Mike Johnston in Open Mike: Vinyl Nostalgia

One of the things I like about vinyl these days is that I tend to leave the same record on the ‘table until I’ve played it many times and have gotten to know it thoroughly… . No reason to do anything like that with computer music, much of which I tend to listen to once or twice and then…er, well, lose. It’s not lost literally, it’s just that I forget about it and it goes into extended hibernation somewhere on the hard drive.

That’s it exactly. I have 2 turntables, which means there are at most 2 records ready to go at any moment. Instead of digging around for something to listen to, I usually drop the needle on whatever is already there. If music is something I only want playing in the background, iTunes shuffling through the Apple TV is just fine, but that’s not really listening to music, is it? The difference between lowering the tonearm gently onto a visibly spinning record and simply clicking Play in iTunes is significant, whether it matters to you or not. And as Mr. Johnston points out, the music doesn’t get lost.

Many times I’ve watched the needle hit the vinyl, waited for the music to start, and never made it back to what I’d been doing. I find myself just sitting and listening until it’s time to turn the record over. It happened again tonight after I came home with a new pressing of Leonard Cohen’s 1971 album, “Songs of Love and Hate.” The record is on its third playing tonight and will likely sit on the turntable for the next week or so. We’ll get to know each other quite well. No chance of it hibernating on some hard drive. It’s right there.

“I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desert You’re living for nothing now. I hope you’re keeping some kind of record.” – Leonard Cohen