Memory Of Old LP's

You remember the old LP albums, or as we called them "phonograph records"? They are making a comeback among kids with some current hot groups releasing their music in LP format too. Finding a "record player' is now the rage as thrift stores rarely have them in stop and not enough demand for them yet to cause much production of LP stereos. I gave my LP stereo system and all my LP's to my ex wife years ago, and of course they were all eventually lost in the flood of Hurricane Katrina when her property flooded.

I do have an old wood stereo cabinet record player, radio and..get this.. an 8 track deck player. But the record player is broken. I sent it to a repair shop a couple of months ago after I arrived in Portland and am still waiting to hear whether they can fix it for me. If not, I will buy a cheap record player on line for the sole purpose of finding some old albums that have sentimental meaning to me, because they remind me of what I think, in my youth, was a golden age of music.

I did make a trip to a thrift store to see what kind of albums were out an to purchase any that were appealing. Thrift stores have plenty of record albums and they sell for about two dollars a piece, so it isn't hard to find old albums like those I treasure. But the condition issue is a fly in the ointment. One can only visually inspect the albums and hope their are no scratches or warping areas that would effect the record. Looking at the records at the Salvation Army thrift store near my house here was fun. I spent almost an hour going through the stacks of albums and relived some musical memories as I did.

After plowing through them I bought three albums, a Harry James album tribute to the great trumpeters (a 60's record), a Johnny Mathis Greatest Hits record ( a 70's record) and the prize for me, and Al Hirt Album entitled 'Java'. Al Hirt was the most famous New Orleans Jazz trumpet player in the 60's 70's and 80's. He had several number one records on the pop album charts, one time briefly ahead of the Beatles. How an Al Hirt record (there was actually a second different Hirt record there too) found it's way to a Portland Salvation army store in 2010 would be a story i would like to know. I wonder how had those albums and how much he or she liked Hirt's trumpet selections.There was also a record album by John Gary in the mix. John Gary was a famed New Orleans singer in the 50's, said to have one of the best voices in show biz. I remember hearing Gary sing many times at home as my mom played his records and on the old Am radio stations of the day. I regret not buying that record and may go back to get it later. Why so?

It's not his music as much as the era Gary brings back, Seeing him on the album cover was like a right cross to the chin because I was not unconscious and into the 50's 60's and 70's. With each album I thumbed through...the Lawrence Welk albums, Tennessee Ernie Ford albums, Frank Sinatra, Herb Albert and the Tijuiana Brass, Jim Nabors, Andy Willliams and on and on. they all put me in a simpler place and time when music was treasured as much because it was rare than for the sound quality. There were no ipods, computers, playlists, no music devises at all except the old phonograph record and AM radio. We knew and appreciated music more then because it was something special.

As a child I spent more time in record stores sampling the vinyl disk in a sound proof record sample room than practically anything else in which I engaged. The old single 78 RPM records (it had one song on the front and one on the back) of my youth sold for 50 cents apiece and full albums anywhere from one to 3 or 4 dollars each. Even a small boy I had my own little record player and stacks of single records of "rock and roll' tunes from the 50's and 60's. Years later after I grew to ignore them for other activities, she and all the other mom's I knew, tossed out the records and the treasured baseball cards my brother and I had so worshipped.

Going through those records at the Salvation Army store let me be a child again, let me remember the music, the times, and the people I was with when I heard the songs. Though most of the faces I saw on those record albums are no longer living today they were reborn for me, and when my phonograph is fixed I will play them and become a boy again. I think it's a nice way to become young again.