more...MILLVALLISON: R is for Record Store Day

Saturday, April 20, 2013

R is for Record Store Day

Happy four twenty, or as it is also known, Record Store Day. I still play vinyl and have even been buying actual records lately. My love of records was born with the first sound system I could call my own. My red Close and Play record player I had as a preschooler. It only played 45s, but my mother’s Beatles She Loves You never sounded so good. I might have had some Mother Goose as well. I especially loved tapping it on the lid and making it skip. That was hilarious, apparently to my three year old brain. Not so much to my mother’s if I remember correctly.

My parents later had a huge coffin type piece of furniture that housed the turn table, speakers and possibly a full bar. It was the 60’s. You could load several albums in a stack, the precursor to today's playlist. Can you remember the sound of the next album slapping down? The sound of the end of a record? You’re old.

I went from Donny & Jimmy Osmond directly to Leif Garrett. I was 13 years old and had a subscription to Tiger Beat. If you were a Tiger Beat reader, three words: Leif’s satin pants. ‘nuff said.

I lived in Phoenix during my album collecting days and the sun was your enemy. I once had an album warped by sitting in the car on the drive home from the mall. You couldn’t store them by a window inside either.

The last album I remember buying, before the current post digital hipster resurgence of turntables, was Big Audio Dynamite. I also, much to my son’s amazement and horror, have Run DMC and Beastie Boys on vinyl.

I’m old. Happy Record Store Day – go buy an album!