“Growing up, I was surrounded by vinyl. Wall to wall shelves taller than my head housed my dad’s impressive and ever-growing collection.”
“It was a rare weekend that didn’t consist of catchy choruses and bright electric guitars wafting up from the basement as my dad played and re-played his favorite albums: The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, and the infections and impeccably performed recordings by The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes. The albums were alphabetized, categorized neatly, and ready to be listened to. It was obvious to me as a kid that he respected the music, the artists who made it, and the vinyl that played it.
After moving out of my parents house to go to college, it wasn’t for another 6 years until vinyl came back into my life. One of my roommates in Brooklyn set up a record player in our living room and we all started collecting cheap and free albums from stoop sales around the neighborhood.
The first record I brought home was Tapestry by Carole King. It was lying on the sidewalk for free with a very worn cover. I’d never heard the album before and didn’t know much about Carole King, even though I’d been devouring her contemporaries’ music for years (Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez).
When I placed the needle on Tapestry, I was first surprised that it was actually playable! The second surprise was that I already knew most of the songs. (Flashback to The Shirelles and other ’60s girl groups blaring down in the basement.) I started playing it every day. I cooked to it, got dressed to it, did yoga to it, played accordion to it, drank wine to it, cried to it—I was a 22 year-old budding songwriter living in Brooklyn with too many feelings, after all.
Ten years later, my husband and I have a turntable and our collection has luckily grown beyond just the free records I found on the street. (I have a surprising number of Kiss albums, thanks to the residents of Brooklyn.) They’re not yet alphabetized or organized in any way, but I have a feeling that even when we get around to it, Tapestry will still find its way to the very front—Carole’s tabby cat looking out and ours looking right back.”
—Sara Curtin
Sara Curtin’s full-length release Or So It Seemed arrives in stores Friday, October 6, 2017.
