The Crate Digger

One of the joys analog music is looking for treasure among among piles of unsorted vinyl albums. When you do find a gem in the "1 dollar" bin there is still the question of condition what will it  sound like on the turntable? 

Last night I found several pretty amazing albums however one in particular blew me away.:

Deja Vu  Crosby Stills Nash and Young  (1970)    !!!!!

This rather unattractive brown LP with an old time black and white sepia photo on a textured cover made this one easy to overlook there are two other names on the record as well as if CSNY wasn't long enough to say.. Usually anything associated with Neil Young has a hipster mark up of 500 to 600 percent over fair market value. I like Neil and think his work with David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash is some of his best. For one single dollar this is to date my greatest find. As I put this on my system I was thinking about the times 45 years ago. 

1968 may have been the most troubling year of the century for the USA, with the murders of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, along with the disturbances all over the country, from the DNC convention in Chicago to riots in many cities all over the US. The Vietnam War that kept LBJ from running for a second term was beginning to tear at the fabric of the country. If  68 was a terrible year 69 was much better. I watched men land on the moon on our new color TV and Nixon won the White house with a promise of law and order. Yes it was the dawning of the age of Aquarius.

Dropped the needle in the groove and.... magic, "Carry On" the perfect intro song for this album. These guys  could really harmonize and this is such a powerful positive beginning. "Teach the Children" another positve song setting the tone for the record. David Crosby let's his freak flag fly with "Almost Cut my Hair" Finally, Neil Young gets his chance to shine with "Helpless"  by now I could not believe just how great this record was oh and finally for a perfect finish to the virtuosity of each of the guys is a great cover of Joni Mitchell's "Wodstock" and another grand slam. Well the second side could not possibly compare to the first. 

No, it's not quite up to the mark set by side one, Still. The music being performed here shows such an abundance of ideas and style that it is truly amazing. "Deja Vu", is a slower.paced perhaps not quite so memorable song by Crosby. Graham Nash's "Our House" is a great song that must have sounded so modern and different to people hearing this in 1970. "Country Girl" by Neil Young is a song that doesn't quite fit on the album but as everyone is contributing to Deja Vu the lack of continuity is made up for by the amazing amount of talent here. While reading the liner notes I found out that Jerry Garcia is sitting in on a few of these numbers.  

It's easy to understand why these guys couldn't make the group work. Many bands get by with less than a quarter of talent of CSNY. It must have been like herding cats to harness all these musical skills ideas and compress it down to fit on an album. I can't say enough good things about about this single record.  This has immediately become one of my favorite albums  and a good reminder of beauty of the form factor we lost with the death of the LP..     

The First Link in the Chain

One of the attributes of my new, old audio hobby is that it would require a little work on my part. This would not just be going into a stereo shop listening to equipment and then writing a big check in order to bring it home. 
I would start with Craigslist and see what I could find. I was amazed at the variety of gear that was for sale, everything from mono record players that looked like they might destroy anything you put on them to high end audiophile separates that cost a fortune new and were still pricey used. 

I should explain that I grew up going to high end Stereo stores with my uncle, we would take one of his favorite records (usually pipe organ) and go listen to new stereo equipment. I have some background in this subject and soon I began to hear the terms from the past.
Starting with most important elements of stereo I began with amps and speakers. I soon located a matched pair of Carver pieces about 12 years old the preamp and the amp were just what I wanted and $250 for both was a great deal. 

In the beginning:

For some time now I have been thinking that although I have far more music than I have ever had in my life I don't really seem to enjoy it as much as I usd to.

Why is this the case? I'm not sure that I have the complete answer but I think I have at least part of the answer. I recently went online and bought an MP3 player for $14 this is the type with a micro SD card slot so it is able to hold an almost limitless supply of music.depending on the size of memory card I supply. After some time with the new toy I realized I just had not used the thing. It's probably why I rarely listen to music in my car, it all seems to sounds the same.

By now you probably rolling your eyes and think this some kind of rant against technology. It would be difficult to find someone who is more enthralled with technology than I have been and continue to be. A little research on my part led me to understand what digitization, compression, and the file size has done to the "fidelity" of recorded music.   Yes, fidelity as in HiFi the ability to truthfully reproduce music as it was recorded.

When I came across a website extolling the virtues of vintage audio gear I was quickly hooked. I grew up with this stuff and now it is still considered as good or better than equivalent purchased today. I remembered the act of listening to music, carefully removing a vinyl record from it's sleeve putting it on the turntable and cleaning it with my Discwasher.  Cueing the tonearm and setting the needle in the groove.