“Let me start by saying that going to a record store is one of the most grounding things I know. No, change that. It is THE most grounding thing I know. I know some folks like to sneak off to the bar for a beer when things are tough, I can be found usually in the record store bargain bin looking for something I’m not looking for.”
If others are there, they’re usually not talking (which is nice in an all too loud world) but quietly thumbing through album after album. You can feel the intense passion in the silence. I imagine everyone’s head is filled with both music they know and music they’re craving while they’re milling about the store. Time doesn’t exist at a record store. Yet there’s never enough of it. Someone’s always waiting for you in the car or at home. It’s like it’s too good to be allowed to stay too long.
I was born into a house with records always in my sight. My dad had a lot of Hi-Lit collections. I think they were compiled by a DJ named “Hi-Lit”? It’s kind of a blur. They were kind of like an old bible or something. It just lived there under some other records. Maybe from my dad’s younger days before I was born. I’d drop the oh-so-sensitive needle and all of a sudden some guy was singing “Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.”
But it was my brother’s records that ignited me from nodding head to tapping toe. He is seven years older than me and in the early ’70s the age difference couldn’t have been better for a young, impressionable music freak like me. The records were scary in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Aqualung by Jethro Tull scared the shit out of me. So did Jesus Christ Superstar. “Hear those sounds? That’s Jesus being crucified on the cross!” Um, mommy?
It wasn’t until I started collecting 45s that the music I really loved filled my ears and bedroom. “Monday Morning” by Fleetwood Mac, Jackson 5, Osmonds, and more. “Sky High” was a massive hit. Jigsaw was the band. Who? Didn’t matter, one-hit wonders in the ’70s ruled. Plus, we didn’t know yet they were one-hit wonders.
But the vinyl that to me always defined and exemplified the whole experience of sinking deep into music like a needle sinking deep into those black grooves was The Beatles’ White Album. The screeching airplane wheels of “Back In The U.S.S.R.” hit the runway just after the that lucky needle landed on its runway. Can a record start any better than that?
Once my brother, noticing my records all over the floor-out of their covers, said “you love music so much, why don’t you take better care of your records?”I guess I get so excited that it becomes a big mess. I haven’t changed. To me it would be like making the bed while you’re having sex.
Music is not a convenience but an event to me. You have to slow down to play a record. I love that. And you own a record. That scratch that makes it skip right after the 2nd chorus? That’s your scratch. That’s your record. You own it.
I cradled our Josephine (her name inspired by Fats Domino’s “My Girl Josephine”) near the quiet, spinning turntable last year just days after she was born. 17 months later, the first thing she says after she wakes up in the morning is “muhhhhh” while pointing to the living room where the turntable is. Her record of choice is the new Kacey Musgraves, adorned in pink vinyl.
She’s gonna be ok.”
—Scot Sax
Scot Sax & Suzie Brown’s debut LP, Our Album Doesn’t Like You Either arrives in stores on September 25.
Scot Sax and Suzie Brown Official | Facebook | Twitter
PHOTO: STACIE HUCKEBA
Scot Sax & Suzie Brown On Tour
9/17 – Gypsy Sally’s – Washington, DC
9/18 – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY
9/22 – Café 939 – Boston, MA
9/23 – Wildcat Inn & Tavern – Jackson, NH
9/24 – Blue – Portland, ME
9/28 – Dickens Parlour Theatre – Millville, DE
9/30 – Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, PA
