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Diaryland |
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2004-09-08 - 2:48 p.m. I went record shopping over the weekend at a place called the "Pink Elephant" -well, it's not really the "Pink Elephant" anymore, I don't think it carries a name anymore, but they used to have a flea market and a big pink elephant out front, which was always something we've always thought of stealing from our town. Anyways, John Logan woke my ass up to go digging, and we found some gems in the dust. Until now, I exercised caution in that place when it came to records, because everything in there is notoriously overpriced and if they see anything that resembles a DJ record they slap a 10-30 dollar price tag on it no matter what condition-"Rapper's Delight?" -30 dollars. No sleeve, covered in dust and rubbed with sandpaper? -30 dollars. Thankfully, most flea markets don't know what kinda records they got-and conscious diggers like John and I can trip and fall and find all the watered down, overplayed classics of yester-years and know better to pass them up and go for the diamonds and not the "diamondnique." I stumbled across one of the overpriced records, but I couldn't pass it up. The only reason I could imagine it was 20-25 dollars, was because it was one of most decorative pieces of colored vinyl I have ever seen. It looked half decent, no heavy scratches, the interesting fold out sleeve has seen better days, but it was still together with no water damage. it was made in 1970, the guy Dave Mason, looked like a rocker, but it was made in 1970-early post hippie era, and the guy is wearing a top hat and a coat with tails. It was on the Blue Thumb label, a label I've maybe seen once or twice before but never really picked up, so knowing at least it was an obscure label was a plus-because more obscure labels take chances creatively if anything and is worth the chance to buy and listen. He gave thanks in his liner notes to a guy Leon Russell, which is some crazy keyboarding rocker which John Logan came across by coincedence, going Goodwill diggin' with me earlier in the week. I liked Leon, so if this is the first guy Dave Mason thanks in his liner notes, then it's gotta be worth looking at. So, Dave Mason's "Alone Together" that got into my stack of records, and I was preparing myself to drop 70 dollars or more on records, with 20 of the load going to this calculated but essentially "chance" LP. Years ago, I would of passed this thing up-offended by the price tag maybe, or just completely oblivious to rock music in general. Maybe if I picked up the sleeve and saw the record itself I would of bought it simply because the vinyl looked "pretty" but I wouldn't of looked deeper into it then that. So here I am, willing to drop 20 dollars on an old dusty record-which seems senseless to most people-maybe impractical to some-but always crazy to all. So, it sat there in the middle of my stack of LPs and 45s, other shit I picked up: "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life," Meco's "Ewok Celebration" -(which is to my knowledge, the only record with a rapper spitting verse in Ewok.), a Chubby Checker 45 of "The Twist," and some Walter Wanderley on Verve. John had a fat stack of gems too and here we are, prepared to take big chunks out of our meager paychecks on old dusty vinyl. Lots of kids are picking up vinyl nowadays, but not alot dig like we do-we're not the best or the worst, but we look for shit generations and generations past don't even remember. We're like a sacred order of turntable monks carrying on the deepest digging traditions and passing them on as needle drops of knowledge. So some guy and girl in their mid 20s ring us up and the gal is like, "I don't know how to price these....." and the guy says to her, "A buck a piece, as long as they don't got any Beatles records or anything." -Doesn't that fucking rock or what? So John L. and I walk out paying only 17 dollars a piece total for the fat stacks which we prepared to spend gas and food money on. Say Word! So fast forward to last night, I recorded my Dave Mason record and burned it to a CD so I can listen to it at work and I pretty much listened to it all night. a 35 minute LP......over and over a 12 hour shift essentially. I'm just feeling the album, it just bumps to me and I felt compelled to write about it and to think more about the whole discovery of this record, what I did to make myself feel sure enough to buy it and ultimately prepare to drop an obscene amount of cash on my "chance" find. It has illustrated to me, that knowledge ultimately discovered it and gave it value. If I didn't know how to make judgements on the simple record as a part socio-anthro-psycho.....and all the other -ologies at work, I wouldn't of been able to determine whether I could enjoy this piece of music. If John and I weren't tenancious and stayed more then an hour digging through dust and dirt, we wouldn't of even had the chance to have a chance. The lack of knowledge of the counterpeople gave me my "chance" find at a bargain price in which I was prepared to go all out on. Admittedly, the knowledge which John L. and I possess are essentially worthless to most people, but in practice, the way we dig is the way we try to approach life. We thrist for more. We don't allow ourselves to get rattled. We're patient.....for the most part and we get ultimately the gems out of life.........in principle. Knowledge is good. I need to read more books on the world.
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