I know that vinyl records are making a comeback, but it hit home recently when my husband pulled out the old turntable and took it in to the repair shop. He’d just been to the record store and came home excited that he saw a full section of VINYL RECORDS! Amazon.com is selling vinyl records now too! It made me think about the old days, when I was in high school, and how I treasured my record collection. The very same collection I still have in a crate in my basement because I am unable to get rid of them for sentimental reasons. I have all of the Police vinyl records, warped and very well worn, and remember poring over the cover and sleeve artwork for hours, like they were all masterpieces. I’ve never felt the same way about any cassette or CD I have ever owned as I felt about those vinyl records!
And now I will be able to play my old collection again once the old turntable is back in working order. I’m going to break out those Police records, Reggatta de Blanc is my all time favorite, along with some of my other favorites from back in the 1980’s like:
The Go Go’s “Beauty And The Beat”
Billy Squier “Don’t Say No”
The B-52’s “Wild Planet”
The Tubes “The Completion Backward Principle”
Pat Benatar “Precious Time”
Eddie Money “No Control”
REO Speedwagon “Hi Infidelity”
Michael Jackson “Thriller”
Of course, they’ll probably sound terrible now . . . . but I can always go buy NEW old vinyl records to play! It’s kind of like the whole Police Reunion Tour experience for me, it’s comfortable and nostalgic. And since the Police tour is now over and done forever, what else am I going to do anyway?
Thanks for your comment on my blog! I started buying music in the last 80′s/early 90′s so I never had any vinyl records. The only records I saw belonged to my parents so I guess that’s why I sometimes think of vinyl as something that went out shortly after the Beatles broke up. But obviously, they lasted much longer than that so it was interesting to read your post.
I don’t think the cassette tapes I bought will ever make a comeback, thankfully.
Cassettes were a very poor medium for music. They wore out too quickly, that always made me so mad to have a favorite album on cassette and play it over and over and all the sudden the sound dropped off completely as the tape wore out. I can’t remember exactly when I stopped buying vinyl and started buying cassettes, but now I wish I had stuck with the vinyl all along so that I still had some of my favorites that were destroyed by those evil cassette tapes. I know I had The Police “Synchronicity” from 1983 on vinyl, but by Sting’s “Dream of the Blue Turtles” in 1985 I must have switched exclusively to cassettes because I do not have that album or any of Sting’s albums for that matter on vinyl. I specifically remember my Janet Jackson “No Control” cassette being destroyed, and that was released in 1982. I also remember the pathetic cassette player in my ancient Datsun B210 eating a huge number of my cassettes. I’d pull them out of the player and have miles and miles of tape oozing everywhere, that was so sad to lose music that way! I can’t imagine there will every be a return to cassettes!
I was trying to remember when I started buying compact discs exclusively. They were introduced in late 1982 or 1983, but I can’t remember when I got a CD player and gave up the vinyl and cassettes for good? It must have been later in the 80s, but for some reason I don’t remember the switch.