Home  Articles For collectors, grazing vinyl is always a hit
|
|
For collectors, grazing vinyl is always a hit |
|
|
|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Thursday, 14 June 2007 |
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-oldrecords_30may30,1,6924100.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed
For collectors, grazing vinyl is always a hit
By Steve Schmadeke
Special to the Tribune
Published May 30, 2007
Mark Quinones wasn't using a PDA, an MP3 player, or even an iPod. His idea of listening to music and keeping track of his favorite songs is much more old school.
Opening up a blue notebook, the airline pilot from Chicago looks down at the pages brimming with handwritten notes about his vinyl record collection.
E-mail this story
Printable format
Search archives
RSS
"This book right here ... this is basically my bible," says Quinones, leafing through the book he's filled with the names, some scribbled out, of about 3,000 albums he's seeking to add to an already vast record collection.
A collector since the 1970s, Quinones is not only a gatherer of records -- rare in itself -- but he's constantly on the prowl for rare discs by obscure bands like Stonewall and Bolder Damn. He has traveled across the country on his quest, but recently went no farther than west suburban Hillside.
Quinones was one of hundreds who plunked down $5 one recent Sunday for the privilege of sifting through thousands of vinyl records at perhaps the oldest and largest such event in the region.
The Chicagoland Record Collectors' Show, based at the same Holiday Inn since the early 1980s, has weathered the compact disc, a large bootlegging bust in the 1990s and, so far, the growing popularity of downloaded music.
In fact, nearly one-fourth of the vinyl junkies at the May 20 show were members of the so-called iPod generation, some of them disc jockeys carrying small record players.
While new vinyl records still account for less than 1 percent of all album sales, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, sales of turntables are up and vinyl dealers say demand for used records is growing fast. Mary Tomlinson, a longtime vinyl junkie who once owned a record store in upstate New York but turned to Internet sales in recent years, plans to open a brick-and-mortar store in Elmwood Park in July. At one point Sunday morning, retired claims authorizer Eric Ricks had four people younger than 30 browsing through his collection of soul and funk records.
"I pulled out some stuff you all need to deal with, man," Ricks said to a man in his 20s, pressing some soul 45s into his hand. "If you feel you can't handle it now, just give it a listen. You gotta check that out."
Ricks, who hosts an R&B flashback show on WNUR-FM 89.3, said vinyl gives music a tactile appeal the younger generation won't find sitting in front of a computer.
"You get that feel to the vinyl -- you get the labels, you get the cover," he said, rubbing hands together and grinning. "It's the first thing that spawned CDs or iPods or whatever it is. This is the original. The original got more funk to it. This is the real deal."
A 25-year-old man about to purchase a 1968 Lou Donaldson album and a Jack McDuff 45 agreed.
The Chicago man, who would only give his name as DJ Mental, said searching for records turns up music he might not otherwise find. He recalled buying an album several years ago because it had a picture on the cover of a Hammond B3 organ similar to the one his father played at their Detroit home. After listening to the album -- Jimmy Smith's "Root Down" from 1972 -- he realized it had been sampled for a Beastie Boys track.
It was, he says, a transformative experience, a surprise discovery that clearly illustrated the threads connecting different generations of music.
"IPods are just convenience," the disc jockey said. "There's something about buying records -- you really have to have that drive to go out there, look through records, get dirty, waste money. It's changed my life."
Dr. Gary Bowman, a 62-year-old Geneva physician, has been collecting vinyl for decades. He's amassed what many at Sunday's event called a spectacular collection, with everything from first records by The Beatles ("My Bonnie" by Toni Sheridan and the Beat Brothers), Grateful Dead ("Stealin'") and Nirvana ("Love Buzz"). He estimates the Beatles album is worth $20,000.
His passion for vinyl started as a child growing up in a Joliet family without much money.
"I said, 'When I grow up I'm going to have the biggest record collection in the world.' And I probably do," he said, recalling his first 45 -- "Since I Don't Have You," a 1962 release by The Skyliners.
"A beautiful song," he said, starting to sing: "Since I don't have you-ou, you-ou-you-ou."
On Sunday he bought music from Judas Priest, New Edition, Soundgarden and Donovan along with an album of theme music from "Dallas," the 1980's TV series.
"I just bought that for the pictures," he said. "Look at this compared to a CD -- you can hang this on your wall."
Like almost everyone at this show, Bowman had a Holy Grail that he's never been able to find. In his case, it's a sleeve for the 1968 Rolling Stones single "Street Fighting Man" with an image from the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Bowman said the sleeves were recalled after Mayor Richard J. Daley complained. Only about 12 copies are known to exist.
Though no one interviewed at the recent show made a find like that, Quinones said he recently uncovered a 1969 psychedelic rock album for which he'd searched for years by a group called Kak.
"I found it in a church basement in St. Louis for 25 cents -- the album goes for $200, OK?" he said. "I screamed out when I found that one. You never know; I spent all day long looking through albums and I found that one that made it worth the trip."
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-oldrecords_30may30,1,6924100.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed
|
|
|
