Image via WikipediaAge 4 - it was all about The Beatles. Those albums weren't mine, but they are now.
Age 9 - 12 I started my collection with mostly mellow sounds like Carole King, Joni Mithcell Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkle, Rod Stewart, Elton John. Then I discovered REAL MUSIC...rock and roll that soothed my soul. Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Cream, Humble Pie, The Stones. I had about 100 albums or so by the time I moved out of my mom's house at age 19.
Came home one night and along with my strereo, they had been ripped off. My entire collection...gone.
Slowly rebuilt. Got all the ones I used to have and added more, U2, Springsteen, Bowie, The Clash, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, etc. etc. etc. Lets just say I had pretty much anything you could think of that was pop, rock or heavy metal. Around 200 albums.Then....I went to church and to leave the ugly details out lets just say I believed the bullshit I was told and as a good Christian I TOSSED my entire record collection into the trash. Crying the whole time. But brainwashed to think I was doing it to please God (if there is a God he would never make me throw away Pink Floyd or any others).
I did make ONE exception. I kept Bruce, I had every album he'd done (still do) and justified that he didn't cuss or sing trashy songs so God would be okay with him.
People - is this sad or what?
Luckily, as sisters do, many of my albums were intermingled with hers, so a few years later I discovered that I still had about 50 records left (the stuff she liked more than me....)
Lesson: Never get brainwashed by a relilgion or cult. Never listen to anyone who tells you music is "wrong". Music is art, communitcion, poetry.
I'll take some photos of my remaining box of vinyl and post some here over the weekend.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=57f72e27-d678-486b-af75-ac56d734460c)
15 comments:
What a heartwarming story! Don't even get me started on religion - I may never stop... Suffice to say that I'm so glad you came back to the fold and built up that record collection.
My vinyl - some 400 LPs, still resides in a cupboard at home and they come out occasionally so that I can marvel at their sleeves and play them to my kids. I'm even laboriously transferring those not available on Cd to MP3.
I don't think I'll ever get over my love affair with 'proper' records. They led me to a life of music and I'm eternally grateful.
I can't wait to see the pictures! Definitely a sad story though, and you're right, if there is a God, he would most definitely like Floyd!
You know I still have all my vinyl...over 1,000 albums and about as many 45's...
The albums I love the most are those from the early-mid 70's when they were made with enough vinyl that you could not almost see through them as they became in the 80's...
I am slowwwwwwly transferring all the vinyl to digital...but will not throw out my vinyl EVER...I still scour yard sales for any that i might not have.
GOD LOVES ROCK AND ROLL...DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN (HEHEHE)
It's me who likes your music taste. I've read almost your whole blog :), big one. Maybe someday mine will be like this, i've just started a couple of days ago.
Bye.
Looking forward to seeing the photo of the collection! I should do that. I've got mine for listening in cubes I made out of 3/4" plywood. Look pretty cool...
Ahh, judgement. All lies. Even what you tell yourself are lies. Yes, definitely read don Miquel Ruiz's "The Voice of Knowledge". Third time typing that this morning, I'll stop. But check it out.
You got started with your parents' Beatles too! Cool.
Hey, bond, how are you digitizing your vinyl? I'm using the iRecord for good enough quality, like 192 kbps I think, as MP3. I know there's FLAC for lossless... what equipment do you use?
Music IS my religion!
Can't wait to see some pictures! I have around 180 vinyls myself at the moment. I would never get rid of an album (unless it's in a trade for a White Album :)). I love the sound and the nostalgia of owning vinyl. I've also been buying some new vinyl on music recently just in case this new vinyl craze is just a fad and the new ones become very valuable down the road.
Wow. I think if God manifests itself in anything physical on Earth, it's little kids and music. Give me a break. I would be furious with that "church." Unreal.
Just goes to show that there are a lot of people who just ain't right.
To quote KISS quoting some other band - "God Gave Rock and Roll To You!"
Hit the used record store and buy some more records for the Lord. I have about 400 and prominently display and play them, along with CDs and digital iTunes buys.
Sad, to hear you story of loss, restoration and loss, and restoration again. Funny though, I always thought my God given talent was in in broadcasting in a small way. So if it wasn't mean't to be then why do you give such joy to those who love music. Keep building your collection, and keep up the good work.
I still have all of my vinyl(somewhere between 200-250) even though I no longer have a turntable. Half of them are probably unplayable, or at the very least scratched/warped, but I don't care. Some of them are over 40 years old; those are mostly ones I got from my father when he was a DJ, but I'll never get rid of them.
Thanks for the great responses to this post. I'm glad to hear many of us still have our beloved record collection...even if, as in my case, its only the remnants.
Hopefully I will get around to the photo shoot today...its been a draining weekend for me emotionally.
Sounds familiar. I had 400-500 albums when I became a fundamentalist. I didn't want to give them away or sell them, because then other people would be vulnerable to the evil spirits that I was taught were attracted to that music. (think Sarah Palin). I eventually replaced many of them, first with cassettes, then later with CDs.
It did my heart good when my oldest son was still living at home, to hear him playing old David Bowie, Cream, Simon and Garfunkel, on my old turntable. He had gone to garage sales and picked up quite a collection of vinyl.
Now that he's in college in Chicago, he and I still talk music. It's been fun when I tell him about groups that I like and he says, yeah, my roommates have a lot of those in their collection. And he turns me onto a lot of great groups like Battles and Animal Collective.
Gary
DEden...I am using my PIONEER PL514X turntable with an Arkiv OM Cartridge mounted (specially made for digitizing).
The turntable goes into a ION U Record USB Audio Interface and then into my iMac which is loaded with Audacity software.
I love vinyl.
I still have my vinyl and bought a new turntable a couple of years ago. I still love the sound. I have been buying new vinyl as well and the quality is outstanding.
Thanks for sharing and way to be persistent in building and rebuilding your collection.
The one vinyl story that is stuck in my brain goes back to my treasured Beatles albums. I couldn't have been more than 12 or 13 when my younger sisters took my "record player" and the Beatle albums out on to the patio so they could dance outside. Well, when they were done dancing they left the albums in the sun. Gooey LP's are not a good thing. I was broken hearted. It took me a long time to replace them on my paper route earnings .
heh...I think you might get a kick out of my recent blog entry on the demise of "circular music" in general:
http://brookthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/09/i-only-listen-to-circular-music-or.html
I had the same experience going to a Christian school, although I didn't have it nearly as bad - got rid of some stuff once or twice, but never made the "full commitment", was never really brainwashed into it - mostly used it as an excuse to clean out the crap from the collection - and discovered some great Christian rock along the way (Most would probably disagree with the word "great" in that sentence, but so be it...I liked a lot of the stuff). try not to laugh when you read the specific memories I have of records as a teen (they're not nearly as cool as your collection was!).
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