree "just like honey" is a good one! :)
DeleteAlien Sex Fiend - nice ones. I wanna flip through my dads album collection next time I go down, but I don't think he'd like me bring anything him. He's as much as a collector/hoarder as I am. I wish I bought more vinyl instead of CDs growing up, if I could turn back time...
ReplyDeleteMy parents are hoarder-like too, but thankfully they will get rid of something as long as one of the "kids" takes it. My brother doesn't want ANYTHING and my sister's house is so tidy she doesn't take much. That leaves little ole me. ;)
DeleteNothing like real records, they weren't really popular by the time I was old enough to truly be into music... I had tapes. I did end up collecting some records though, all the Beatles and some other classics along with a bunch of Soundgarden which I was obsessed with. They're all still at my mom's and I don't have a record player. They're sure cool though :)
ReplyDeleteTapes are the worst - all that rewinding, fast forwarding and trying to find your song! I love Soundgarden too. :)
DeleteThe only album I remember playing a lot was the Disney's Robin Hood soundtrack. Although we weren't that well off my parents made technology a priority-as soon as cd's came out they were on top of it. My first CD? In God We Trust by Stryper (omg, what a dork!)
ReplyDeleteMy parents definitely didn't make technology a priority. We had those cabinet tvs for ages! Sorry I don't know Stryper, but I googled them. Christian glam metal. Hmmm. ;)
DeleteIt's good that your kids will grow up knowing what a record player is. We took our kids to the ROM when they were little and there was a record in some pop art on the wall "what's that?" they asked. sheesh, we'd been so negligent and stuffed all our records in boxes in the crawlspace and never let our kids experience them. Our turntable is still in the garage (with no needle), and we never did make the connection of the two, so my kids still only know CDs ... or worse, how to download all they need. My husband & I recently had a conversation and made some crack about our 'record being stuck' ... our kids had no clue what we were talking about. I guess there's a whole culture revolving (ha ha...get it?) around records, scratches, skips and crackles. The good ol' days. Oh, and my friends and I listened to a lot of Boston, Styx, Stones and Pink Floyd (once 'The Wall' came out, suddenly everyone was a Floyd fan again!). Thanks for the memories ... Wendy
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny Wendy. I can't imagine not knowing what a record is. But that just shows my age. I'm sure CDs will be a mystery soon too! Thanks for sharing your memories! Jo
DeleteI love my records but I don't listen to them often enough!!
ReplyDeleteThey can be kind of a pain to listen to. Flipping them over and so on. When you are busy cooking or whatever, it's nice if the music plays itself for a good long time. :)
DeleteBette Midler's "The Rose"--sang that in Middle School choir. (= My husband still likes Pink Floyd and I LOVE Ella Fitzgerald (mmm with Louis Armstrong? Summertime, and the Livin is Easy...). But sadly, I've never owned a record. I might have inherited all that my grandma kept from my dad and Uncle's rock n' roll days (60's)...but my mother found the box of records in storage, assumed it was junk, and donated to Salvation Army. Someone lucked out I'm sure. (= Lynaea @ EverydayBloom.com
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool that you sang that. I have no singing ability AT ALL. What a shame your mom gave the records away. But at least they aren't taking up space on your shelves. :)
DeleteGreat post Jo. I love taking a trip down memory lane listening to old songs (too many to mention). It's amazing how certain songs can take you right back to a specific place and time :)
ReplyDeleteK x
Thanks! It's so true...songs and smells take you back don't they?
DeleteLove looking at what other people listen to! Music shapes our lives around here. We have a LOT of dance parties, and I love using our records for those.
ReplyDeleteThat's so cute Ruthie! We should do more of that here. :)
DeleteThis is so cool (I had/ have a lot of these). I lost my album collection, which was a good size, when my (erm, first) ex husband and I split up. I made up for it by collecting a mass amount of cd's which I've passed on to my oldest. I wouldn't mind collecting vinyl again, the art on the album covers and the sense of nostalgia pull a person in.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame you lost your albums Wendy. Mind you, I'm torn because we have so much crap around here, cds included. What do you listen to if you gave those away too...iPod?
