Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 16, 2023

And guess who made him throw his collection out! 8^ )

That’s a big foot in your mouth Janis

One of our daughters figured she would take better care of our albums. Her position was strengthened by the fact that she had an actual working turntable.

This reminded me of a piano tune Sam Kinison once wrote and dedicated to his ex-wife. He was softly playing until he got to the end, screeching, “I want my records back!” :-)

Still have mine, even bought a new turntable for them, although I only have about 15 records.

Apologize to Arlo?

And now we get to debate which is better.

analog scratches or digital scratches?

“best selling physical format” – which I imagine means digital/online files are leaving all those formats Janis mentions in the dust.

Looking back 15 years to the garage sale…oh well.

As a classical music lover, I say that CDs > LPs. It’s nice to be able to listen to a Beethoven symphony without having to get up in the middle to flip the record over. And don’t get me started on Wagner’s operas.

Not to mention Gene’s baseball cards and comic books.

Some folks here are old enough to remember listening to 45 rpm records being played on mono AM radio stations. And loved it. Also, some “hi-fis” came with a very long spindle thingy on which you could stack records and when the current record finished would automatically lower the next one. And it was all mechanical. No software or firmware.

To do this with 45s though, you had to get these pieces of plastic to snap into the 45 hole to make it more like a 78 or 33 1/3 hole. I see Amazon has a 10-pack available for around 10 bucks.

We’re proud of one of the largest vinyl pressing plants in the country right here in Bartlett, Tennessee, Memphis Record Pressing. Their growth has been exponential.

When you look at the numbers, it isn’t that vinyl sales have been on a tear, though they have been rising. There’s a slow, steady increase in vinyl while CD sales have been falling off a cliff. It’s not that vinyl sales overtook CD’s; it’s that the precipitous fall in CD sales has brought CD’s down the to level of vinyl. The chart at https://www.statista.com/chart/29781/cd-and-vinyl-album-sales-in-the-united-states/ tells the story pretty well. The real winner is streaming.

That’s also because you really can’t clean your weed with CD covers.

Vinyl ? Over rated junk. Unless of course you have some old Quadraphonic disks laying around. Even worse.

I threw out all mine. From Elvis to BTO

I haven’t played a CD in years. I haven’t played vinyl in decades. Thanks, YouTube.

My son asked me “Why do you keep buying vinyl?”

I responded: Records are….always a sound purchase.

I have more vinyl than CDs, but that’s because the contents of the CDs are now on my computer. If I have a physical CD, the artist is probably a friend. If I have vinyl, it’s probably collectible or has some artistic value. These kids today will never know the joy of the “Thick As A Brick” newspaper.

When I die, I wish to be buried with my record collection…

It will be my Vinyl resting place

Not “scratched”, just well loved.

Never come between a man and his vinyl.

Who still buys music on physical cariers?

I wonder how Janis would feel if Arlo went through Janis’ shoe collection and tossed out all the “old” footwear that he deemed to be passé and scuffed?

Brings back the all too common tragedy of my mother throwing out my 1950’s baseball card collection. It would be worth a fortune today, just like my coin collection I sold in 1966 to pay my college tuition. Oh, woe is me.

I’ve kept all mine around 200 albums-I was recently in a record shop and it appears they are worth somewhere around $10 each.

I collect old 78’s when I find them. Ones I inherited from my Mom are the most scratched I have ever seen and are practically worthless. Make me wonder how the scratches happened.

Remember how your Mom used to scold you about taking care of things?

Converted my music to MP3s. Still have the CDs stored. No skips or hiss or hum!! Vinyl was a pain, don’t get the fascination.

I’ve read on the internet, (yea if I could find it again), that Gen Z is buying CD over vinyl.

I gave all my albums to an audiophile buddy, who has a massive collection. I buy CDs now, burn them to FLAC. The fidelity isn’t as high as with albums but, then, my hearing ain’t what it used to be. I put FLACs on my phone and play them through the car stereo while driving and the sound bar for the tv, again, accepting the lower fidelity for convenience.

NEVER throw out vinyls!!! Janis, that was a terrible thing to do.

When my granddaughters were small they came to visit and found my old vinyl collection. The oldest asked, “Grandpa what’s this?” I told her, “Sweetheart that is how they used to store music. There are eight songs on each side.” She said, “So big, for so few songs.” That same granddaughter (now 16) came to visit this summer and asked me to take her to a record store for some old Jazz & Blues. I introduced her to Nina Simone, Robert Johnson and Buddy Guy.

This reminds me of my unknowing childhood. I used baseball cards on my bicycle spokes. Later, I threw out all of the other cards.

I also have to wonder about the comic books I pitched.

Two points: 1.) Only the gods know if I pitched anything worthwhile. 2.) Only the gods know what trifling things will be valuable in the future and for how long people will consider them to be of value.

A well-cared-for LP will last a long, long time; a scratched LP can still be played.

The slightest little nick in the coating of a CD and it’s dead, period. And they wear out sooner.

I gave away a lot of my old vinyl records to make room for my father’s 78s. No regrets.

What happened in the second to last panel that made Janis look like that? I don’t get this comic half the time.

Janis, that’s not agreement. That’s a man trying desperately to find any bright side to the horrible thing that’s just happened to him.

Yeah, well, if people want digital music they can stream it on YouTube or Spotify

’sok Arlo, 8-tracks will make a comeback…

And now all of those old records you could come by cheaply, or at least affordably, have become collectibles.

I’ve never thrown out a vinyl LP (altho I lost a whole boxful during college) and just the other day I learned several of them are quite valuable. :-)

Still have two record cabinets full – 45’s, 33’s and 78’s — some are very golden oldies!

The original 78s were made of shellac and broke easily.

Luckily, and an “old gal”, I kept my entire collection in mint condition. Beatles, Stones, Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Lightfoot. All of them, never got rid of one album. I now have a room with one complete wall of vinyl. ALL MINE!!! lol

Still have all of our vinyl.

When CDs came in I did not like the sound. So husband has some CDs since, but I always complained about the sound – too separated and cold. I would say “One day vinyl will come back.” He would give “the look” and ignore the comment.

When we first heard that vinyl was coming back his reaction was, as normally is, “Meryl is always right”.

I also have problem watching digital TV – I see little boxes that make up the picture.

He decided to buy a smallish “big screen” TV last year for our “Saturday Night Date Night Movie TV Substitute” and our (much more recently) “Friday Night Midnight Madness, TV Substitute” . I was assured several times that the extreme (eye hurting to me) brightness of the picture on this kind of TV is only due to a special setting for stores to use when displaying the TV and it would not look like this at home as it would set to normal settings. He has never been able to find this magic adjustment. So our 1770s looking living room (he decorated) now has a huge Parson’s table over the blanket chest (actually a DVD storage unit – instead of top lifting, the front drops using the “key” as the knob and there are 3 drawers in it) with this ultra modern TV and accessories on it – and despite our calculate plans – it did throw our Christmas decorations ( modern, not 18th century) off completely. When we watch it I have to wear anti-glare glasses over my eyeglasses so the brightness does not hurt my eyes and ear plugs as is it too loud for me – so romantic a date.

Still have our videos back to Beta – bought him our first Beta player as an engagement gift – better deal than the ring – we could both use it and it’s replacement is not in our bank vault as my ring is.

A local used record/cd/games/video store had dozens of “mystery” bags. Either 50 CD’s for $15 or 20 DVD’s for $15 (but 2 for one). Sort of like presents from grandma. A lot of “Never heard of him/her/this movie.” In the long run, we might even find some obscure artist/movie that we enjoy. If nothing else, more fodder for the table at a future garage sale.