“The first vinyl I owned was a 45 of Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel.'”
“I was one of two ornery boys being raised by a single mother and about the time I was in kindergarten, she had a brief courtship with an Elvis impersonator. The courtship didn’t last very long, but while the King was around, he was kind enough to bestow on me my very first record.
What captivated me the most about the record was the story in the song. I could easily envision the neon hotel sign and the broken man taking a room at the end of a lonely street. I learned to manage both the needle and the arm with that kid’s sized record. I cherished it and to this day I still consider that song as well as Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which was all over the radio at the time, both cornerstones to my musical development.
My mom had a cabinet style record player and when you propped it open there was a place inside where you could store a handful of LPs. She had all of your typical seventies witchy woman records in there. Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Jefferson Airplane. She was a nursing student at the time so she also had her obligatory copy of Rick Springfield’s Working Class Dog. It was a hit with all the young female nurses due to his role as the dreamy young doctor on General Hospital.
Where we lived there weren’t even sidewalks let alone record stores. So, we got by on my mom’s records until that glorious day when a friend of my older brother’s returned from the big city with a copy of Ozzy Osbourne’s Speak of the Devil, his double live album of Black Sabbath’s greatest hits. It quickly became the soundtrack for my angry adolescent mind.
Soon my brother and I were mowing lawns, chopping firewood, washing cars, and doing whatever we could to raise money to add to our mother’s collection. Over time the cabinet was full of ACDC, The Police, Hendrix, The Cramps, The Scorpions, Prince, Iron Maiden, The Stones. My brother liked anything with what he called “the crunch.” I liked most everything.
By the time our voices started to change our records were piling up, so my brother and I acquired our own vintage, all in one turntable. It featured red, green, and blue colored lights and they would illuminate in time to the music.
We each had a single bed on either side of what was our room’s center piece and at night we’d stare at the ceiling listening to Metallica’s Ride the Lightning followed by the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s, Van Halen, The Doors, the Ramones, Coltrane, whatever!
I had started to play guitar by this time and we couldn’t afford lessons. The turntable gave me the ability to play a song over and over, which was key to my progress as a musician. In many ways the turntable became my music teacher.
Unfortunately all of our records and that turntable, which I wish I still had today, burnt up in a fire. Not long after that I was living wherever, so it was all about cassettes.
I returned to vinyl again when I had a place of my own and inherited a Technics turntable from a friend. I have replaced a lot of the vinyl that was lost in the fire and most of my new purchases are vinyl. I’m actually kind of bummed when they aren’t available in the format. I’m also happy to have a few records that I’ve made myself that I can spin. It’s a pretty sweet feeling!
My daughters have both been brought up changing sides during dinner and I often find them sitting on the bed drawing pictures, listening to The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Tyler The Creator, Iggy Pop, or Nebraska. It still fills the house and the imagination. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!
I think the value of something is directly related to the effort put into obtaining it. From working to earn the money to buy the records, to digging through the albums, to pulling them out of their sleeves, to letting the needle drop, and even to changing the sides.
Making a conscious decisions and initiating a deliberate action usually yields a result that is more rewarding than one that is easily obtained.
In a world of instant gratification society finds itself wanting it done yesterday. I consider myself enthusiastic about what the future holds but I also think it’s important to preserve what was good about yesterday. To me vinyl is definitely one of those things.
The “Heartbreak Hotel” single was the gateway drug…every fix since feels like money well spent.”
—Jeff Angell
Jeff Angell’s Staticland self-titled debut album is in stores now via UDR—on vinyl.
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PHOTO: SABRINA BOOTH
