music memories

New record player!

We have stacks of vintage vinyl record albums and no place to play them. We pulled our old record player out of storage recently and it was beyond repair, rubber supports disintegrated, old springs sprung.

A quick internet search resulted in a surprising find - lots of new record players available out there! Interesting that these are readily available now, Melissa saw a display at Target with turntables and vinyl albums. Amazon has quite a selection also. Just the other day at the Grand Old Opry gift shop they were selling NEW vinyl albums. 

What is the deal? Since vinyl records there have been 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, music CDs, mp3, digital downloads, why now go backward to the old vinyl?  What is next - bell-bottom pants, rotary dial phones, horse and buggy, oil lamps?

I'll tell you why - the sound.

When Buddy hooked up the new turntable and the music came through the speakers from the vintage vinyl album, I couldn't believe my ears. Wow! It is so different from the CD version, the needle picks up so much more than a digital laser on a plastic disk.

John Denver's Back Home Again album circa 1974 - the record was played so much it is amazing that it still plays. Hearing it again after all these years, I was transported way back in time to our first apartment in Riverdale.

As always, John said it best:

Music makes pictures and often tells stories
All of it magic and all of it true
And all of the pictures and all of the stories
And all of the magic, the music is you

~words and music by John Denver