It’s Turntable Tuesday because life is too short not to listen to great music! This week on Turntable Tuesday I am opening another purchase from a vinyl shop in New York City. I found this cool pressing while looking through albums just randomly and knew I had to have it! It is time to open this one and try it out!
I hope you are having a great start to the month of March and things are looking up for you no matter where you may be. Crank up your music device, enjoy vinyl, or get out there and support your favorite live band! What are YOU listening to right now?
Summer 1971. I was 12 years old and listening to the FM radio for most of the music I wanted to hear. I was listening to everything from rock and roll and rhythm and blues to pop music. Suddenly I hear this song that sounded very different from anything I had heard to that point. I did not know it at the time but the music was a reggae song. It was Dave and Ansel Collins singing “Double Barrel” and I really liked it as soon as I heard it. It was not a complicated song but it was very different than most of the hits that were filling the airwaves at that time.
In the previous year this song had to the top of the charts in the United Kingdom and had followed a number one hit two years prior from Desmond Dekker called “Israelites.” It is said that this song only had 33 plays on the radio and suddenly sold over 300,000 copies in the UK in barely two weeks.
I have told you in the past I have “cut grass and raked leaves” for a dollar or two to buy music. As I recall being a 12 year old there are just not many ways to make a dollar or two but I have gone house to house knocking on strangers doors to work for some spending money. During this time I was asked by a neighbor if I would watch their two children on a Friday night for a few dollars and my ears perked up. Just thinking about having a few dollars to buy a record or two was exciting to me as I tired of having to wait by a one speaker radio for a favorite song to play in between all of those almost non-stop commercial messages. After a Friday night I was able to go buy a copy of the “45 RPM” record for this “Double Barrel” single and I can tell you I have heard this record more than a few times.
When I think of that November 2021 day in New York City as I pulled this vinyl album from the bin I knew I was not letting go of this record. I instantly had that flashback to 1971 that prompted me to add this vinyl to my collection as soon as I could get to the cash register. Tonight as I write this post the album is blasting all the tracks in the background over 50 years later. I think that is an example of one of the powers of music that I would coin as a connection to the past and enjoyment in the present. I am certainly enjoying this music and I hope this vinyl is enjoyed by someone even long after I am gone. The beauty of vinyl! Vinyl lasts for many years and the memories last forever.
Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.