My record collection is heavier than anything else I own. And I keep moving it around, from place to place, apartment to apartment. It grows, and each move is a little more difficult than the last. I've never counted my LP's; maybe I will at some point. But I guess there might be... let's see, six records in a stack is about an inch, I've got about nine wooden crates worth that measure about fourteen inches I guess, so, about 800 records? I don't have them in front of me, but my back is telling me that's about right.
I developed a love for records as a kid, when I listened to my dad's old records every night while going to sleep. The Beatles' Rubber Soul was one of my favorites. I had this old wooden monstrosity next to my bed that looked like a writing desk, but the hinged top would lift and reveal a turntable inside. You could load up several records onto this contraption that was supposed to drop and play them in order, one beginning at the conclusion of the last. It rarely worked properly.
My first apartment after my brief college career was with two friends in my hometown of Little Rock. It was in a depressing complex with a swimming pool. The apartment shortly became a party house, and the speed with which it became trashed was astounding. As much as I should have enjoyed a place like that at nineteen, I didn't. I tried to avoid the mayhem by staying in my room and listening to records, mostly ones I'd convinced my dad to let me pilfer from his collection. It was comforting; I would pretend it was an earlier time.
When I moved to Boston in 1996, the first thing I did was buy a turntable at the Goodwill. I didn't bring records with me; no room in my one bag on the Greyhound. But I soon began collecting, from thrift stores and flea markets and record stores. On my days off, I had a route all around Boston and Cambridge; in a few hours you could hit at least a dozen places that sold mostly vinyl. If there was a choice at a live show, I'd usually grab the record over the CD. I've filled in some blues, jazz, country and folk over the last few years.
So, back to the move...
Things tend to get mixed up in a move, and my genre-based and alphabetical system is now a mess. I was contemplating doing a full reorganization, so I could find things easily. But then I realized that recently I've tended to listen to the same records over and over, ignoring large swaths of my collection. What if I just pulled something out at random and put it on the turntable, no matter what it was? It doesn't seem like a crazy idea, but it never really occurred to me before.
I find myself alone in a little bedroom with not much else other than music. I guess it's time to rediscover my record collection.
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