“My first memory of listening to the soothing sounds of vinyl wouldn’t include prolific greats like Hank Williams, Sr., Kris Kristofferson or Emmylou Harris. No, that wouldn’t come until 15 year later in my life. The first records I remember listening to where when I was somewhere between ages three and five. Back then, there were a multitude of children’s records passed down to me from my two older brothers. Of course my mother always played The Beatles on the living room turn-table, but as it drew closer to my bedtime, she would tuck me into bed, turn out the lights, and put on one of my hand-me-downs in efforts to lull me to sleep.
A few records were rotated, but I surely had my favorites. Among them was the motion picture soundtrack to Popeye. By the time “Swee’peas Lullaby” was over, I was fast asleep, although it’s predecessor “He Needs Me” often did the trick. Another favorite was a Sesame Street record in which Big Bird found a piece of paper on the ground with the alphabet written on it and mistook it for a word, singing “it’s the most incredible word I’ve ever seen.” Amazing Adventures of Pac-man LP was also in the mix.
In the beginning it was my mother who shared the gift of music with me. Well, she and my kindergarden teacher, who played music during nap-time, including stuff like “Yesterday,” by The Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Out of all of the memories that I have stored from childhood, lying still and listening to records are among the most vivid.
Today, my reasoning for listening to vinyl isn’t just about the songs I’m listening to. No. If that were the case, I would simply grab a compact disc and put it in my updated stereo system for the crisp, clean sound of remastered perfection. It’s more than that. It is everything that modern technology can not replace. It is the spaces in between that give the listener such a unique experience, such as the warm crackle of the needle as it skates across vinyl grooves. No one could ever mistake that sound for anything else. It’s poetic really, the subtle sound characteristics that only records produce. I guess you could say film is to digital photography, as vinyl is to compact disc.
New methods are nice, but they cannot exude the romance that vinyl seems to with ease. It seems, the “crisp, clear sound” of a CD can be rather one dimensional when compared to the complexity of vinyl.” —Holly Cole
Find Holly Cole at Myspace.
