Maybe It's A Habit: I Gotta Use It by John Book
When does record collecting become an addiction? And
has the internet made the disease worse? Let's look
into this, shall we?
Even though your monetary funds are low, you will pay for digital cable to watch any and all musical channels, in hopes of catching that hot video. Oh sure, you made a promise to yourself that you would never watch MTV again, or not stay up late nights to catch a live performance of your favorite artist. So what do you do? You sit on the couch, hold the remote and go back and forth from MTV, BET, VH-1, M2, MTV Espanol, VH-1 Classics, MTV Rock, VH-1 Soul, MuchMusic, MTV Asia, to whatever network. You find yourself watching nostalgic cartoon channels, because you're sure the guy who creates those funky breaks inbetween shows is a hip-hop head.
Does your musical addiction make you a loser? Depends on how you want to look at it. As we approach Valentine's Day, I am reminded of one thing: I am without a woman to call my own. You can't love your records to the point where you can love it back. Large center holes, small center holes, there is no pleasure in this. Yet there is a film director, Alan Zweig, who recently said in his documentary, "Vinyl", that collecting records can destroy you. That being a vinyl-craving maniac can hurt relationship with women. Can record collecting turn you into a self-centered recluse, that's probably a better question.
Personally, I think if you care more about your records than about a possible soul mate, you need to reconsider your priorities. As much as I put value in music, as much as I enjoy being a music junkie, I am human. I enjoy talking to people, whether it's one on one, face to face, on the phone, or via e-mail. From my days in elementary school up until today, people know me as "the music guy". But there are times when you do have to take a healthy pause to enjoy what life has to offer. Like smelling wet soil after a rainy morning. Cooking your own food. Walking outside and enjoying the sunlight. The love of a relative. The love of a friend. A weekend drive to nowhere.
And then you have the internet.
You don't have to leave your home to make great musical discoveries. There was a time when you had to drive to your local library, look for phone books from out of town, and write a list so when you do some long-awaited traveling. Now, with many sites that work like phone books, you can find out about various record stores and thrift/charity shops in your area and beyond, complete with maps.
Auction sites like eBay have made the average music fan go even more crazy. No longer did you have to wait a week, or months, to find that record, CD, or 8-track you longed for since childhood. Be like Abba and take a change, type up an artist, press that search button and hope for the best. If it's there, you may have the option to BUY IT NOW! No longer do you have to dig through smelly record stores, deal with smelly merchants and talk with smelly record store owners, why do this when you can expand your record collection without ever stepping out of your house? As much as people complain about eBay, I find it as a great source to find all kinds of music. I'm never satisfied with what I have in my collection, I have to hear more. I don't particularly look for anything that's rare, I just want good music.
In the last few months, I've been doing a lot of buying on eBay. When I saw Ravi Shankar last October in Seattle, I decided to expand my mind by buying as many affordable Indian records as possible. I say "affordable" because Indian records are slowly becoming collectible, not only for the breakbeat-happy Ananda Shankar, but traditional Indian classical music artists like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Vilayat Khan. Indian soundtracks pop up more frequently. Through these purchases, I was able to enjoy a form of music I had admired for years.
I have taken a quick break from it and my current musical addiction revolves around Atlantic Records. I admire the story of Ahmet Ertegun, a Turkish boy who arrived in America with his family, and found himself falling in love with jazz. He and his brother Nesuhi eventually had a collection of 10,000 jazz records, before they realized perhaps they should start their own record label. A record label was born.
I've been a fan of the Atlantic mystique for years, and it has increasingly become worse for me to control my urges. It used to be where I would get a 45 on Atlantic or Atco. Then my parents buy me the "Woodstock" soundtrack on Cotillion at the Kam Super Swap Meet in Honolulu. Inside, inner sleeves showing other great albums in the Atlantic family. I notice the Embryo logo, and remember my father, a huge jazz fan, having a Herbie Mann album on Embryo. The family would stop by at my uncle's apartment, and I'd always see the Led Zeppelin albums. Move forward to high school, when I would skip class and head to a pawn shop to find records. Or I would go to a thrift store, where I found a 45 on Linco. "Distributed by Atlantic"? I have never seen this. I bought it, took it home, and became a huge fan of The Electric Express' "It's The Real Thing (Part 1)". I was unaware of who The Electric Express were, or where they were from, until someone on a soul music mailing list informed me they were from North Carolina.
It doesn't stop. I start listening to more jazz, and one of the first albums I seriously listen to is John Colrane's MY FAVORITE THINGS. Atlantic. For those of us in North America, there is nothing like seeing the green and red record label with a white stripe running through it, with STEREO on the left, ONE on the right. On the top, the Atlantic logo with the "A" and the "fan". I remember staying at my uncle's apartment many nights, watching this label spin as I would listen to "When The Levee Breaks" or "Black Dog". Now, I can't stop. I want everything that's ever been released on Atlantic. Atco. Cotillion. Signpost. Prophesy. Astro. Flying Dutchman. EastWest. Embryo. Capricorn. It can't be the Capricorn stuff when Warner Bros. distributed it, it has to be the albums when they were with Atlantic, with the pink label.
Why, I hear you asking, "why do you even go this far with your love of music, John?" In simple terms, I feel the quality of music that came from Atlantic was/is untouchable. Not only was the music great, but the presentation itself of the records. They had label designs that were bold, and when the record album cover became a major part of the packaging, Atlantic would make sure their logo stood out with pride. With Columbia you saw the "eye", with Blue Note you saw the note, with Capitol you saw the shield with the U.S. capitol building. With Atlantic, all you needed was to see the "fan", or that tilted A, and you knew it had to be of quality. It didn't matter if it was doo-wop from The Coasters, blues from Ruth Brown, soul from Aretha Franklin, folk rock from Buffalo Springfield, hard rock from Cream, jazz from Roland Kirk, or pop from The Young Rascals. Atlantic to me will forever mean quality. On records from the 50's and 60's, Atlantic had their own recording studio and like Columbia, Motown and Capitol, Atlantic had their own "sound". Everything was done in-house. I'm just fascinated with all of it.
With one, there is another. With another, there is more, so much more. When and how does one stop? It may be impossible to actually love music, but music can provide emotions to you that you weren't feeling a minute ago. It's immediate, and I'm attracted to it almost as much as I am attracted to a sexy woman.
Music is about moving the soul, and as a sample on a certain mix CD says, music that soothes the soul is for you today, but also to give you hope for tomorrow. So for those of you who, like myself, may be alone as of late, here's to good music that touch our souls, with a hope for a brighter tomorrow. Cheers.