It all started with a single record. One evening, my wife brought home Dave Rose's "The Stripper and Other Fun Songs for the Family." She spent 50 cents on it in a thrift store in Thousand Oaks. Billie wasn't really sure why she bought it. She just thought it was interesting, and remembered the title song from her childhood (who doesn't?).
At the time, we owned a few of my old rockabilly records, some 70s stuff she had before we met, and a handful of '80s new wave LPs that I hadn't been able to unload. At most, we had 50 albums in the house on the day we first put on "The Stripper."
Soon, we were wearing new grooves in that old Rose LP. What great music. It was bold, greasy, full of raunch and roll. Plenty of brassy horns, snorting sax, big drums, slinky guitar and enough rhythm to rock any room.
Tracks like "Night Train," "St. James Infirmary," "Black and Tan Fantasy," "Harlem Nocturne" are all standards we should all know, but Rose and his band delivered these tunes with a gusto and verve that few musicians on today's pop radio could understand. "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," one of the sexiest songs ever written, and closes out side two with more attitude than even Madonna could muster.
Immediately, my wife wanted to find more music like this. So we started haunting thrift stores and garage sales. Before long, we had crowded our house with more than 1,000 LPs. We didn't just look for the next David Rose. We figured if we found Rose by accident, we might find other good stuff by accident, so we squandered our lunch money on anything that looked interesting. We bought polka and ragas. We bought music from South America, Central America, Tonga and Tahiti, Poland and Latvia. If there is a culture out there that produced music, we eventually found it and bought it. If a record was in good condition and looked enertaining, we bought it.
I went through a phase of buying all the Dixieland I could (readily available in bargain bins these days). I loading up on the Dukes of Dixieland, The Firehouse Five, Pete Fountain and Al Hirt. I discovered a piano player named Big Tiny Little, and bought several of his albums.
Then I went through my Latin phase, buying any record with "Cha-Cha-Cha" or "rumba" or "mambo" on the cover. This resulted in the obligatory Xavier Cugart and Tito Puente platters, but also led me to Prez Prado and a rather generically named LP "Cha Cha, Anyone?" and a performance of "Quien Sera" by a group of unknown Porta Rican musicians that is among the finest recordings ever made. I fell so much in love with this recording that I forced my guitar teacher to transcribe the six-string part and teach it to me.
But the love of that David Rose album (it turns out, btw, the rest of Rose's work is pretty lame) also drove us to seek out what I call "Adult Pop from the 1950s and 1960s." This means Peggy Lee, Jackie Gleason, Tony Bennett, Carmen Cavallaro, and Julie London, among others, not to mention Dean Martin. Of course, it also means Frank Sinatra. When I first started on this quest somebody told me that it is almost impossible these days to break into collecting Sinatra records at a reasonable price. Well, I soon proved that guy wrong. I now own more than 30 Sinatra LPs — all in very good to near mint condition. I didn't really start out to build a big Sinatra collection (I mean, I already had some of his CDs), but when you see one of his records collecting dust in a thrift store, and it's in good shape, you've got to buy it.
The interest in adult pop, or what is also sometimes called lounge, or cocktail music, led quite predictably to exotica. We're talking Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman, mainly. In fact, one of my best finds was a still-sealed copy of Lyman's "Taboo." Exotica remains among my favorite music to relax by, or put on when my wife and I want to enjoy a romantic dinner. Exotica is also a little more collectable and harder to find in good condition than the rest of this stuff, so there are a few $7 or $8 exotica LPs in my collection (and they book for more).
I'm sure some of the albums I have are worth quite a good bit of green. I've seen some of them on sale for $25 to $50, and the book value on a couple is over $200. But that's not why I buy them. I buy them for the love of the music, and that's why I usually stay away from used record stores that charge collectors prices (not all do), Ebay and any place that isn't likely to charge more than $7 or $8 dollars for any record, no matter how rare. And at least 90 percent of the records I've bought, I paid less than $1 for. I've found used vinyl is the most cost efficient way to explore obscure, rare and hard to find music.
As of today, I'm down to about 500 records, though. Storing 1,000 records is just a bit much. I had to weed out. Some of the records I decided to get rid of are on consignment at a local record store, Grady's on Main Street, and a few I sold at our recent garage sales. The rest went back to where most of them came from — a thrift store. That's not to say I lost money on these records — regardless of what I get on consignment from Grady's — the reward of being able to hear all of these LPs at least once was worth whatever price I paid for them, not to mention the fun of looking for these treasures in the first place.
But old LPs aren't all about music — part of the joy of old records are the record sleeves. Some of the album covers I've come across are as entertaining (in some cases, more so) than the music. To view the slideshow of some of my favorite covers, visit this post on MY SITE (link on the bottom of the post, as might be expected).
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
right on howard! used vinyl can be quite addicting.
the best part about it is that there's just tons of great music out there to disocver that will never make it onto cd.
