What the F**K is Vinyl

What the fuck is Vinyl?

This was a comment posted on FB which prompted me to write this.

Born in the time when the swinging sixties were coming to an end, & music was everywhere. Good times.....apparentlyy.
Music in my parents house was mainly Country & Western and not to my liking.
My grandma was an Elvis fan, I spent many a time listening to Elvis, or watching his movies with my Grandmother. She was a beautiful lady, but loved a pack of Embassy No.1 Cigarettes.
All of her music was on Vinyl. 78’s, 45’s or 33’s. ( To those who don’t know these numbers, it’s the speed at which Vinyl spins.)

At the time I was one of the kids who had a Paper round, & subsequently spent my money on music. My father was also a Part-Time Coach driver to Concerts, so at the tender age of 11, I was being snuck into gigs to see the likes of Gary Numan, Toyah & Adam and the Ants to name a few.
The Vinyl kept on coming. A new album release meant I would spend many an hour reading the lyrics or looking at the artwork. That was the beauty of Vinyl, you actually had something, it had feeling.
Then along came Cassettes (You needed a pencil), CD’s, MiniDiscs and then nothing.
I mean nothing, relating to how we have listened to music in the last few years.
YouTube, Spotify, Apple etc. You don’t have anything. It’s just a noise, a compressed noise at that, the top end and bottom end are stripped out.
Don’t get me wrong, I use all the above, it’s convenient. You can skip back, forth, left, right, up & down and listen to anything, anywhere.

Whatever noise you want, it’s instant.

But it’s lost it’s feeling & emotion and that's what music is to me.

Vinyl was different, you had to interact for starters, flipping the vinyl over to listen to the B-Side. It felt like you listened more, Needle on, sleeve in hand & you were in the music. Scratches and all.

We have Vinyl spinning in the Shop at times. Again, Vinyl is not convenient to keep flipping over. But when you get the time, early morning before you open, or end of the day, a spin of Vinyl is magical. It slows you back down.

If I am in town with my wife, she dreads seeing a Record Shop. She knows how long I can spend in one. I’ve spent hours in a Record Shop, buy nothing and still feel accomplished that I have surfed the shops collection.

Vinyl may not fit into our fast “Modern” world, but it’s got a place. I don’t even think it’s a nostalgic place. More a “have a minute” place and appreciate the whole package which the Artist has created kind of place.
And Vinyl sounds ten times better than anything.

My local go to is now the Vinyl Lounge. You get a cup of coffee too.

Or order online.