Saturday, March 9, 2024

Blake Dowling: A love affair with old-school vinyl records

Blake Dowling

March 9

Technology can be a blessing, a curse or even a hearse for some industries (see Blockbuster).

I will never forget the first day someone told me to pull up a major music business tech disrupter, Napster. I looked at the website search bar and typed in Iron Maiden; all their albums were free.

This was the year 2000, so it was a mind-blowing moment. This was the first online music platform I had seen, and for context, I still had cassette and CD players in my Ford Explorer.

The road only got more interesting, cool, difficult, and awesome for digital listening as the years went on, depending on your line of work or tech skill level.

Music has become an act of convenience for our world instead of an experience, and recent events have turned the tables (the turn tables, if you will allow the pun) and the clock back a few years in our home and (maybe yours too).

Like any great story, it all started with a group text, which can be a blast or a total drag. If you don't know about the hide alerts button, go ahead and Google that to save you some group text mayhem.

Last year, a friend's spouse texted about 30 of us and told us she was getting a record player for his birthday and that if we wanted to get him a record for his birthday, we should please do so.

Wow. This was my first view into the world of vinyl snobbery. Opinions and vinyl expertise spewed like pirate banter (har, matey) at Gasparilla. I quickly reached for the hide alerts button, but not without making my pick. I went with Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run."

It's not a bad choice if I do say so myself.

My friend proudly boasted when he saw all the gifts he was now buying his music collection for the fourth time: Cassette, CD, digital and vinyl. What a time to be alive.

Fast-forward to Christmas morning. I saw a huge box under the tree with my name on it. Eh? What is this?

I have been very leery of large gifts since my mother gave me a leaf blower on my 16th birthday.

I thought it was the box within the box trick that started with a huge box and then went to a little one with car keys in it.

Nope. It was a leaf blower. Thanks, Mary Gene.

Anyway, as I peeled open my gift, I was mind-blown to see a record player. Jeanne Dowling scored 10 out of 10.

There were a couple of records in the mix, and opening the first Dave Matthews record was a blast. When was the last time you opened a cassette, CD, or record? It's been a minute, right?

What a trip down memory lane. Where was it recorded? Which band members wrote which song? Did they thank their managers? Was Jack Joseph Puig or Mutt Lange the producer? Did those guys produce everything?

Liner notes and pics are a blast; we have been denied that experience for years with Spotify this and digital that. Now that I have about 30 records in the collection, I have a new approach to listening to music.

When you put on a record, it has a ritual feel. You are listening to that album the way the artist intended. Start to finish.

It is not a greatest hits collection, nor a mix on Spotify, but an album.

A true record is a journey; think of "Back in Black" by AC/DC. This was the first record with new singer Brian Johnson after Bon Scott died. The Hells Bells opening is just wicked on vinyl, with a slight crackle between bells ringing.

Or Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors," which is still waiting for the documentary on Steve and Lindsey's lurid tale of being in a band where everyone dates each other. Or Led Zepplin's first album. Amazing. What a trip it would be to buy that in 1969.

I don't think I listened to that album from start to finish until 2024. We so often hear the hits of albums that were before our time.

The records are just plain cool, like that scene in Almost Famous where the kid is given some of his sister's records when she leaves home.

It is also a way of life. Now, if you have joined the vinyl army, you must stop in every record store you see when traveling. It totally reminds me of a comic bookstore experience as a kid. My pal Quinn Borland and I would spend hours and all our dollars in the one in Dothan.

I wonder, whatever happened to the weird dude that worked there?

People say the vinyl sound is also superior, right? Record enthusiasts claim a more warm, rich, and sonically pleasing experience. This boys and girls, is because vinyl records produce a continuous analog signal, whereas digital formats produce a series of numerical samples of the original analog sound.

If you want more info, I found a nice breakdown from a sound engineer if you wish to do the deep dive.

So now you are all in, and you're wondering where to begin your collection. You're in luck, as Florida is loaded with super cool spots to record shop in person. Bananas in St Petersburg is a great place to start. They boast a collection of 3,000,000 records and have been around since 1977.

Here in Tallahassee Retrofit Records is awesome if you can handle campus life. I personally prefer Rearview Vintage and Vinyl, which is closer to my house. When I last visited, I talked to the owner, Carter, for a while, and he shared his thoughts on his store with me. "My favorite part of owning a record store is the excitement on people's faces when they finally find that one record they've been looking for. Since opening the shop last year, my perspective has changed from being purely a collector to someone who helps others complete their collections."

Check them out in Tally at 1748 Thomasville Road or on Instagram.

Rearview Vintage and Vinyl owner Carter and myself.

All of those Florida record stores are great, but my favorite record store is in downtown Gainesville. The vibe is perfect: bars, a mini-amphitheater, restaurants, a coffee shop, and Hear Again Records are all within walking distance of each other. You can stroll to Marks Prime, Lillian's, Harry's, coffee shops, and the beautiful Hippodrome theater, then hit the record store.

It is a perfect blend of the new and the old and a great example of the active, walking downtown many communities seek.

For the big picture, Americans bought almost 50 million records in 2023, almost a 15% jump from the previous year. There is a reason: technology is incredible, but everything digital gets old (or maybe it is just us getting old) — either way. Building a vinyl collection is a blast, it's time travel, it sounds great, it is a hobby and it puts the "event" back in listening to music. Today, I think it's time for the Beatles' "White Album," which I just got at Rearview, and some Gator Hoops will be on mute as soon as I finish typing this. That sounds like a perfect 2024 evening for me, so let's Spin that black circle as Pearl Jam says, and thank you for allowing my Saturday story to be part of your weekend.