No needle is permanent

My old stereo hasn't worked for a while so I recently bought a combo CD/radio/record player that looks like it was made in the 40's. I went down to Recycled Records and got a few LP's.

I picked up two jazz albums. Black, Brown and Beige by Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman's famous Carnegie Hall concert. The Carnegie Concert starts with my favorite Goodman song, Don't Be That Way. Yes, I'm publicly admitting to liking Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. I already have CD's from my grandparents musical era, including Hank Williams Sr and Woodie Guthrie. Now I have records from their era too.







I get a laugh out of reading some of the old advertisements for products that haven't been made since before I was born. One on the Benny Goodman record has all the seriousness of an anti-drug public service announcement.

"PERMANENT NEEDLES MAY CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE
No needles are really permanent. Some last much longer than others but all should be changed occasionally to safeguard your record collection. Play safe. Ask your dealer for the new Columbia Needle - engineered, tested and guaranteed by Columbia Records."

I also got Traffic's oddly shaped album, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys and Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson. Both were recently re-released on vinyl as commemorative records but I decided to get the originals. Used records are so cheap that it makes illegal downloads hardly worth the effort.







But my favorite find that I've been listening to the most for the last few days is Ike & Tina Turner's album Come Together.





It's hard to find Ike & Tina Turner albums on CD. I don't know if it's because they recorded on so many small labels or if it's the controversy of what a lousy, abusive husband Ike was. Most of the collections I see are poorly done and include too many cover songs. The band sounds best when they're doing their own originals. The only Ike & Tina album I have on CD that isn't some kind of hits collection was released in the early 90's and was badly done. There was no remastering of any kind so the sound quality is poor. I can't even find it listed on Amazon now. At the very least I can justify having a record player for the great Ike & Tina albums that you can't get on CD.

Sometime I'll buy a newly released record and see if I can convince myself that it sounds better than a CD. I don't have a high tech sound system so it's not as though I'll be able to hear the difference anyway. Soon I'll have a record collection sure to impress hipster girls wearing Lisa Loeb glasses and threadless t-shirts, and/or nostalgic men over 50. Stalkers can look for me at Recycled Records this weekend.