purging of the LPs
Dec. 17th, 2005 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThe LP record has become so obsolete that the toughest question for someone attempting to discard some is, what can you do with them?
I'm not eliminating all my LPs by any means. I still have some 13 linear feet of them, mostly stuff that I've never bothered to acquire in CD or that has never appeared in that form. And I still buy the very occasional rare LP. When I acquire on CD a classical work that I already have on LP, I tend to keep the LP if I especially like the performance. And some of my favorite music, both obscure classics and non-classics, is only on CD very selectively. You will pry my Allan Sherman albums from my cold dead fingers.
Nor would I transfer them all to digital form, even if I had the equipment to do it. 13 linear feet, that's a lot of work, especially when there's a lot more involved than just playing them into the computer.
But that still left 2 1/2 linear feet on a discard shelf: duplicates, superseded, and just plain stuff I didn't want.
Amoeba Records in Berkeley has a lot of classical vinyl; on inquiry they seemed interested, so a few months ago I carted up a few dozen selected unusual classical albums. To my delight they took almost all, but it was clear they wouldn't be interested in any others.
Eventually I remembered The Record Man in Redwood City, where I'd had some pleasant shopping experiences years ago. It's still there, and they told me they'd take even the stuff they wouldn't pay for, and put it out in their annual clearance sale. So today I carted all the rest up there ... some jackets I fondly remember staring at intently as I first learned these pieces many decades ago ... but they've been succeeded by newer, more revelatory performances. And some stuff, like my parents' truly awful Reader's Digest box sets that were my first introduction to the field, I'm keeping in part for nostalgia and in part because they have some pieces I've never acquired in any other form - Strauss waltzes, Suppe overtures, that sort of thing.
The money (in both cases a modicum of store credit, promptly spent) wasn't the important part; the important part was finding something to do other than dump them. So, out with those now-drab-seeming performances of the New World and the Fantastique, out with the only record I had whose liner notes were entirely in Russian (a symphony by Miaskovsky), out with those odd records of a bullfight and a marching band parade that my father bought in 1959 to show off the stereo system ...
and in with a not-long-to-be empty shelf, something we badly need around here.
I'm not eliminating all my LPs by any means. I still have some 13 linear feet of them, mostly stuff that I've never bothered to acquire in CD or that has never appeared in that form. And I still buy the very occasional rare LP. When I acquire on CD a classical work that I already have on LP, I tend to keep the LP if I especially like the performance. And some of my favorite music, both obscure classics and non-classics, is only on CD very selectively. You will pry my Allan Sherman albums from my cold dead fingers.
Nor would I transfer them all to digital form, even if I had the equipment to do it. 13 linear feet, that's a lot of work, especially when there's a lot more involved than just playing them into the computer.
But that still left 2 1/2 linear feet on a discard shelf: duplicates, superseded, and just plain stuff I didn't want.
Amoeba Records in Berkeley has a lot of classical vinyl; on inquiry they seemed interested, so a few months ago I carted up a few dozen selected unusual classical albums. To my delight they took almost all, but it was clear they wouldn't be interested in any others.
Eventually I remembered The Record Man in Redwood City, where I'd had some pleasant shopping experiences years ago. It's still there, and they told me they'd take even the stuff they wouldn't pay for, and put it out in their annual clearance sale. So today I carted all the rest up there ... some jackets I fondly remember staring at intently as I first learned these pieces many decades ago ... but they've been succeeded by newer, more revelatory performances. And some stuff, like my parents' truly awful Reader's Digest box sets that were my first introduction to the field, I'm keeping in part for nostalgia and in part because they have some pieces I've never acquired in any other form - Strauss waltzes, Suppe overtures, that sort of thing.
The money (in both cases a modicum of store credit, promptly spent) wasn't the important part; the important part was finding something to do other than dump them. So, out with those now-drab-seeming performances of the New World and the Fantastique, out with the only record I had whose liner notes were entirely in Russian (a symphony by Miaskovsky), out with those odd records of a bullfight and a marching band parade that my father bought in 1959 to show off the stereo system ...
and in with a not-long-to-be empty shelf, something we badly need around here.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 04:25 pm (UTC)area who at least recognize what vinyl is are Rasputin's (everywhere, including
near the Pruneyard) and The Vinyl Solution in San Mateo.
But you finally have a chance to choose to have Allan Sherman on CD.
Rhino Handmade recently released "My Son, The Box". But you might
have to act quickly, because they say there will only be 4000 copies
of the 6-CD set.
http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7891
I've ordered mine. I never posessed most of the original LPs, other
than what is burned into my memory. Growing up, neighbor kids and I
would get the albums as birthday gifts, and listen at length to the copy
of whoever had one of the albums. I think I only still have "For Swinging
Livers Only".
no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 07:40 pm (UTC)If that weren't around, I'd tell you that most of his albums are fairly easily findable in the vinyl stores. You shouldn't be stuck with just "For Swinging Livers", by a fair shot his list impressive album. Its closest thing to a gem is "The 12 Gifts of Christmas". If I ever had to chose a Mysterious Spy Code Phrase, it would be "simulated alligator wallet."
no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 07:49 pm (UTC)I've been tempted on numerous occasions to purchase those
LPs, if only to trigger the immedate release afterwards on CD.
Sadly, that risk hasn't materialized until now. I do have
that "Best of--NOT" CD and I agree on it being a poor selection.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-23 04:48 am (UTC)