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Wednesday, April 13

Spin the Black Circle

This Saturday is Record Store Day. 

My Great Uncle George used to own a record store in Dallas, Texas.  My cousins would write to him, asking for records, and he would mail them up to Massachusetts.  I only wrote to him, asking for records once.  I was twelve years old.  I asked for "Bad Reputation" and "I Love Rock 'N' Roll", and Uncle George sent them to me.  A little less than a decade later, Joan Jett autographed those albums (along with a few more) when I met her for the first time in Providence, Rhode Island.  Uncle George has passed away, and I am not sure what became of his store. 

There aren't as many record stores as there once was.  I find that sad.  I can spend hours in a record store, flipping through all the albums.  Most times, I go from A to Z.  Other times, I start with J.  You can really judge a store by its J bin.  Or at least I do.

Today, I think most people buy music online.  Downloading an mp3 sure is faster.  I even began doing that recently because it is easier to get the song on KJRW.  But, there is something really cool about being in a record store, finding an album, and going home to listen to it from start to finish.  There are sometimes gems on those albums that you miss because they were not released as a single and don't get on the radio.  I try to play some of those songs on KJRW.

Please visit your local record store on Saturday.  Some will even have real records - on vinyl. 


P.S.  Spin the Black Circle is a song on Pearl Jam's Vitalogy album.  (I have it on vinyl, signed by Guitarist Mike McCready.)

1 comment:

  1. Here's a P.P.S.: I just read an article today where new groups try to get their songs into commercials for exposure because people don't buy records anymore. In my circles, we called bands sellouts when they allowed their songs to be used to promote a product.

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