The history of my record collecting

22Feb10

Really I have been nuts over records my entire life. I’m not exaggerating. Records were still the thing when I was little and the first one I got was “Disco Duck” for Christmas. Really it was for me and my sister, but technically it was my first record and I still have it. The first one I bought for me was “Everybody Wants You” by Billy Squire. It was and is awesome. My dad had a bunch of records and I used to play though all his 45’s until I found ones I liked. My favorite was “If You Wanna Be Happy” by Jimmy Soul and “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las. I listened to them over and over and over, just like I do stuff now.

Then tapes came around, but I still liked records better, mainly because they had a bigger picture on them. Then my parents started running a baseball card/comic book/other stuff store, and my mother would take me to all of these weird stores in Memphis and other places so she could get cards. They always had loads of really cool psychedelic stuff like door beads and Grateful Dead tapestries and things like that. But they were real, not the dumb looking crap you see in the mall now. And they had records, loads and loads of them. My favorite place didn’t even really organize them. They literally had a huge room full of records. I would spend hours going through it  while mama dealt with the owner. And the guy running it would give me super cheap prices on stuff. It was awesome mama would say like “And chris wants these, how much did you say those were?” And the price would be cheap anyway, like a few dollars but they would look funny and mess with me about “you don’t even know who Neil Young is…” and then give it to me for 50 cents. And then when I had money leftover because they sold it so cheap I would go get more. If I didn’t have enough money sometimes I would hide what I wanted in a crappy section and get it next time. I LOVED going to this one store Nostalgia World in Memphis. It was in my opinion the best record store in the world. I haven’t been to all of them, but I have been to a bunch because that is the first thing I look for when I go to a city and this one was the best. Then some jerk bought his whole stock to make stupid purses or something and sell them on ebay. Why would you take a record you could listen to and make a  purse? That idea just seems alien to me.

I did find some cool stores in San Francisco and one was a 3 story house filled with records. But it wasn’t the same because everything was so organized and expensive. As soon as the cool guys and music snobs started getting into it, 2 things happened. 1) Prices went up ten fold 2) It became monstrously difficult to find anything that wasn’t considered “hip”. So you can still find Tom Waits records (who I love) , but good luck finding another copy of LA Guns’ Cocked and Loaded if you wear yours out unless you want to pay $15 for it. I can remember buying The Wall for like $5. It was awesome and had all the sleeves and stuff in it. Now you’d be lucky to find that for under $25.

Anyway I kept adding to it over the years, and getting into new things. The great part about records is maybe you aren’t sure how feel about someone like The Moody Blues, but if you can get a few records for $2, why not check it out and throw it on the next time you are sitting around with some friends? (I’m not a big fan it turns out). Plus there are always treasures that you look for, and that is really fun. My main thing about records is I like to listen to them and look at them. I don’t give two craps about how much they go for on ebay. That is what records are to me. They are something that gives you happiness, or sadness depending on what it is. I can come home, pick something out, and instantly feel different. I can pull one out when my friends are over, throw it on and show them the cover and talk about finding it or about seeing them in concert or how cool the cover is or how sucky the drummer is or make an ass of myself trying to dance. And each one has its on character. Like my Beggers Banquet is awesome and doesn’t skip or have much noise, despite me moving it all over the country and throwing it on 20 different floors. But my Madman Across the Water is all messed up, while someone else may have the reverse. FASCINATING!!!! 🙂

chris

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