The Vinyl Music Project

I dig rock and roll music,
And I love to get the chance to play,
(And sing it).
I figure it’s about the happiest
Sound going down today.

The message may not move me,
Or mean a great deal to me,
But hey! It feels so groovy to say!
(I Dig Rock and Roll Music: Dave Dixon and Paul Stooky, 1967)

 “Isn’t that ‘Rock Me on the Water’ by Linda Ronstadt?” Greg asked, pointing at the portable iPod player on the deck emitting the song. He was visiting Kathy and me in Ventura last month, and we were all sitting in the front patio.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I have her on my iPod, isn’t she great?” Before I could expand on the topic, Greg continued.
“That’s the Jackson Browne song she performed on her 1971 album. Did you know that Don Henley and the guys who eventually formed the Eagles backed her up on the recording? That is a great album”.
“It’s from our old records,” Kathy added, setting a dip platter on the low-lying table between the patio chairs. “Tony converted his entire LP collection to digital so he could hear it on his iPod. Isn’t it fabulous?”
“Really?” Greg exclaimed. “You converted all your vinyl albums?”
“Practically,” I explained. “I haven’t converted the Christmas albums yet, but I digitized most of them.”
“Man,” he added. “I don’t even have a stereo turntable anymore. I should give you my old vinyl albums, they’re just sitting in the garage collecting dust”.
“You’re kidding!” I shouted, staring at him in disbelief. “You’d give me your entire record collection?” I felt like Ali Baba, dumbfounded by the sight of the hidden treasure of the Forty Thieves after saying the words, Open Sesame.
“Wait a minute,” Greg added, disconcertedly. “Your eagerness is making me uneasy. Maybe I should rethink this.”
“You don’t have to give them to me,” I hurriedly assured him, fearing the treasure would fade like an Arabian Nights tale. “I would just need to borrow them for a while, so I could convert them. You would get them back.”
“I don’t think you realize how many records I have,” Greg said. “You may be biting off more than you can chew.”
“I can handle it,” I said confidently. “Just consider it, won’t you?” I pleaded. “You would have all those old tunes at your disposal on your iPod or iPhone. It would be like rediscovering them all over again.”
“It is tempting,” Greg said. “Let me think about.”

I started dating Kathy in spring of 1973, but I didn’t really begin interacting with her family until 1974, when I ran into her younger brother Greg at UCLA. He was a freshman Biology student and I was just starting my post-graduate work in Latin American Studies. Talking to him on the bus, to and from Lot C, on campus, or in Westwood Village, I learned of his fascination with the 1960’s - the events, the people, the counter-culture, and especially the music. Despite our age differences, we talked easily and I discovered that he liked many of my favorite artists: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, John Stewart, and Linda Ronstadt. On the other hand, I never really got a handle on the 70’s music scene. Disco, progressive rock, punk rock, and new wave music left me far behind once I got married, started a career in education, and raised a family. Greg, however, was able to navigate this landscape easily, and he moved back and forth in his musical tastes and appreciation throughout the 70’s and 80’s.

When Kathy and I married in 1975, Greg helped us select and set up the first stereo system in our Santa Monica apartment. There he inspected and played the records Kathy and I shared; oddly, I never got a clear idea of the record albums he actually owned. He seemed entirely open to all types of music. When we went to record stores, he spent hours wandering over EVERY section: country western, rock, hard rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, and folk music. He carefully studied the jacket covers and liner credits of the albums he liked, and identified the names of the contributing musicians. Then he researched these artists, looking up their records, albums, or musical associations. Only on rare occasions did I ever see him actually buy a record, but I suspected he had an extensive collection. Greg was one of the few people whose musical taste I completely trusted. Besides Kathy, he was the only person who risked giving me music albums from unfamiliar artists, like Steely Dan and George Benson, as gifts. He was also one of the first persons I knew to switch from vinyl to compact discs (CD’s). Eventually, as we got older with families, children, and other responsibilities, I lost touch with his musical preferences. Yet, I was always curious about his vinyl collection, and his choices of music during the 70’s and 80’s, wondering if it was truly as wide and eclectic as I suspected. Well, after a 30-year wait, the mystery ended last week. Greg reconsidered my offer and called to tell me that he had dug his entire vinyl collection out of storage and organized it for transportation. On Saturday, August 28, 2010, with the help of his son, Clark, he deposited five plastic crates, filled with LP’s, and placed them on the floor of an unoccupied bedroom of my house. I was about to begin a yearlong Vinyl Music Project.

Greg had organized the records into the crates by artists and some broad genres: “solo artists”, “rock groups”, “soundtracks”, “Irish music”, “instrumental & classical”, and “jazz”. He was quick to point out that the library also contained some musical easter eggs of his wife, Anne, as if to excuse himself for their presence (the only records that were obviously Anne’s were Claudine, by Claudine Longet, and some Marymount High School Spring Sing recordings). I counted a total of 426 albums by 191 artists, beginning with Alabama’s Alabama, and ending with Warren Zevon’s, Warren Zevon. The time span of the collection ran from the late 60’s (1967) to the mid 80’s (1987), when Greg changed over to a CD format. The bulk of the vinyl records covered the 1970’s, and concentrated on rock, folk and country rock, and rhythm and blues. Although I was familiar with the names of many of the artists, I had never heard most of the albums Greg owned. To convert this library into digital recordings I would have to play and listen to every single one of the 426 albums! Why would I want to take on such a monumental project? Was Greg right, was I “biting off more than I could chew?” I suppose I’m considering it for three reasons: curiosity of the contents of Greg’s albums, preserving the original vinyl sound, and accepting a new challenge.

Just looking at Greg’s records, their album covers, and the musicians who performed them, compels me to listen to them. It would be wonderful, like traveling in a time machine and listening to the authentic sounds of the period. The 70’s were a time when I wasn’t buying many records, and not paying attention to music outside of the top 40 hits on the radio. Buying The Best of compilations was never the same as listening to complete albums by great musicians. The albums expressed the musical vision of the artists and their sounds. Greg also confessed that his vinyl collection had been in storage and would probably never be played again. That is what happened to most vinyl libraries. They were stored, sold off at garage sales, given away, or trashed, in the mistaken belief that they would be replaced with compact discs. The truth was we would never replace all of our old records on a one-to-one basis with CD’s. It was simply too expensive, and our musical tastes had moved on. What was left was a gaping hole in the musical histories of our lives. Converting those vinyl records to digital form would allow me to fill that hole for Greg, for myself, and for others who wanted to hear them, and do it with the original sound of stylus on plastic. Finally, I wanted to undertake this project because it was HUGE. It presented me with a challenge, and an experience to write about. I could begin a new blog series called “The Vinyl Music Project (tagged: vinyl). I also suspected that finishing this project would give me a level of satisfaction comparable to climbing Mt. Whitney, running the L.A. marathon, or skydiving.

After much thought, I decided to begin my conversion project with the works of Neil Young, the folk rock musician who played with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Greg has 20 albums by Neil, beginning with his debut album Neil Young in 1968, to 1986 with Landing on Water. The second most popular artist is Van Morrison with 18 albums, covering 1967 to 1987. I’ll keep you informed about the project.