DeleteI kept every 45 singles and record albums for years. I originally planned to NEVER part with them or my record player. Then on moving day as I was moving to a new city and the house I now live in I got tired and disgusted which lead to me putting it all in my car and donating it all to the Salvation Army store. It felt good to unload it all at the time. Fast forward to a few days later when in a panic I went back to where I donated my record player and vinyl music to buy it all back. It was all GONE. This happened almost ten years ago and as I look back I am glad that I gave it all away. I do miss it sometimes, but I had so much of it took up huge amounts of space. I have been replacing those songs of yesteryear by downloading them as mp3 files. Amazon has an extensive collection of music. So I have them on my computer and a flash drive. I grew up on what is now called Classic Soul music from Motown and other labels. I never liked rock music. I also love easy listening music by Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, etc, etc. I like some pop music by artists like The Captain & Tenille, The Carpenters, etc.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel. I have trouble giving items up, but it must feel so good to clear your space out a bit. And really, how often would you listen to albums with mp3 files being so easy? You can make a playlist that goes on for hours and hours. Now that I'm "old" I am much more open to all kinds of music, except some of the stuff my kids like...can't handle it. I like the easy listening stuff when I'm cooking. Nice and peaceful.
DeleteI don't collect albums - we had so many of them and finally have found all of them on CDs - I guess we have them just for the music and not the nostalgia of the album covers - although it is fun to look at the old covers and remember the fun we had with the albums.
ReplyDeleteNow you'll have to put all the cds on computer! Everything keeps on changing and we will have to try to keep up. ;)
DeleteWhen I think of all the albums that I USED to have, and got rid of, I just can't believe it. But after so many moves, it just wasn't practical to keep them. I would love to have the story albums I had in childhood - Thumbelina and Bambi - not to mention the classic rock albums, although my brother's Led Zeppelin albums were pretty scratched up by the time I got them. Ah, memories...
ReplyDeleteYou had a brother who liked Led Zeppelin too, huh?
DeleteAlbums are difficult to move, for sure. They are delicate and they take up so much space. :)
TONS of good records over here! I had a WHOLE playlist set up for our new years eve party-so much fun except when they skip--that stunk!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like fun, Laura!
DeleteI have just started looking at records at Goodwill for the album art and boy, I better watch out, cause there was a lot of great illustrating being done. Like you, I do NOT need another collection. What drives me crazy is how I have had to buy the work of many artists in different medium; records, tapes, CD's and I am a bit embarrassed to say, I haven't gotten into the download craze. It would be cheaper and fun, I'm sure. I do miss albums and I wonder if we will look back and regret some great music that was lost. Most people just move on and can't be bothered with records, though, there are those who claim you can't beat the sound quality.
ReplyDeleteSo true. Some of the covers are so artistic! You can't resist them. We mainly download music for our iPods now, but we have hung onto our other formats anyway (except tapes).
DeleteIt's a family obsession here! Our teens have records ranging from The Beatles and Tiny Tim to The White Stripes, while I stick to old country, and my husband's collection of rock-a-billy grows weekly. We have the family record player downstairs, but both kids have players in their own rooms. My daughter's is a new version of a portable player, but my son's is old school retro, found at a garage sale for free, and brought back to life. In our house, iPods are for outside of the house use: if we are home, records are the background music of our day!
ReplyDeleteCool family! That is so fun that you all use your record players. I have been asking my parents where my vintage record player is, but they claim to not know. It is weird because they rarely get rid of anything. I hope it turns up one day in their basement. My husband loves The White Stripes. I had forgotten about rock-a-billy. That is fun too! :)
DeleteAwesome collection of LPs! After reading the title, I am not going to get Bob Segers song out of my head all day! LOL Thanks for sharing at TTF.
ReplyDeleteSorry Diann! ;) I know, it's one of those songs that sticks with you!
DeleteI absolutely love looking at other people's album collections. Mine is one I had when I was younger -- Beach Boys and Supremes Albums. My mom was big into antiques and stuff, and she'd drag me along to all the yard sales when I was a kid. It was something to do. Then I'd go home and listen to them on my Fisher Price record player!
ReplyDeleteFisher Price record player! How cute is that?
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