The Pleasures Of A Record Collection

You ever lay on the floor gazing at the spines and attached titles of your (or another persons) vinyl record collection? Pondering the artwork, liner notes, songs and history within each. Or thumbing through a stack of old 45's (Not to forget 78's)? Reflecting on the memories and emotions that many of your records bring forth. For a true vinyl junkie it's one of the more rewarding moments of collecting. Up there with the actual listening to the albums/records. the experience works with compact discs also, just to a lesser degree.

Everybody has a starting point in record collecting. Most likely everyone has a mentor who helped get them started. Mine was the older brother of one of my best friends. I'd go down the street and around the corner in the neighborhood that I grew up in to play a little driveway basketball with a friend and end up inside the house listening to his brother's records. Creedence, Guess Who, Woodstock (Drug Store Truck Driving Man), The White Album by The Beatles, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, San Francisco Nights by Eric Burdon, White Bird ..... and so much more. It was quite an education for a thirteen year old. And 45 years later, those hours have never been forgotten.

Visits to local record stores have been a regular ritual since about age sixteen. Some friends have called it an obsession. Once a week generally being the rate. Often times there's multiple visits within a week. When you hear something that truly excites you, you just can't wait until next week or next month. Or hope that someone gets it for you on your birthday. There's a desire to get to the record store as soon as possible. When I drive by locations around town where a record shop once existed, I feel a twinge or two of sadness for its no longer being there. Especially the places that helped get me started with collecting and the joy of browsing through shelves, racks, crates and bins of records.

Some of my longest drives home have been while traveling just a few blocks with new record releases and purchases in hand and dealing with the anticipation of hearing for the first time, the sounds on the disc.

With many favorite records, you can recall exact details of past listening experiences. You can conjure up an image of the occasion and though it may have been thirty years ago, it often feels like it was in the recent past ..... like it's still within reach. Even if maybe you have'nt listened to the record since. They take you back to high school or an old friends house. Or return you to your dorm room in college. Or driving along a lonely country road where you may have first heard something on the radio.