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ANYONE WANT A FOUR-FOOT STACK OF CLASSICAL LPs?

3/8/2013

 
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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Anyone Want A Four-Foot Stack of Classical LPs?
    As a 12 year old, I liked Glenn Miller’s ,In the Mood, Benny Goodman’s, Sing Sing Sing,  and hit songs like Marie Elena, Cool Water, and Goody Goody. Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, and Mendelssohn entered my life when I started taking violin lessons, and when I began collecting records, they were classical 78s. When LPs came in, I threw away a ten-foot shelf. Today my four-foot stack of LPs includes show albums, artists like Nina Simone, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Ramsey Lewis, and Leadbelly, but most are classical. When CDs took over, I asked a friend who sells LPs to collectors about mine.
    “Throw away your classical.”
    “I’d rather give them away.”
    “Nobody wants them.”
    Can it be true? There’s good pop music, but most of what I hear on radio and TV is junk. Pop critics are paid to natter about this or that new album but the tracks they play are garbage.
    I used to haunt record stores buying, and Donnell Branch of the NY Public Library borrowing and reel-to-reel taping to build my collection.  Now all it takes is an iPhone and 99¢, so millions are into music. Is the decline in quality the flip side of rising quantity, the result of “massification,” a word I first heard from Prof. Loren Raiken at NYU?
    An early example of massification were the sea-going sailing ships of the Mediterranean, hand made by slaves, keels, ribs, and planks skillfully joined with wooden pegs. A few centuries later, ship builders were paid and time was money so hulls were nailed together. Quantity up, quality down.
    Music once belonged to lords and ladies. The masses had folk music, which can charm, but professional musicians needed wealthy patrons, played in mansions, courts, and churches with organs and choirs. When recordings made music available to the masses, new listeners poured in and big money could be made. Quantity up. Quality, down.
    Will a day come when the masses too love Mozart? I hope so, although by then my four-foot stack of LPs will be land fill.


Linda Beck Cane
3/8/2013 11:02:49 am

Hi Stuart,
I just heard a piece on NPR that LPs are being collected like crazy again, and are NOT to be thrown away. I am not sure where you find the collectors--I missed that part of the broadcast, but I have a feeling you shouldn't be giving them away! Love, Cousin Linda

Maggie Boogaart link
3/8/2013 07:33:32 pm

I do agree with your cousin Linda, LP colections like your Stuart are very very valuable indeed! And ... you're not the only one left who still values good quality! With love from Paris, Maggie

urbisoler
3/9/2013 02:09:45 am

I also have an eclectic collection of LP's and 78's, mostly the Four Freshmen and Mario Lanza. But I'm betting that my only album featuring Deanna Durbin on Decca 78's is worth some moolah.
Ciao!

Martha
3/9/2013 10:39:04 pm

Stuart, Here's a link to "New York City's Top 6 Vinyl Record Stores" (or if the link doesn't work, just google that phrase): http://newyork.cbslocal.com/guide/new-york-citys-top-6-vinyl-record-stores/. And google "record stores NYC" for even more results.
Put them in a shopping cart and offer them up? Of course it depends on the shape they're in. When I did that a few years ago, I ended up leaving most of them on the sidewalk outside, since the guy was very selective. But I did walk away with a few dollars and a much lighter load.

Bill Kremer
4/24/2013 05:53:42 am

In what condition are the LP's and what are you asking for them?

Stuart Hodes
4/24/2013 10:58:18 am

Dear Bill Kemer,
All LP were played, many not too often. Not asking for money, but you have to come and get them. Email me for more info
stuhodes at hodesshows dot com

Jane Parge
8/25/2013 01:13:52 pm

Hey Stu, I just found you. So you were in some Broadway shows! Way to go. And what was the number on the tail of "Gin and Juice?" Huh? Garrison sure would like to know.


Comments are closed.
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    Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

    Being 90 years in this world,  with great kids,  great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
                                   Stuart Hodes

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           With my friend, Nero.
                   April, 2012.
        Photo by Ray Madrigal

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