yeah, I was one of those kids...

... who wore out the grooves on the record with repeated playing. Some of you are blinking blankly after reading that. Oh forgive me... remember those black disks of vinyl that you played on something called a phonograph? Yes, those curiosities from... what? No, it's just a nasty rumor that Nero was playing one while Rome burned... or that it was popular during the black plague.

Anyway, as a child I recall the first EP I wore out had "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" song on it. I would listen to it over and over again and stomp around like a bear... or at least simulate what I thought at the time a bear looked like stomping around. I recall in my 20's I actually loved the song even more because I thought it had a cool creepy element to it... then again everything seemed to have a creepy element to it in my 20's.

The only LP's I owned between the ages of 5 and 8... owned only because my parents bought them for me... were soundtracks from musicals and this Louis Armstrong album. Oh yeah... I would absolutely kill em at family functions with my Statchmo impressions... personally I thought I was at my peak doing that at about 7.

The musical soundtracks I played the most were My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. OK... I'll cop to the fact that I had a huge crush on Julie Andrews... more so in the Sound of Music which I saw on the big screen 7 times. (Yeah, I still think the gazebo scene during "Something Good" is kinda erotic.) I knew every song on those albums inside out. I was known to break out into song at the drop of a hat... I still sort of do that but I do chose my moments now for maximum impact. Usually at the most inappropriate times. Though at the time those were my favorites, I had this insatiable need for music and played every record in the house... soaking in anything from Mantovani to Acker Bilk's Stranger on the Shore.

Dropping a needle on a record on a lazy afternoon and getting sucked into the music emitted by the speakers... ah, that was the bliss of a simpler time. Even the pops and crackles from a scratched record was magical.

EDIT: This post seems to have connected with a lot of you. Thanks for sharing your own experiences in the comments... I guess a lot of us have fond phonograph memories. I was thinking of continuing with a part 2 and 3 anyway. Watch out for it on the next Saturday Stories this coming week.

Cheers!

click here for pt. 2