After the Vinyl Gold Rush
Now that records are outselling compact discs for the first time in decades, there is a glut of online articles about valuable vinyl records. Articles with titles like what are the most valuable vinyl records and vinyl records you may have could be worth thousands or what is the most valuable record of all time are featured in every online magazine, newsletter, and blog for the last several months.
It's not difficult to understand why this is the case. Articles like this are often created based on searching for keywords and then finding out what questions people are searching for answers to based on those keywords at sites like Quora or the People Always Ask box on Google search results. A search for 'vinyl records' returns 'what records are worth money' and 'are vinyl records worth anything' as its first two results.
This whole search for monetary value is ultimately not what collecting is about, especially record collecting. A lot of people who collect and enjoy records are also used record dealers or they own record stores or vintage retail shops. These folks are looking to turn a profit on their businesses, but most are not greedy or looking to scalp unsuspecting customers, nor do they expect to hit it big by finding a bin full of vintage Blue Notes or a Beatles 'butcher' cover of Yesterday...And Today. Mostly they do it because they love music and records themselves and because it feels good to find a home for something that is unused.
There was a story in the news recently in which three resale shop owners were alerted about 15,000 records left in a Minnesota warehouse basement. Although the shop owners were all 'not record people' they took the records back to one of the shops and sorted them to prepare them for sale and hosted a three-day record sale to the public. They put remaining lots of records up for sale to dealers.
People collect records for many different reasons. Probably most collectors have a love of the thing they collect, an appreciation for its beauty and history. But records have a special status because of the fact that even while they are held as a part of a collection, they are typically in use.
Another frequent article topic in the world of music fandom is a list of the best albums. The 50 best, 100 best, 200 best, whatever. These rankings are useful in that they point out to listeners who may be new to an artist or genre of music records that are guideposts or that broke new ground or made a career. In the early phases of collecting, people frequently think that they should collect most of the records on a list like that in order to have a respectable collection.
That's just balderdash. Maybe with a side of malarkey. Do I think that everyone should hear the recordings made by Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives? Or Stockhausen's sonic experiments? The Beatles? The answer is yes to all of these. But must these records be in everyone's collection? Not necessarily, particularly in today's streaming environment.
It's like when people tell me they really don't like jazz. When you start to break down the monolithic label of 'jazz' you can start to get a feel for the things they really don't like that they associate with jazz. Do they like early New Orleans style jazz? Can they find enjoyment in the looser styles of cool jazz or do they prefer the energy and excitement of fusion?
When it comes to vinyl, you collect what you enjoy. Do you like Norwegian Death Metal? Then own it. Collect it and learn it backward and forward. Love Dylan? Collect his albums. Do you like jazz but hate Mingus? Don't buy Mingus records. It's pretty simple.
There are records that people seek out because they were important records to them growing up that perhaps they lost along the way. One of the problems with the fluctuation in the vinyl record market has been that many people got rid of their album collection in the 1990s when records were pretty much declared over. Unfortunately, many records sold for rock bottom prices at the time as dealers and used records stores bought them up to sell before the bottom fell out of the market completely.
Now a lot of folks want to own some of the records they grew up with not only out of a sense of nostalgia but also because these are records they truly love. So people will buy back some of the records they had in a stronger market with higher prices.
Another thing that happens is that people's tastes change over time. A great deal of my original vinyl collection was purchased in the 1980s and includes a lot of punk and new wave bands. New and used, most of these records were purchased within a few years of their release dates. This layer was added to a small but diverse collection of fusion, post-bop, and avant-garde jazz.
After a hiatus of years when I purchased very little vinyl I now find myself happy buying up records released in the early to mid-1970s, which comprises an area immediately adjacent to the core of my current collection. Frequently I find copies of forgotten records from this time period that have rough covers but where the record itself is in good shape, requiring some cleaning but bearing no scratches or surface noise.
I'm no longer the type of collector who is going to pay a lot for a single album. I try to find records in the best condition with covers that are pretty decent at a reasonable price. The fact is that there is so much great music out there you can get for $5-$10 that the more 'collectible' pieces don't really thrill like they once did.
Finding a cool record in a niche you love for at a good value, taking it home, cleaning it and putting it on your turntable for the first time--that's a great feeling that goes a lot farther than wondering how much money you can get for that original pressing of Freak Out! in your basement.
Bonus Tracks
Frank Zappa Released Three Records in 1970 (NDIM) Frank’s three releases in the year 1970 consisted of Burnt Weenie Sandwich and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, recordings by the original Mothers of Invention tweaked and edited by Zappa, plus Chunga’s Revenge, which bridges the gap between the old Mothers and the new version of the band that Zappa would soon unleash.
How to Like Country Music For the Uninitiated (NPR) Lulu Garcia-Navarro wrote this piece for NPR, and if there’s not enough reason for you there, she’s got plenty more. I like her argument that if you like Dylan you can be brought to country music. Some great Dylan albums like John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline bear country music’s DNA. Certain rock artists many of us loved in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s including The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, America, and The Band were all heavily influenced by country artists.
This week we lost drummer Neil Pert of the band Rush. Pert was an innovative and energetic drummer as well as a composer and creative touchstone for the band. Bands that operate as a trio are a special breed regardless of genre, but operating in the progressive rock sphere as a trio was unheard of before Rush. This video is of the band jam ‘XYZ’, performed live in Rio.
Please let your friends know about NDIM. Forward this newsletter, drop our web address or our Facebook page to someone you know who loves music more than almost anything else.