My earliest memories involve my parent’s record collection. Those beautiful records up on the high shelf that I would have to climb onto my dad’s easy chair to get to a counter to then scale a wall to get to. I wasn’t even adept enough at four and five to pull them down, so I would stare at the spines. The “Concert For Bangla Desh” box set was particularly intriguing. It must have been important taking up all of that space.
As I managed to get them down and onto the player, I was so fascinated with the label in the center, especially when the time was taken to turn it into a special piece of circular art. I was fascinated with how all of the Beatles records there – my parents were “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul” forward era people – had a green apple on side A and a halved apple on side B. Only “Let It Be” had a Macintosh (or maybe a Red Delicious?) Why? I didn’t know! I now know that predominant thinking dictates it was because “Let It Be” was considered a film soundtrack.
When I was six or seven, my Mom and Dad started to use records from their collection as currency. As an early form of an allowance, when I did chores, I was allowed to pick an album for keeps. Of course one of my earliest choices was that beautiful gatefold first pressing of “Let It Be.” They knew I was an addict and I wasn’t just addicted to the music. Those vinyl records and their inherent qualities are what continue to make them my favorite format to this day. And like my parents did then, I can still be manipulated into completing housework if there’s an awesome record in the offing!
Josh Bloom is the owner of Fanatic, a music promotion company and EMI-distributed record label in New York City. A handful of artists Josh has worked with on their way up include My Morning Jacket, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Girl Talk, Miranda July and The Avett Brothers. He’s also been known to write a song or two. His attempt at writing a song for Katy Perry to record made it all the way to her publicist and manager and was written about by Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia” in her NPR column.
