“When I was four years old, my dad bought me a Playskool record player. I used to listen to his records when I was at his house—Kiss, Sex Pistols, The Clash, etc. There’s a great picture of me listening to some of those records in my ‘Red Doors’ video.”
My dad’s collection was heavy with rock and punk, but my mom was spinning Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life, Quincy Jones’ That’s The Dude, Tina Turner, Patti Labelle, etc.
“Of all my favorite records, I’d say that the 45 of “Pass The Dutchie” by Musical Youth was the one I wore the needle down on the most.
She loved soul music and R&B, but she also had a soft spot for great song writers, and after she’d danced me ragged listening to Stevie, she’d put on Cat Steven’s Tea For The Tillerman, or Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony and we’d sit together looking at the cover of the record making up addendum’s for the stories of the characters in the songs.
I have nostalgia for the romantic crackle and warmth of music on vinyl. My interests peak when I hear those imperfect preludes—the soft hiss of the needle in the groove—before the music comes through. I don’t think people relate with CDs, or devices the same way they do a record. A record has a weight, a gravity, which makes sense to our animal mind.
A record—in its large clean paper sleeve, inside its story-board cover—better represents the magic and majesty of what it holds. A record is a hands-on experience and can be played like an instrument—vinyl is live.
Today, its much closer to the music than its digital cousins.”
—Kris Gruen
Kris Gruen’s latest album New Comics from the Wooded World is out now!
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TOP PHOTO: BOB GRUEN, LP PHOTO: ANDY DUBAK
