album art

I have a shitty, denim-printed kid's record player that I recently resurrected to introduce my favorite 5-year-old to records.

I pulled out my small box of 45s and held up the record player by its plastic handle.

"Emersen! Want to go upstairs? I have something to show you. It's called a record player!"

Emersen, overjoyed, I am assuming, by the prospect of a new toy, followed me up the winding staircase.

Most of the records I had in my small box did not have sleeves. They were floating around in space - probably getting scratched to high hell (sorry record ppl).

I began to read the titles out loud to her

"Pinocchio, Robin Hood, Peter Pan.."

"PETER PAN! TINKERBELL!!!" she yelled. She, going through her 'princess and fairy stage' was all about fluttery, glittery things.

I took out the record and Emersen asked, "is that a movie?"

"No silly. It's a record! It plays music like a CD or a tape, " I said, waiting for her to ask me what a 'tape' was....

I showed her how to work the record player and explained, just as my father did to me, the importance of being gentle with the needle and the arm of the record player. I even went as far as to say that she shouldn't touch it. Period.

We began to listen to the story of Peter Pan - it not keeping her attention at all. These records, when I was growing up, came with books. Chimes alerted you when to turn the page. Sadly, those did not make the 30 year trek to 2011 like the records did and are lost, probably, in the 1990s...wondering through barbie shit and dress up clothes.

We decided after a few minutes to try another CD. I dug through more and found that I had some music thrown in these story records.

Oddly enough, two singles that any 5-year-old would freak the fuck out over.

The Cars - Shake it up

The Surfaris - Wipe out

I explained the situation to her, "now, we can keep trying to find a story we can sit through or we can have a dance party"

"DANCE PARTY!!" she said.

I put on 'shake it up' and had to remember not to lift my feet off the ground while dancing to avoid shaking the floor and making the record skip.

After dancing for 1 3/4 minutes, we decided we were tired and it was time to move on to something else more exciting.

My total re-introduction to my records was about 6 minutes that first night.

I had been over to people's homes, in recent years, where records were the primary source for music. I thought "oh how indie of you" and "let's see how long this lasts *snort*" but then began to realize it for what it is. Yes, I still believe that some aspect of record listening these days is sort of hipster/indie. I dislike the thought of buying new LPs or current-day LPs to listen to on your record player - sorry...turntable (let's get current).

However, I 100% am supportive of listening/buying records that were originally recorded on wax. There's nostalgia. There's that sound. There's that act of putting a record on and actually listening. Who listens to music anymore? Who has actually SAT DOWN for the specific reason of listening to a record.

I have been thinking about this a lot and one night last week, my husband and I sat down and listened to (on CD mind you) The Love Below by Andre 3000. Yes. Perhaps an odd choice for a listening party but I wanted to hear "She lives in my lap" really bad.

The night was great! We got to hear the lyrics and understand the album's song progression and I began to fall in love again with MUSIC. Sometimes I lose it. Sometimes it' background for me and I let it go through me. I'm getting it back. And everytime I get it back - it's better. And I think I am ready to get into records and the art of it, so to speak.

So...while on our thrifting adventures, we've been keeping our eyes peeled for great albums to own. I was immediately drawn to this amazing album art.

"WHO IS THIS I WANT THIS ART????" I held up the album and stumbled through the title.

"Donovan?" I asked David.

"Oh yeah. Hippie guy - has a flute and a drum" David said.

I added the album to the pile.

When we got home and under more obsessing over the album art, I decided that it must be the top half of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy album art. It just made sense to me.