Where the Record Meets the Road

When I got my new record player for Christmas last year and saw that it could play 78's I knew that it would open up a whole new world for me. In many ways 78's are almost indicative of the big band era. At that time 45's were something that belonged in a jukebox and 33's although in existence by the 1940's were as common as DVDs were in 1995. So on the home scene 78's were pretty much the format of choice, and that dated back to the time when 78's replaced the first wax cylinders of recorded music.

Initially for me 78's weren't that easy to find. For the most part they where and somewhat still are pretty rare birds to find in thrift stores and resell shops. As for my local brick-and-mortar record store he has 78's but they are located in bins on the floor that are almost impossible to navigate due to the fact that there are so many 78's stuffed into them.

For me the pain resulting from the inability to find 78's was only worsened by the memory of having given away all my grandmothers 78's after she had died. Many of these 78's were from the big band era and had some pretty great songs on them. But as the saying goes "if hindsight or 20/20". 

So as usual I found myself heading to eBay to find records that I really wanted. But the question became what song and/or what artist did I want to have in my collection first?

Being both a vinyl record enthusiasts and a Route 66 enthusiasts, as you know from reading my blogs, the answer came to me pretty quickly. The song I had to have on 78' was Route 66 by The Nat King Cole Trio.

The song or this particular version of it is the one that inspired me the most to someday travel the route. This version by The Nat King Cole Trio, was made following the war and filled with the optimism the US had in the late 1940's. It was a song about traveling and discovering the United States as a whole. This version was made in an era when Route 66 was in its heyday and when the United States seemed to look towards the west specifically California and the Los Angeles area as the places to be and where hope could be found for the future. The Nat King Cole Trio delivers the song with such an incredibly upbeat feel good tempo that there's no way you can't possibly enjoy this particular version. There is also no way that you can deny the urge to travel Route 66 after you hear this version of the song.

You see this version was actually the first big time the song Route 66 was performed. The song itself was only a few months old by the time it was handed over to The Nat King Cole Trio. It's writer Bobby Troup although known for sometimes performing his own works decided that he would give this song to The Nat King Cole Trio, who had achieved a great deal of success with their unique sound towards the end of World War II and immediately following the war. If you want to know more history about Bobby Troup and how the song was originally written please see my article (http://route66forfamily.blogspot.com/2013/09/route-66-song-and-introducing-your-kids.html?m=1). To say the least Troup's choice to allow someone else to record it led to the song becoming a huge success. 

Although the Nat King Cole Trio would popularize the song and bring it to the top of the charts they would not be the last artist to do so. The Rolling Stones, and even more recently John Mayer would be just a few of the many artists to remake the song and keep it fresh with American and even international audiences.

As for the actual record itself that I received it took me some time to get used to the way a 78 sounds. The song does sound quite good but I do believe that the needle arm and needle itself on my record player may perhaps be too light for the 78. Both the 45's and 33's have sounded phenomenal on this little record player but the 78 for some reason sounds a bit off and/or even a bit distant. Having studied 78's and having seen them being played in many a black-and-white movie I do believe that there might be something to the fact that this needle is just a little too light for 78's. 

Overall though I am extremely happy to have Route 66 by The Nat King Cole Trio as the first 78 enter my collection. Now if I could only find a second one that I could put under glass and hang on my wall.

If you're reading this on my Route 66 blog be sure to check out my vinyl record blog at http://amateurvinylrecordcollector.blogspot.com/?m=1

And if you're reading this on my vinyl record blog be sure to check out my Route 66 blog at http://route66forfamily.blogspot.com/?m=1

Thank you again for reading!

Happy Record Store Day

If your like me you may find yoirsf waiting in a huge line like this.

Free records and a 100+ limited edition titles to choose from. Hopefully for you unlike in my case your store will open on time. 

Anyway happy hunting and Happy Records Store Day!!

Journey's: Escape

Where were you in 82'?

Have you ever seen Tron: Legacy? Probably one of the best scenes in the movie is when the main character Sam walks into his fathers old video arcade, flips the breaker and all the machines go on and Journeys Seperate Ways comes on the juke box. For a lover of retro games and old vinyl it gets your heart pumping, and really makes you miss the old days of great video arcades and music on a Saturday night. What's really interesting about the use of this song in Tron: Legacy is not just that it was popular when the first Tron movie came out in 1982, but that in this movie about video games Journeys 1981 album Escape had a video game based on it, also in 1982.

Thats right? The early 80's classic filled side to side with great music including songs like Seperate Ways, Don't Stop Believing, and Faithfully had a video game based on it. 

