This post is dedicated to my friend Rickey Freeman. Connoisseur of vinyl. Owner of 3500 albums…and counting.
Have you seen the movie High Fidelity? In it, Rob Gordon- deftly played by John Cusack- is the owner of Championship Vinyl, a second-hand (read “Vintage”) record store in Chicago.
He and his two employees- niftily fleshed out by the fleshy Jack Black and the skinny Todd Louiso- are obsessed with music. Preferably on vinyl.
Rob is also obsessed with lists. His “Top Ten” lists are filled with Life’s more interesting moments: breakups, love songs, girls that got away…
And his twin obsessions neatly combine when he decides to rearrange his huge record collection.
Take a look. You’ll see what I mean.
Sort by “Autobiographical?” That idea killed me. So here’s my mix tape of the music that formed the soundtrack of my early years.
Here (hear) goes…
The very first rock song I ever heard was the Everly Brothers “Bye Bye Love.” It was 1958 and it was love at first guitar twang.
My love affair with Phil and Don has never grown cold. From “Wake Up, Little Susie,” “Dream,” “Cathie’s Clown “Cryin’ In the Rain,” right up to the release of their Some Hearts album in 1988, my affection has never waned.
By junior high, I’d listen obsessively to “Duke of Earl,” “Shop Around,” and Del Shannon’s “Runaway” on the radio. WLS. (I was too young and too broke to buy albums. That would have to wait until high school.)
I can vividly remember being at the information desk outside of the Marie Murphy office sneakily listening to this on my teeny transistor model.
The year was 1961, I was twelve and he’s obviously lip-synching in this clip because this is exactly the same version as the record I loved.
Dion’s “Runaround Sue.
And then in 1962, riding home in the back seat of the family car- coming back from a dinner at my Aunt Muriel’s house- there was “Sherry.”
Fast forward to high school. New Trier in Winnetka, Illinois.
Now I, too, could enter the hallowed world of albums. I had a little cash. (And I had boyfriends who had access to even more.)
For me, high school was ALL about the Beatles. Sure I loved the Beach Boys, Motown, the Kinks and the Who, the Turtles, Herman’s Hermits, the Hollies, the Lovin’ Spoonful and the Mamas and the Papas.
But…
The Beatles’ new album was THE must-buy. Preferably on the same day it came out. Here’s the first one I ever bought. The year was 1964.
(I actually labeled the guys so I could tell George from Paul.)
These two permanently changed my life.
(1965) (1966)
I can’t help myself. I’ve got to play these favorites right now.
This was my first inkling of what grown-up love could feel like.
In 1967, Andy Teton and I cut school to buy the gem of my collection. This was the game-changer, folks.
Not only because it told a story- the first concept album I had ever heard of- but because it had the lyrics printed on the back of the album jacket.
This, to a word-hungry girl like me, was a godsend.
Let’s spin a track, shall we?
(Back then I could not imagine anyone being sixty-four. What a yuk. Now it’s just yucky.)
This album- along with my precious stereo- were amongst my most prized possessions when I headed off to the University of Wisconsin in the summer of ’67.
The album that followed hard on the heels of my relocation?
This one.
There is only one song from that summer and I played it nonstop.
The combination of Linda Ronstadt’s haunting voice and the message- “…It’s just that I am not in the market for a boy who wants to love only me…We’ll both live a lot longer if you live without me.”- was dead on the money re my 60’s “Love ’em and Leave ’em” philosophy. Very revolutionary thinking in those days.
(Later I found out this lyric had been written for a man. Ah. That explained it.)
I also bought this one at Victor Music in Madison. It got swiped by some creepy album thief in the dorm. I’m still mad about it.
I’ll end my mix tape with the album that closed out my youth. After 1968, it was marriage and divorce and remarriage and kids and somewhere along the way, I stopped buying vinyl.
But what a way to go.
Top Ten Album Of All Time:
(Even Rob Gordon might agree.)
Thanks for the shout out Ellen. My love of music on vinyl started at a very early age and continues to this very day. There’s still a thrill finding an album that I didn’t know existed, putting it on my turntable, sitting down to listen and reading the liner notes. Vinyl is making huge resurgence now and companies like Music Direct out of Chicago regularly satisfy my itch by providing reissues of classic albums on 180 gram vinyl with a sound so alive and warm you’d swear the musicians were in the room with you.! It’s the music that makes our life so rich.
You’re welcome, Maestro. You’re my hero. Every time I see all those albums lining the wall, I get goosebumps. Nice to know that vinyl is making a comeback. For people like us, it never left.
Hey lunch mate. I am a generation ahead of you.
I used to wake up to Bill Haley and the Comets rocking
Around the clock but it was Love me Tender
That started puberty
C Ya Later Alligator
Solid, Daddy-O. I dug “The Blackboard Jungle” the most. Yep, after while, crocodile. See you at noon. (And don’t be cruel! :-))
Several decades ago, I read a letter in Rolling Stone from one Andrew Teton who called himself a “Kinkophile.” Great term, to one for which I describe myself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2lcsVIYiio
My vinyl record collection was ruined by a flood caused by a broken washing machine hose. I had them on the floor of a closet.
My condolences! Though the guys at Championship Vinyl would be upset that you had them on the floor in the first place. Thanks, Fred. I’m a Kinkophile too. (And when next we meet, remind me to tell you where I’m storing my albums.)
Being about 7 years older than you (72), our tastes are a little different.
Music stopped being good after 1963.
Everything before that is worth listening to…..from the big band era thru the first decade of rock and roll.
The hippies of the 60’s, the liberal left-wing and their “protest songs”, to hard rock and “rap” make me ill.
Where’s the Pepto-Bismol?
Now now Bernie. Don’t be an old curmudgeon. Surely there must be one song after 1963 that you like! What about “It Was a Very Good Year?” Sinatra won a Grammy for “Best Vocal Performance, Male” for it in ’66.
I love when I can jump in and talk about the big band days. We
use to go downtown to Marshall Fields, listen to the latest smash by Glenn Miller and then rush to a record shop on Chicago Ave, again in Evanston. I do not know if your parents introduced you to the big band sound, I sure hope they did. I know that my three sons love it. Thanks for the memories. Allan
My dad did, indeed. I love everyone from Bunny Berigan and Bix to Glenn Miller, Glen Gray, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Harry James on. “Song of India” kills me. So does “I’m getting Sentimental Over You.” Glad you got on the band wagon, Allan, See you soon.
In grammar school I had everyone convinced my father owned WLS and named WLS after my initials.
I remember you telling my about Linda Ronstadt and her great new song. You also told me about this skinny guy who just took over for Jack Parr who was really funny – Johnny Carson. Always had your finger on the pulse.
Thanks for the shout-out, X-1. I remember telling Meryl Brodsky how I had seen this cool new group, the Beatles, from England on the Ed Sullivan show. I told her they were really good and they had REAL long hair. She listened breathlessly and then asked,”Are they girls?”
Thank you for taking me to see them. (Even if you don’t remember that I was there.)