I’m reconnecting to my music.

Now that I’ve ripped as many of my CDs to lossless flac – as many as I could or wanted to – I’m listening to my vinly. And everything sound amazing now that my speaker wiring has been sorted out. There’s something called a banana connector that I need to look at next, but for the moment I’m very very happy. Playing right now is Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. It was bought new from a shop and it hasn’t got one mark on it.

The problem with buying new vinly is that it can become a very expensive habit. A high quality new pressing if a fine thing, but you get what the shop has – obvs. That’s fine, but when there’s great second hand vinyl out there, you never know where it will take you. It’s slim pickings these days, because shops are finding times tough and the generation of the vinyl keepers are dying off. You can still get your fix, but it’s getting more difficuilt.

Many things seemed to become more important than shopping for good second hand stuff, but when I was on a roll I was doing well. The best thing I did was collect five Talking Heads LPs for three quid each. All of them are perfect and there’s not even a hint of surface noise. And every now and then you get a little bit more than your imagined, which adds to the story. It’s not a great story, but True Stories – “Not for sale. Manufacurers copy” – has a little extra in the sleve.

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There was a time when I knew I had this and it was great to forget and find it again. The written notes really add something. These days it would have been filed away in a Word document or something. This reminds me of a day before the technology which has taken over out lives. All of this may be unreadable when I press the publish button, but as always, pictures make for a better blog. And just for a little bit of variety it’s not a random bird picture.

I’m not sure if I want to play my five Talking Heads LPs anymore. Their value has gone up. They haven’t gone up a lot, except maybe the True Stories LP, but it won’t be enough to retire on. Perhaps I’ll get £3.50 for it now. No. I’ll play them ad look after them. That’s why I like my vinyl.