Jouney Escape Vinyl Album and Atari 2600 game. Be sure to check out my vinyl record collecting blog Diary of An Amateur Vinyl Record Collector at http://amateurvinylrecordcollector.blogspot.com/?m=1 or my retro video gaming blog The Retro Video Gaming Blog for the Mid-Core Gamer at http://retrovideogamingblog.blogspot.com/?m=1

The Album

Escape is actually Journeys eighth album, but it was the first to go to number 1 on Billboard. The album was released in July of 1981, and saw its first hit Who's Crying Now before 1981 was out. After that the album would see hit after memorable hit with Stone In Love exiting the charts in 1984. Escape would leave an indelible print on music of the early 80's and on music of the 80's in general, and would also influence the afore mentioned Tron, when Journey would be asked to do part of the original movies soundtrack. 

The Record

This was another eBay purchase that I am pretty pleased with. It was a quick transaction and the record came in exactly the condition described, which is in fantastic. No scratches or any thing else, nice clean play all the way through. Best of all its a great up beat album from start to finish, and really gets your night rolling by putting you in a good mood. As you can see in the photo above the album cover itself is also an phenomenal shape with its original shrink wrap and stickers still intact. It was another great buy on eBay and one heck of a bargain.

Journey: Escape - The Game

Data Age released Escape in 1982, and it was the first video game of its kind to be based on a popular music group and album. The game is actually fairly simple and consist of a black down scrolling screen and of a little man that you must control on the screen meant to represent a security guard trying to help the band to get to their scarab shaped escape vehicle, well also trying to hang onto the $50,000 in concert money. Along the way the little man avoid hearts with legs which are meant to be groupies, bodiless heads with mustaches and shifty eyes that are meant to be promoters, barricades, and flashing yellow lights which are meant to be paparazzi. Along the way you can get help from what appear to be little aliens with antennas but I understand they are actually meant to be roadies who give you the temporary power to walk through various obstacles. Also supposedly there is the band manager who looks inexplicably like the Kool-Aid man and he is also supposed to help you although I have never run across him in my gameplay. Your ultimate goal is to reach the yellow scarab escape vehicle which you probably could pass-by pretty easily if you weren't looking for it,  and to reach it while hanginh onto as much of the concert money as possible. Keep in mind that each obstacle you walk into will take some of the money from you. Every time you help the band reach the escape vehicle a new level starts and each level gets progressively harder where obstacles no longer stay stationary but the begin to move towards you or cross the screen in random directions. The game obviously ends once all the money is taken from you.

As far as the game music the only actual Journey song we hear is Don't Stop Believing in the games intro, during the actual gameplay itself we are given some sort of generic music that is in no way related to anything by Journey.

Gameplay

Without going online and looking at the directions I had a hard time actually trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing and who was friend an who was foe coming at me. Luckily, I was able to find instructions on Atariage, and after that the game actually became pretty interesting and kind of fun,  and at times even challenging. 

Other then that it's  a pretty good game but there are a few things that I was little let down by. First of all considering Escapes album cover I expected the game to have some sort of sci-fi theme to it. After all the album cover for Escape shows a scarab breaking out of a planet or something into outerspace and then on the back of album shows the scarab zooming off into outer space. Of course that's fairly minor but the biggest letdown is that there wasn't any actual Journey music during gameplay. Sure it's nice to hear Don't Stop Believing in intro but it would have been cool to have actual Journey music throughout.

Overall though I have to say that I am really impressed by both the album and the videogame. Both Escape's are fantastically entertaining, although the album has much more and notoriety and is pretty well remembered, while the videogame lives obscurity. I can only imagine being a teenager in 1982 and feeling like I was on top of the world having Journey's Escape playing on the record player well I played the accompanying game on my Atari 2600. It must've been a heck of a way to waste a Saturday evening back then in what seemed like much simpler times. I have to say I thoroughly enjoy owning this album and I really have enjoyed having a chance to play the game. If you have a chance to buy this particular album on vinyl I would definitely suggest doing so because nothing else sounds the same. And if you have the chance to buy the Atari 2600 game for it do so as well. You won't be let down by either.

 

What $110 Buys

Monday January 20, 2014

Happy Martin Luther King day or whatever. 

With this bonus day to the weekend I decided today is the day I'm going to the record store with the gift certificates I got for Christmas. Today though unlike the previous times there would be no wife and baby waiting in the car for me and I would also have the oldest with me but pacified due to a trip to the comic book store beforehand. Although doing this visit by myself would be optimal and far more efficient, it's worth it to have my oldest with so as to expose him to the days when we had to search for our music and records in bins and not simply look them up on iTunes. 

