The albums are gone.

[valis2]

I remember sitting next to the speakers in the living room, their dusty fabric covers faded from the sun. I remember kneeling on the wood floor with my ear next to them. I remember the exhilaration of "Bring the Boys Back Home" and I remember lying on the floor crying and listening to "Comfortably Numb." I remember playing "Grover Sings the Blues" over and over again. I remember what the Revolver album looked like. I remember wearing out "Yellow Submarine." I remember the sound of the needle hitting the record. I remember dancing and jumping around so much that the penny fell off the arm and I had to balance it again. I remember the velvet sweep of the record cleaner. I remember listening to the Bankin-Rass "Hobbit" album and knowing every word of the dialogue. I remember "Silver Bells" and grocery store Christmas albums. I remember the unmistakable sound and feel of pulling an album out of its cover, finely grooved and gleaming, and how it was a secret treasure in a paper sleeve. I remember lying on the floor, reading the liner notes. I remember my dad dancing with my mom in the living room. I remember the first time I heard "Nebraska," it loped into our house like a rangy wolf. I remember singing "A Chorus Line" from beginning to end with my sister. I remember listening to "Brer Rabbit." I remember the insanity of opening "The Wall" for the first time and seeing the inner drawings. I remember listening at night to "Pimpf" with only candles lit. I remember singing "There's Wolves in the Kitchen" and dancing about so enthusiastically that the record skipped.

The guy who picked them all up is a collector, and very, very nice. They will be treasured and catalogued.

I feel sad and happy all at once.

Comments

[morricone1900.livejournal.com]

Awww.

When I moved from Pittsburgh, some guy pulled up in a truck and hauled off about 500 albums of mine. I had still saved a couple hundred of them and put them into storage, but they're long gone now as I eventually couldn't afford that storage so lost everything that was in it. :/

Still, when the record collector guy took those several hundred artifacts of vinyl, I at least felt that if anything were worth anything to anyone, they might have a chance of finding their way to a good home. I felt better about his taking them than just leaving them out on the street as trash or something, which I probably wouldn't have been able to bring myself to do.

Your mention of the Rankin/Bass HOBBIT made me smile. I see you started early with your fandom of that kinda thing. ;)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I definitely feel I made the right decision. What could I have done with them? Not much. They sat in my parents' house forever, and they were pretty much going to sit in my house forever, too.

And the Hobbit is one of my dearest vices. I adore that movie, I can sing all of the songs, I know all of the dialogue. Just hearing John Huston's voice at the beginning makes me swoon!