Barnstorming the Vinyl Shops

Over the Christmas holiday Jodi enabled my belly-aching about setting up my old stereo system by buying me a bunch of vinyl records. Needless to say this started a frenzy of activity. I immediately dug out my old receiver, CD player, turntable and speakers and got everything working again.

With that inspiration I attacked the train-wreck that my attic office had become. From a mess of dust and boxes and storage bins and tables with junk all over the place, it has been clean, set-up and re-organized into the sanctuary I have always wanted. On one side is my desk, from where I type this. In one corner is my guitar gear organized around a table with recording gear and tools. In another is my hi-fi system. In between will go a futon from downstairs, just need Tom's help in getting that moved. Once that arrives I might never come down. Just kiddin, sweetie!!

Then I went into the attic and retrieved my 1500+ CDs. The only CD rack that survived the purge (a gift from my first girlfriend in college) only holds about 400. So the rest remain in bins but readily accessible. My vinyl collection has grown from 0 to about 50 in a little over one week. Before you scoff, that is mainly through two trips to Record and Tape Exchange in Fairfax VA where I have found pure gold for as little as $1. The most I paid was a beautiful copy of Led Zeppelin II for $15.

The internet has also been helpful. Hopefully you read my Top 10 Albums of 2012 series (start here). I am halfway in the receiving of being able to change that to Top 10 RECORDS of 2012. I also picked up Peter Buck's new solo record and will talk about that tomorrow maybe.

Vinyl is just so much more cool than CDs. Not just in the presentation aspect but I am one of those nerds that thinks vinyl just sounds better. It is definitely better than digital, especially when it comes through real speakers. . The first record is listened to after hooking everything up was Barnstorm, Joe Walsh's first record (which I found for $3). The production on that record is just stunning; it sounds like it was recorded in the barn that graces the cover:

When the first notes of "Here We Go" came softly through, then built up into the chug it has, it was magic. Magic I tell you!! I hesitate to say but it was a revelation. This is the way music is supposed to be heard, not from a hard-drive through computer speakers but through Infinity's (or even better good headphones) on a good turntable. That said, my CDs sound glorious to.

Back to Barnstorm. It's one of my desert-island-discs. The melodies are just beautiful. This is before Joe got overtly goofy with his "Life's Been Good To Me" schtick, when he had been making The James Gang great but felt too restricted and confined by that band to remain there. There isn't a bad track on the record, but the highlights are "Mother Says," album opener "Here We Go", acoustic beauty "Birdcall Morning," and the brilliantly heavy "Turn To Stone" which is 1000 times better here than the redo he did a couple years later. Joe is one of those terribly under-rated guitarists, a real true innovator. This record is the one that shows all that in one stop.

Here's "Turn To Stone" and I promise you it sounds nowhere near as good on your computer as it does cranked through the speakers. It isn't the album version but it's from 1973 and it shows why Joe is so freakin great.