Today's visit worked out pretty well though and I was able to pick up 8 new records for my collection including, or as you may have guessed some pretty choice selections. 

As you can probably guess here are my two most expensive records. The Beatles Yellow Submarine, ($25) and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band ($50). The gatefolds could be in better shape but the records themselves are in very good shape and cleaned by the record store. Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is the album that has impressed me the most and I can see why it was such and influential album, it's music is fun and peppy and had a sound that was ahead of its time. As for Yellow Submarine the music is also great and whimsical, but I didn't expect the movie orchestrations on the B-side. 

Jouneys Evolution ($4.50) and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon ($8). Evolution as is usually the case for Journey, has a great beat from beginning to end. Dark Side of the Moon on the other hand is Pink Floyd at their best, but the album is more chill than the rocking sound of Evolution, but is rightfully a classic. Pink Floyd helped push music to its limits with this album. The Journey album is still in great shape shrink wrap and all, Dark Side of the Moon on the other hand is in good shape on vinyl  but the gatefold is in pretty bad shape.

Yep, Fleetwood Macs Rumors ($3), and more Beatles with Introducing The Beatles ($15). Those first few Beatles albums really help you see why they caught on so fast in the US, with that clear, crisp, optimistic, and upbeat sound the US needed to help us get past the painful loss of President Kennedy only a few months before. Rumors on the other hand is a classic in its own right and really made Fleetwood Mac a legendary band. Filled from end to end with classics, this album would influence other artist for years after it's release. Both albums vinyl is in excellent shape and gatefolds are in pretty good shape too. 

Lastly are the local Buckinghams with Time & Changes ($3), and The Platters The Golden Hits of the Platters ($3.50). The latter is a nice collection of The Platters hits, but for the most part theysound rerecords rather then the original versions, but they have a nice gentle music that helps calm things down around the house. Time & Changes is a great album and has a lot of The Buckinghams classics on it, including Mercy, Mercy, Mercy which is a favorite around my house. Both vinyls and gatefolds are in great shape.

Overall, 8 great albums isn't too bad. Of course if your counting you realize I actually went over $110 but not by much. To say the least I'm pretty happy with my selections and I will get deeper into some in these albums later since the article is more about the purchase then the albums. 

Unique "Records"

January 17, 2014

There are a lot of "unique" records out there, one that comes to my mind is a Transformers record I had as a kid. I remember conning my sister into buying it for me at Woolworth's for $3, and now I see it on eBay for $40, yikes. Anyway there are a lot of records out there with unusual music and/or subject matter, that would classify them as "unique".

But there are "unique" records, and than there are unique "records" today I found the latter on trip through a local thrift store.

That's right this is a yellow transparent record. The album itself is a show tune compilation Best of Old Broadway from the early 50's. 

It wasn't something I was looking to buy but after I saw the actual record I had to have it. Of course the cute redhead showgirl on the cover, and the fact that it is a fairly pleasent collection of music made buying it a bit easier. 

This is also the first record I have had a chance to play on the new record player I got for Christmas. 

So the record looks really cool on the record player, and is in really good shape meaning the beat up cover has done its job well the years. 

I also managed to pick up two additional 45's today as well. 

To feed my need for Bond songs I added this 45 of For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton. Side A is the actual song while Side B is the instrumental version. What surprises me is that considering it was the key song in a Bond film there is nothing on this 45 or sleeve to indicate that. If this record where to be sold now days it would come with markings all over it to market the single in connection with the movie and vice-versa. 

The song itself For Years Eyes Only is a bit of a snoozer and had my wife recollecting the days of easy listening stations while stuck in the back seat of her parents car on long trips. I had to agree this song was an 80's easy listening station standard, and hardly gets the heart pounding like the more modern Bond songs like Adele's Skyfall, or Garbage's The World is Not Enough. Overall though the 45 is in good shape, and allowed me to test my new records players ability to play 45's. 

The next 45 is Dionne Warwick's I'll Never Love This Way Again / In Your Eyes. I bought this one confusing it with I'll Never Fall In Love Again an early Dionne Warwick song I actually did like. I wonder if her Pyschic Friends told her I would be writing a blog about this single? Anyway these are familiar songs as well that definitely recollect those days of your parents easy listening stations in the 80's. The 45 itself is in good shape here too, becuase imagine it wasn't listened to a lot. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, but at $.50 I'm ok loosing on this one. 

