First Vinyl Record Album I Bought
It was grade 9 and the year was 1974. There were record shops all over Vancouver in those days but the best, the VERY best, was on Seymour street in downtown Vancouver, and it was called A&B Records.
By the standards of the day it was immense… probably a quarter of the size of your average HMV today! I went down there with a pocket full of Christmas money and bought
The first vinyl record album I bought with my own money
I still love this record. I played it maybe a thousand times although I never managed to get it onto tape (remember tape?)
Why do so few people like Grateful Dead? I was never a Deadhead though I knew a few back in my treeplanting days. One couple had been to maybe 20 concerts, driving around the northeast states in their van with their cat! They had all sorts of bootleg tapes of live concerts!
My partner puts Grateful Dead in the same category as Bob Dylan: the “I’d rather we didn’t listen to this” category! That’s ok, we can’t all have great taste!
Eclectic Vinyl Mason Williams
In 1970 Mason Williams produced an album entitled, “Handmade”. I still have my copy!
Mason Williams is most known for “Classical Gas”, a guitar instrumental that became popular when performed with an orchestra in later years. This is the album I grew up with, and the original version of the song. I still find it mesmerizing.
Here is a version of the original from Youtube:
And here are some pics I took from the album cover:
The cover of Mason Williams' Handmade Album
You can click this image to enlarge it. Here are a couple more images I took of the front and reverse of the album:
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- The cover of Mason Williams’ Handmade Album
Check out the image that says this:
This music is hand made
We thought it up by hand
And played it by hand
What this music is is how it was done
It was done the way time does things
With Love
Love is handmade understanding.
One of my favorite songs from this album is “The Exciting Accident”. This is a sort of psychobilly tune before there was such a thing describing an incident in a diner. I sing it to and with my kids and they are all tweens!
Another interesting song is “Find a Reason to Believe”, which was made popular by Rod Stewart. Great song, and Williams’ version is heartfelt and poignant.
Thanks Mr Williams!
Mason Williams’ website is here
Vinyl Record Cleaning and Storage
Why Store Your Vinyl Properly?
Vinyl records are an amazing form of information storage. Those big black disks are prized today for their superior fidelity and durability.
It is critical to store your records properly. Keep them vertical and never pile them flat on top of each other.
It’s ideal to keep your collection around 65 degrees Fahrenheit or 15 degrees Celcius and at a nice constant humidity of around 50%. I admit to having defied this as my collection travelled with me and lived for many years OUTSIDE (I am ashamed) in the garage! They were upright but I know the covers aren’t in great shape.
Do Not leave them by heaters or radiators where they will go up and down in temperature. Find a nice closet indoors somewhere and keep them there… assuming you don’t have a place to prominently display them.
If you are really serious, keep them in a hermetically sealed container, even if it’s a plastic tote box that seals well. Don’t let your smoking buddies blow their cigarello smoke at them and don’t park them beside the stove where grease will get on the vinyl or jackets.
Do these things and your vinyl record collection will last for many more decades!
Jim Croce My First Vinyl
The very first record I ever owned was Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” album of 1972.
I loved that record, especially the “Jim” song which friends and I performed in our band, “Concrete Rock”. Yes, you heard it here first.
To be really honest, the VERY first album was a folk album by Jim Croce and his wife. However, my parents bought it by mistake so I never really counted it. At the time I thought it was kind of gushy 
Jim Croce released 6 albums in his career but this was my favorite. Jim died tragically in 1973 when the plane he was riding in hit a pecan tree at the end of the runway in Natchitoches, Louisiana. They say the pilot had a heart attack right at that moment, and that the pecan tree was the only thing standing for miles around.
I wonder if that pecan tree is still standing?
Jim and Ingrid’s son, A.J. Croce is a successful songwriter/performer today! Some people get all the good genes!
The World’s Largest Record Collection
Great Record Collection Video on Youtube:
Great Cover Art Sources
From rock to pop, jazz to blues, these are all artistically, stylistically, and culturally significant in their own way, and will undoubtedly spark a debate with fans around the world.The Greatest Album Covers of All Time
A stunningly designed review of the greatest album cover designs, spanning the classic period from the 1950s to the 1970s, Album Cover Album first hit the bestseller charts in 1977. This led to the release of six follow-up hits, inspired a host of imitations, and generated a long-playing sub-genre in art and design publishing.
Goldmine Vinyl Price Guides Still On Top of Charts
Goldmine was created in 1974 by Brian Bukantis who realized that a price guide for vinyl records and other recordings was not available. Mr Bukantis was convinced that enough people were collecting records even at that point in time that a price guide and listing service would fill a large niche market in the music industry.
Goldmine is available as a magazine, but they also publish a whole series of price guides:
The most popular of the Goldmine Price Guides is the Goldmine Records & Prices. This guide features over 30,000 old vinyl records in 33 and 45 sizes, and over 1000 artists. Dates of the records listed range from the 50′s to the 80′s, and the book includes market reports as well as tips on how to take part in the buying and selling of vinyl records
Goldmine Records & Pricesis written by Peter Lindblad, who is also a managing editor of Goldmine Magazine. Mr Lindblad has collected vinyl records all his life and writes for many newspapers and magazines.