Spinning Records

We got our turntable delivered last week.  It is a Crosley reproduction of a record player that looks late sixties - which is the era I began to listen to records. I was nine years old when I bought my first 45.  It  was Sugar Sugar by the Archies from the Kentwood Pharmacy and dime-store, which was a pretty long bike ride from my house in those days. Mike Stipe from REM bought the same first record that year.

It has been interesting to see the younger three kids getting into playing records.  An early Johnny Cash record seems to be a current favorite with Rain. Ballad of a Teenage Queen seems to hit her spot in a special way. It is such a different experience to spin a record than hearing music out of a computer. They seem to be worlds apart.  Somehow it seems to be making the music physically present, the way a digital file does not.

Maybe The End Is Just The Beginning

I have enjoyed seeing the return of record players and vinyl in the bins at the local record store and I think I know why.  It is good to see something return that had been previously replaced and considered no longer necessary. As a man riding a vector into old age this thought is a comfort to me.

I remember reading the Johhny Cash autobiography that came out in the late 90's where he shared in detail how his career had tanked and he had become something of an old newspaper in the Nashville circles he used to own. This was an extremely hard time for him as a man who loved to be loved but also a completely necessary passage to go through to come to the other side into the next half of his career that some would say was season of his greatest work. By the way, thanks to Rick Rubin who was there to help the old man get back on his horse.

Unless a seed dies in the ground you don't get the flower. This is still true and death still has feels shitty but knowing it isn't final is a comfort. By the way do you know where I can find a good turntable that won't cost and arm and a leg?