Saturday, March 29, 2014

I just can't stop spinning the vinyl...


Man, I’m really enjoying my new vinyl setup.  Building upon my boring ramblings in the previous month’s post, I think I’m going to continue on with some more vinyl record goodness.  Over the course of the past month and a half or so, I’ve learned 3 things about myself:

  1. I really enjoy cleaning records in my SpinClean.  I can’t explain it really – I wash my car, my clothes, my dishes, I clean my house, I keep my yard tidy – and I hate doing every single one of those things.  Yet, cleaning records is enjoyable.  There’s just something about turning an old, dusty, smudgy record into a gleaming, grooved jewel; gently placing it on the turntable hoping for the best; and then hearing the sweet, fresh sounds fill the room.  It’s like I played a part in bringing it to life.  It’s like…I’m Clark Griswold standing atop my very own Family Truckster and softly, yet proudly, proclaiming - “50 yards!”
  2. I’ve still got a bit of a competitive streak in me.  I hate to lose as much as the next guy, but hey, at my age I’ve learned to accept my limitations.  However, after getting snaked in the closing seconds of a few Ebay auctions involving some choice classic rock records – ooooooooh shit-fire!…I ate lightning, and crapped thunder on the auctions that came after. I. Was. Not. Going. To. Lose. Again. *deep breath* *find happy place* - and I didn’t…not sure that was a good thing though.
  3. Remember what I just wrote in #2?  Yeah, I went a little overboard.  I mean, it wasn’t exactly Sherman’s fiery march on the South or anything, but I’ve had to push myself away from the record-buying table for a while…I like ramen noodles and all, but I don’t want to have to eat them exclusively for the next month or two.

So, I figured I would now do some mini-reviews on just a handful of the albums I’ve acquired so far. 

In my previous post, I mentioned the Black Sabbath and Queen collections – I’ve listened to them all now, and have even acquired some alternate Queen pieces to boot.  However, I think I’ll review all of those in a future post – it’ll be a doozy!  I’ll also include my somewhat frustrated feelings toward the Beatles albums I’ve acquired; as well as the happy, yet crazy, experiences with my Led Zeppelin acquisitions.  Speaking of Led Zeppelin, I’m happy to hear that a whole new round of re-mastered vinyl is coming out (fingers crossed the sound quality is kickass), because traversing through their original vinyl pressings jungle is just nutty – there are so many different pressings, and the sound quality varies depending on what pressing you have.  Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone came along with the following info. – “Dude, the copy of Led Zeppelin IV you really want will have a “WF” code on the label, with the words “You’re surrounded” hand-etched in the deadwax.  If you play the album backwards at 45rpm and you start to smell peanut butter and hear a weasel fart, you’ll unlock the hidden 5.1 surround sound out of the record grooves!  Duuuuuuude, it’s the best version!”.  Yep, it’s that ridiculous.  Anyway, more of my Led Zeppelin adventures in a future post…

Now, the albums I’d like to talk about in this post are as follows: