probably the most "out there" thing i've ever posted

[Lonniebealestreet]

...so just bear with me for a minute. ;)

Curtis, a post of yours reminded me how I've been wanting to express this, even though I knew it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense. Feel honored? :lol: Anyway, I hope you and others can make heads or tails of it.

Why (Elvis on) vinyl?

There really are lots of reasons, and myself and others have named plenty of them before; most are pretty obvious.

But there is also this intangible side that I see in records which stems both from the nostalgic quality of them as well as my being a little more than a casual fan of Elvis.:king:

This applies to Elvis on vinyl in general, including new releases, but especially to the records which were pressed during Elvis' lifetime.

The records which fall into the latter category have this special aspect to them--not an audible trait but an appreciable (to weirdos like me anyway) element which allows playing them to make Elvis seem 'alive' to me as much as anything else does.

New Elvis records, by sole virtue of their being the medium which dominated Elvis' recording years, still have a great magic to them. But those made back then, and those played back then have the distinction of being released at a time when their play contributed to Elvis' success (it's not quite the same today) and were a window into the soul of a man who was living a life and career which we today are discussing and dissecting ad nauseam.

It's as if each spin of that old song or side or album somehow encapsulates a small part of the life which existed in the pre-August 16, 1977 period, through all the times it was played back then.

Does that make any sense? If not, you were warned!

[curtis simpkins]

Good post bobby.

the main reason i love viny is the cover on them and you can even read
the song tittles on the back cover

and on some vinyl lps they have great sound to them, and there some has real bad sound.

and i love seeing the lp go round and round on the turntable (even on a nice picture disc)

vinyl lps is still the biggest sale'er today, there a guy here in town sale lps and what he told me that he couldnt fine any Elvis on vinyl no where, even when he gose to records shows no Elvis to be found.

when i heard that music companys is going to stop pressing lps, thats when i got made and other people that love lps.

they sould keep lps in store's and do away with cassette tapes.
maybe one day they might come back into the seen. :king:

[jbgude]

Bobby, if you had to live in place where dusty got into your LPs no matter how much care you took ( unless ofcourse you could afford a sealed Air conditioned room) - and getting a " diamond head Magnetic cartridge"was like finding a genuine Elvis autograph today then you would not mind the passing of the LP.

Yes, I agree there is something more substantial (literaly) and tangible in getting an LP in your hands and into collection than the CD- I recall fondly of the days I scrimped and saved to buy LPs'. Never thought about the -philosophical or financial aspects of it- but yes - the left front wheel to the Stutz that Elvis bought was probably financed by me. ;)

jb

[Jumpsuit Junkie]

Nice thread Bobby, I've never really discussed Vinyl v CD's before, so here goes.

I remember as I was growing up and saving for my LP's it was great when I got a new one, I would go to markets and look for rare LP's like "Madison Square Gardens" when I got them home there was something about taking the Vinyl out and turning it in you hands and looking at the labels and seeing the old style "RCA" or "Camden". with older LP's I used to wipe the disc down with lint to make sure it was clean. The thing you lose from CD's to records is, if you don't like a song on a CD you tend to skip it and not give it a chance, but with LP's you listened to the full record and you listened to all the tracks and find yourself coming round to a track you probably today would just ignore.

Since I became an Elvis fan in 1977 there was so much material already out there it was like a field trip, so much material and so little money. When you cam accross a real gem it felt like nothing you could explain, CD's mainly are mainstream unless you get the live recordings and previously unreleased material but it doesn't feel the same!

LP covers seemed to get much more attention than CD covers the detail was there and the double albums always had great pictures in the middle look at the "Elvis In Concert 1977" album a great picture of the Black Phonenix Jumpsuit on the front and two great shots of the American Eagle Jumpsuit in the middle and you dont need a microscope to look at the pictures.

Another thing you used to get with LP's is posters, today a poster could not possibly placed inside a cd maybe you would get a card of some kind!

There is always a plus and minus with all things, the up side to having CD's is that the average CD sound quality remains the same over the passing of time, I remember the first Elvis CD I bought I was blown away by the quality plus this transfers quite nicely to my car.

Overall I think it would be nice to have both (provided I can afford it) the future will see off both LP's and CD's and we will be just downloading MP3's into our computer or ipod no packaging, no covers just the music and in the end isn't that what makes us the fans at the end of the day. It will be a sad day when that happens, but hey, we will still have the music (y)

Matt

[simmerrocks]

the whole vinyl fun for me was opening the shrink wrap. then as you said looking at the label and the shiny grooves. plus there is still a smell that i always think of when you first take the vinyl from the inner sleeve. any of you guys know what i mean, or am i just nutz :P :P :P :lol: . rock on... simmerrocks (y)

[Captain Elwood David]

Vinyl is cool for some of the artwork - especially on some of those different albums that are special favorites (for different reasons for different fans) ..................... (only for nostalgia reasons) ......

....... but other than that ............

I'll personally take the convenience & sound of CD's anyday; simply no comparison IMHO.


- Capt. "EL."

[Lonniebealestreet]

Mike - No, you're definitely not crazy. Or you are, but I am too so I can't see it.

Captain - Nostalgia is certainly a big part of it, and CDs are unquestionably more practical. I don't consider myself an audiophile, and CDs probably are technically superior by some strict definition--I don't really know about such things. But I do enjoy what I think is a warm, full sound produced by records.

Back to the convenience thing...No question--it's CDs all the way. But that's part of what I like about vinyl; I see playing records as something to do, basically an activity in and of itself (yes, thanks in large part to the impracticality) whereas playing CDs is more of a passive thing. Playing records is a process, but it's those very activities which add to the enjoyment of it for me. I don't always make time for it (hello, CDs!), but I like the cleaning and the maintenance and all that stuff. Like the smell of the vinyl that Mike was talking about, there are lots of little details and things to enjoy about it.

One other note on the sound...http://www.simplyvinyl.com/more.asp?spage=1&field=0&criteria=Elvis+Presley&id=276 The sound on these things is incredible! I've got the first album and recently bought this one, which I haven't played yet, but the sound on the EP LP totally blew me away.

By the way, I wouldn't do without my CDs either. I just choose to sing the praises of vinyl because no one needs to be talked into seeing the benefits of the compact disc.

[curtis simpkins]

I have these Albums on vinyl the new vinyl's.

That's The Way it is sp ed box set this is a very nice package indeed and the sound is very nice love it-(i also have this on cd)

then i have Peace In the valley box set on vinyl again very nice.

and i have all of the gold records with the new bouns tracks on vinyl(now i have a match with the original gold records and with the new)

i also have Elvis very frist album with bouns tracks this has wonderfull sound
on vinyl i also have this same version but original version mono and stereo)

and i have that soundtrack of tickle me they done few years ago not bad either.

now i have to get is the live in las vegas in the vinyl version. :D

[Menwithbrokenhearts]

I know I am rehashing old threads here, please forgive me, but I love vinyl. I, like most people, have duplicated ( and then some) all my LPs on cd. But the tangible connection to my past and childhood that I get from handling, viewing and playing these LPs ( Elvis and all the rest) is beyond description for me. If I am ever feeling a bit melancholy, out come the records! I had about 600 records, all total until about seven years ago and I had to narrow it down to about 70 or so that I couldn't live without. I did not, however, get rid of any of my 45s. Too much of a personal connection there.
Cds, love the sound, durability and portability! Lps, "Take me back" like no other!:king: Love this thread, and good to know there's LP lovers out there. I still buy them from time to time. Thanks!(y)

[Cryogenic]

God ****it!

Posts like this confirm your reputation - if only to me - as the finest poster on the board, Lonnie. Don't get me wrong: I am a fan of several people here - but there's always a special joy I get from encountering and reading one of your messages. You're a philosophical guy. You also exude an admirable patience and calm. Finally, your prose rolls smoothly off the screen and into my mind.

Yes... vinyl. It's before my time, unfortunately. But I think I still do "get" what you're saying. There is something intrinsically magical in owning something that was produced in Elvis' lifetime and was the dominant medium of hearing him back then. Elvis himself, through being both a recording artist and a music lover, was intimately familiar with vinyl, too. There's a shared experience there. Elvis seems a little bit closer with vinyl, I suppose, and a little bit more distant with CD (on a purely abstract level; sonically, however, I think the newest CD releases must be streets ahead).

I can personally attest to a private joy upon recently discovering an Elvis album pressed shortly before his death that my mom owned - and was about to throw out (along with her other remaining LPs)!!! - when I rummaged through the pile destined for the scrap heap. It was kinda sad to read the back where it talked about Elvis coming into something like 1976 and 1977, and paraphrasing, "who knows what he has in store next...?"

That aside...


I don't consider myself an audiophile, and CDs probably are technically superior by some strict definition--I don't really know about such things. But I do enjoy what I think is a warm, full sound produced by records.

My dad says the same thing.

He's something of an audiophile and listens extensively to CDs - but he's always made that claim about vinyl. I think there might even be scientific validity to it (beyond the psychological considerations of our capacity to imagine things where they don't empircally exist). The quantisation noise of 16 bit 44.1 Khz audio of conventional redbook audio CDs may be one way in which such recordings are inferior to vinyl (though the actual sound-to-noise ratio of a CD is significantly better). There may be other flaws, too. A quick search on Google turned this up:

The arguments about the superior quality of vinyl records are wide-ranging. Proponents of analog audio argue that, unlike CD audio, it is not affected by the sharp frequency cutoff and phase characteristics, including group delay, near the Nyquist frequency and the quantization noise of 16-bit linear quantization, but that analog recording has a more gradual frequency cutoff, and what they consider to be a more natural descent into the analog noise floor. -- Source: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Vinyl_record

Very technical - but "that's the way it is"! - wink, wink!

Now, one last thing...


Bobby, if you had to live in place where dusty got into your LPs no matter how much care you took ( unless ofcourse you could afford a sealed Air conditioned room) - and getting a " diamond head Magnetic cartridge"was like finding a genuine Elvis autograph today then you would not mind the passing of the LP.

And didn't my dad nearly have a fit when he came home to discover that I, as an innocent toddler, had carelessly mangled and destroyed one such item in a typical day of playing and chewing!!! :lmfao:

[Lonniebealestreet]

Infinite thanks, Cryo, for your flattering words! I am glad that you 'get' the vinyl thing too. I always knew you were one of the good guys.

And thanks for reminding me that I need to make more time for my vinyl listening, as it is good for the soul.

TCB!

PS - Do you have a turntable?

[Vincent]

To be a real (fanatic) music freak you've got to have vinyl in your collection. I myself got the Technics Quartz turntable. I cherish my vinyl records, unfortunately I don't play them as often. I've read somewhere (can't remember where) that vinyl records are coming back, probably because of there sound quality that overrates the compact disc.

[KPM]

I began listening to EP in the early 60s so vinyl is what I grew up with.
I still listen to my vinyl, pops and all, and it takes me back to a simpler time.(or at least it seems it was a simpler time) I have read that if vinyl is played on good equipment it is as good as CDs(if it is unscratched and unmarred)I alwayts loved opening the new lp, the pictures which were included inside many lps were such a bonus to get, Ah the good old days.....

[joanne]

When I became a fan in 1987 I bought all the Elvis albums on vinyl.
Compact discs were available but not many people had a cd player. It was basically vinyl or tapes back then.
When the cds came in big time I got rid of my records and bought them on cd but on my last couple of visits to Virgin megastore in Leeds they are displaying a lot of vinyl again so I think its still very popular and very retro.

[Cryogenic]

Infinite thanks, Cryo, for your flattering words! I am glad that you 'get' the vinyl thing too. I always knew you were one of the good guys.

:D

Too kind, too kind!

Thank you very much. :king:


PS - Do you have a turntable?

Unfortunately, I personally don't. It's unlikely I'll ever get to hear Elvis on vinyl. My dad, however, has been talking of acquiring another turntable for a few years; considering the rest of his hi-fi is now in order, this might be the year. I'm sure I'll at least get to listen to some Pink Floyd at his urging.