But you know writing this particular blog posting a few interesting questions popped into my head that I would like to ask you my readers. 

1. What is the most unique "record" that you would ever found and/or may have in your collection? If you would like to go ahead and repost a picture with this that would be awesome, because I'd love to see what kind of strange and wacky vinyl items are out there.

2. What truly good songs did your parents easy listening station ruin for you?

Feel free to go ahead and add your comment to this post I love to see what everybody's answers are to these questions.

One More Spin with eBay

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

So far (knock-on-wood) I have had good luck in my eBay dealings as far as records go. This time around and for a second time I purchased an item from a smaller and lesser known seller on eBay, I will be covering my first purchase from this seller in an upcoming article about Journeys Escape. This purchase is actually of Simon & Garfunkle's Bridge Over Troubled Water, the 1969 album of course has the title song Bridge Over Troubled Water, as well as The Boxer, Cecilia, El Condor Pasa, and so on.

The Record Itself:

The gatefold and sleeve are in good condition and looking at the side of the gatefold in my shelf I can tell what album and artist it is clearly. As you can see in the picture above there are a few blemishes to the gatefold but it's not bad. The physical record itself has that truly fuzzy, crackling sound LP's are known for but it wears off after the first song on either side, that and there is also a bit of skipping on the first side too. Overall it is in good shape, and easy to listen to without much distraction. It was worth the less then $10 w/shipping I paid for it.

The Album:

I grew up listening to a lot of Paul Simon and a smidge if Simon & Garfunkel. For me this album brings back a lot of memory's of a version of it on tape my folks would play regularly in the car.  I always found El Condor Pasa to be be a very haunting song, with a really unique and equally haunting melody. I could also summarize The Boxer in the same way although it was a song that didn't make sense to me till I was a lot older, when I really understood the lyrics more. The rest of the album is just as great and we even get a few upbeat songs like Cecilia, and a live recording of a cover did of the Everly Brothers Bye-Bye Love. For the most part though the album has a folk feel to it that is quite, yet potent considering the album was made in era it's songs where produced in. 

Overall, this is one more happy eBay purchase. Let's hope my luck continues. 

First Buys of The New Year

Saturday, January 4, 2014

With my $110 worth of gift certificates in my hand I wondered into the music store to hopefully get a few the records I really wanted. However thanks a certain time constraints and the fact that I wasn't able to get to the record store until about half hour they closed things didn't quite work out as I planned, especially with my youngest crying his head off in the car with my wife and my oldest feeling very anxious and pushy.

To say the least the $110 worth of gift certificates went untouched today, and the grand total of my record purchases came out to less than $10. But I did manage to make some pretty unique and also very nice selections in the little time I had.
 

My first selection was The Pretenders Learning to Crawl. In my personal opinion I believe The Pretenders are probably one of the most underrated bands of the 1980s. For the most part there music has always been upbeat, and delivered clearly and articulately, so as to allow you to enjoy the lyrics as well as the melody. This album had some truly great and memorable songs like Middle of The Road, and Back on the Chain Gang, as well as a few other hits. The rest of the album has non-stop great music on it, which makes it a pleasure to listen too. It was my favorite by today.

My second buy is Elvis Presley's, Blue Hawaii. This is one I actually bought for sentimentality since it was one of my mothers favorite albums as a teenager, and served as the center of a humorous story about her and her little brother. Its not a bad album but not one of Elvis's finest, and keep in mind its from the movie soundtrack for Blue Hawaii. The best song on it of course is also one of Elvis's finest "(I) Can't Help Falling in Love (With You)", so in a way the $2 I spent on this is worth it just for that.

Last but not least is Sammy Davis Jr at The Coconut Grove. What a fantastic buy! This is a two record set from as you may guess a live performance at the famous Coconut Grove nightclub in LA. I love the albums with these type of covers because you always know your going to get a truly intimate performance that could only be delivered in those old nightclubs. I'm not going to go into what songs are on it but its traditional Sammy Davis Jr faire. For me personally this album goes best with a quiet dinner at home over a steak, and a good glass of red wine, and with the lights dimed in my dining room its almost like being there.
 

Overall, these are some pretty good selections and I look forward to the year ahead with collecting new records.

By the way if you are reading this on Wordpress I would like you to know that I will be putting this same blog posts on Blogger as well at http://amateurvinylrecordcollector.blogspot.com/. I am will continue to post my blogs here as well since I have readers here in Wordpress, but if you have a hard time viewing my blog due to the backgrounds please head over there.