The vinyl 45. A lifelong love affair!
February 1st, 2009
As a young teenager in the 70s buying 45s was about the music only. You bought the latest rekkid and dashed home to play it. Of course nowadays when the latest purchase is in your hands it’s different scenario. Gently releasing it from it’s sleeve you inspect the latest treasure. And when I say inspect I mean INSPECT! The run in groove…free of any marks or defects. The grooves themselves, clean, no light scuffs or dust residue to remove? Then the label..no sticker marks, DJ writing or small tears? All good so far. Then the run out groove…clean and regular, deadwax markings all in order? Stamped or scratched? Pressing plant details? If all the boxes have been ticked then it’s time to drop the needle on it. And now it comes into it’s own.
The Technic 1200 is switched on, the lights light up and and the start button is pressed as the platter starts it’s silent revolution. You carefully place the needle on the edge groove of the disc refusing point blank to back cue the start and let the needle pick up it’s first rotation. The warm analogue sound resonates through the cartridge and tone-arm, making it’s way through the mixer and eventually explodes out of the peavy speakers. The creation started with a couple of guys banging out a basic melody on a run down old piano. Eventually they wrote the song up in charts, got their mate to put an arrangement together and eventually had what they thought was a hit! Into a studio after coercing a few other friends to play their instruments for a share of any profit and their 50 bucks fee and they’re actually doing it. They’re making music!
The studio engineer controls the knobs and sliders of the desk and after two or three takes he presents them with a tape of their efforts. Next stage is down to a mastering company where another engineer creates an acetate for them that they hawk round the local record companies enthusiastically telling everyone that will listen that it’s a hit! “Its a Hit!”
After going though this process half a dozen times they find a song, a group, a studio, an engineer, a label that gives them their long awaited shot at the big time and their names appear on that holy grail – the vinyl 45! They hawk it around the Radio stations because they know they need it on the airwaves! They send it to eveyone they think can promote it. Then…magically, they hear it on the radio! They excitedly tell all their friends to tune in! “We’re on the radio!”
A week later, it’s over. Their 15 minutes of fame was fleeting and snatched from them at the precipice. The record sells 30 copies in their little Mid Western town and the group themselves are the only people who remember it a month later.
But thousands of miles away a small group of music fans have heard this song and hunted it down. They’ve scoured the old distributor companies, they’ve called the old record company’s telephone number but to no avail. They’ve jumped on aeroplanes and scoured the local record Mom and Pop record shops and found a number of the copies. On returning home they hire halls to gather together to play these long forgotten masterpieces to each other. They eventually 40 years later track down the group and arrange for them to recreate the song live – ON STAGE! The group once again are in the spotlight. They arrive at the venue, rehearse and prepare for the performance of their lives. The ONLY performance that they’ve ever done! As they bounce on stage in front of a packed house they initially don’t understand the euphoria of the crowd. Then the music starts, the crowd sing along with the group, they know every single word of that little song from 40 years ago. They dance, they sing and they clap the group like welcoming home heroes. And that’s exactly what they’ve become. Just for the night. Just for that once in a lifetime performance that they thought would never happen. As they leave the stage, dreams are fulfilled. Not just the dreams of the group but the dream of the fans to see their heroes up there, recreating the soulful sounding backdrop to their lives.
And the vinyl 45? Well that is the conduit that makes it all possible. All the years of history contained in each one. Each one having completed its journey en route to you. Sure, it’s carries some battle scars. The odd pop, crackle and maybe even a skip every now and then. But it’s the real thing. The way the group intended it at the time. As you slip it back in it’s sleeve and carefully place it back on the shelf you step back and peruse the shelves themselves. Full of the same, all with similar tales, groaning under the weight of group’s histories. And you remember why you make the effort to keep them, all lined up ,like little soldiers, safe in their inner sleeves, all the multicolored labels turned upright, in label order.
And you wanna know why I collect vinyl records?
If I have to explain further you ain’t never gonna understand.
Regards,
Dave
One Response to “The vinyl 45. A lifelong love affair!”
1Lyndon
February 22nd, 2009 @ 6:12 pm
The 45 Single lives on, may rare tracks never found there way on to CD, there is something about finding a Vinyl single/ Album , thumbing through a pile , and finding that gem…also you can check out its history on the web
( if of course it has been submitted)
great to descover a wealth of good music.
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