...and the cover art to exotica albums is fun all by itself.
2 - Howard Owens
Or if it does make it to CD, why waste money on a new CD when you just want to experiment and explore?
Thanks for the note.
3 - Jim Carruthers
Great googly-moogly, don't ever get a job where you are asked "Do you want any of these albums, I'm going to throw them out" or a gig as a record reviewer (rule of thumb, the worse the record is, the more copies they send you).
I once did an idle guess-timate about my vinyl collection and figured it weighs almost a ton. So that's why I haven't moved in a long time.
4 - Jim Carruthers
When I lived in Montreal, I used to go to a great used record store called Cheap Thrills. Since I went there every week and bought something pretty much every week, the staff got into the habit of setting aside stuff for me they thought I would like for cheap.
One of my favs is a Japanese collection of 50s rock and rolls covers, done phonetically by the singers (yes, they were doing the "roca-mot-ion" with "rittle eva").
5 - Mac Diva
Yo, Howard! Here's an angle for a possible subsequent entry for you. I recently considered buying a record player. I'm inheriting LPs as older relatives die and can either keep them and play them or sell them. I was about to purchase a very hip looking phonograph at Renaissance Hardware when I reconsidered. As someone weened on cassettes and CDs who has graduated to MP3s, would I really use the phonograph? Would an iPod addict give up portability for a format that is anything but? Are records and record players now for audiophiles only? I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering about this. What do you think?
6 - Mark Saleski
interesting comments Diva...the key concept here being 'convenience'.
i grew up on lps but then switch like a madman in the mid-80's.
but a few years ago i bought myself an new turntable and found that there is just boatloads of music out there that can be found nowhere else.
as far as the iPod goes, one possible route would be a cd recorder...much like a tape deck but writes directly to cds.
7 - Jim Carruthers
A world where music fans have no turntables? Impossible! INCONCEIVABLE !
Realistically, depending on what sort of gear you have (do you have enough quads to support a turntable?) you should be able to get a half decent Technics turntable (apparently there are all these guys called D.J. who are keeping the industry alive).
And, yes, I do _have_ two turntables and a microphone.
8 - Howard Owens
Mac -- a turntable will open up a whole new world of music for you, believe me. And it's inexpensive hobby, if you're smart about it.
There are lots of good used turntables available. If you can find a dealer who charges a reasonable price, services them himself, and is a good guy, you'll be real happy with your purchase.
I recommend finding the best quality used turntable you can. The cheap new turntables aren't worth it, and the expensive ones aren't really any better than a good, well serviced used one.
If you don't have a good amplifier, you'll want to get one of those, too. Again, lots of good stuff available on the cheap. It helps if you can find a local dealer who can help you (I know a guy in Thousand Oaks, Calif. if you're in the area).
And I, too, have two turntables (actually, three), and a microphone (actually, two).
9 - Eric Olsen
Great post Howard - love the vinyl, and like you say, if you haunt the used bins it's cheap. I'll go in somewhere and walk out with 100 records for $50 - can't do that with CDs. And you really can still find classic vocalist, exotica, jazz, etc if you go to stores that specialize in contemporary rock/rap/pop, and don't know dick about the old stuff.
Storage is an issue, but I fit about 10,000 in shelves along two walls of a room. They go pretty high though.
10 - Jeff Grace
Everyone should have a logon date so you can tell if they know what the hell their doing on the web... mine would be 08/04/04. Before that I was working in an office with 1994 software and no Internet access. So basically I don't if I'm typing or blogging or...? Anyhoo...
I'm sure you guys can dig this one...
I used to be a DJ (20 years ago) So every once in a while I run across some artifact that I've kept for years. Thinkin' "Hey this could be worth... a dollar?... are you sure... well you know what I'm sayin'. Here's a Frank Sinatra album I've lugged eveywhere for the last 20 years. It's a "D.J. SAMPLE - PROMOTIONAL COPY" That I wonder about.
Frank Sinatra
All Alone
Arranged and Produced by Gordon Jenkins
Reprise
R-1007 A (10,167)
All Alone / The Girl Next Door / Are You Lonesome Tonight
Charmaine / What'll I Do / When I Lost You
R-1007 B (10,168)
Oh, How I Miss You Tonight / Indiscreet / Remember
Together / The Song Has Ended
Cover: Weber / Art Direction: Merle Shore / Printed In U.S.A.
I can describe it in more detail if you want. I've got a couple of other people looking for info on it. I just want to see if it's worth anything to $ell.
([~spAce~]) 08/04/04
11 - Eric Olsen
it's worth more to keep
12 - Howard Owens
It probably doesn't have a lot of value. What you could do is determine what the bear minimum price is you'd be willing to sell it for ... like, if I can't get X amount, I would rather just keep it. And then place the item on Ebay with that price as the reserve ... if you get more, great, you profit. If not, you get to keep something that your heirs might enjoy.