While transferin'
some stuff into our attic I found two boxes of
albums. Guess what's like the biggest, greatest, most
colorful book Vienna has ever seen? Albums are. I
forgot how nice and tactile it was to journey through
your albums, singing the songs to yourself as you go.
I figured that was a good time to teach Vienna some of
the finer points.
That could
literally have go on for days. Not only is it all my
records, but when WTVN went from spinning records at
night to straight talk? They gave away their
album collection to the employees. I am still
pissed that BJ Patton got Buckner &
Garcia's Pac-Man Fever before I did. 18 years ago
man. Let it go.
;)
For about 2
seconds I toyed with the idea of setting up a
record player to go through some of them, but a funny
thing happened. I picked any song from any album and
typed it into my iPad on YouTube. And it came up. And
I listened to it, and then did it again.
<shakes head> That's the future we live in. If
I really wanted to I could download the
artwork for every album, scroll through it on my iPad
and listen to any song I wanted to in seconds.
And because of the contracts YouTube has signed with
nearly every record company, they actually get their
artist's paid through clicks, links to download the
song on iTunes and YouTube gets some ad revenue.
Remarkable system.
Since I've been in
the "make more space" mode for quite awhile now,
I can't really wax poetic or long for the days of
the "album stash" quite yet. I may get there.
Music meant so much to all of us in our teens and it's
inevitable that other things replace it. I've also
captured my memories in virtual form and stored them
online since the 90s, so that concept is more than
just old hat to me: it is me. But, yeah, kinda, a
little bit, I do miss the excitement of sitting
in the basement with my Uncle, finding my dad's
Richard Pryor albums and SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLY putting
the needle on the record and listening as low as we
could. Seeing the colorful artwork of "Bicentennial
Nigger" and knowing it had to be incredible. Or, gasp,
actual nudity on a cover?!?! Nothing more precious in
the world. The lengths a kid in the 70s and 80s would
go to to see or hear adult things knew no bounds and
now? How stupid do you have to be to not find
whatever you want on the internet? It takes no
scheming, no creativity, hell you barely have to
spell, with a few keystrokes you'll find that shit.
Bummer. Like it or not, that ease of use actually
takes a good chunk of fun out of your childhood.
I mean, it's great as an adult, but part of being
a kid is scheming AROUND your parents. That's
your JOB. And it's their job to catch you. It's like
Cops & Robbers and now the robbers can sit in
their underwear eating a pizza and break into a bank
on their PHONE.
(sigh)
Weak. Of course
this shift happened loooooooooong ago. Jimmy, at 24,
walked in and saw the albums and said:
"What are the
little ones?".
I sigh:
"They're 45s... you know, 33, 45..." I just sigh
again...
"Oh they're
records too? You're old."
I stare
blankly out the window and then grumble under my
breath. And suddenly I understand how old men
become old men. Younger men. Trying to compose
themselves before LOSING THEIR SHIT around
younger men.
