Vinyl

When I was younger I spent almost all of money money on music. As my friends in high school discovered alcohol I was exploring distorted electric guitars. As they experimented with drugs I was grooving to the back beat. I eventually amassed a collection of several thousand albums. Vinyl was my retreat, my escape, my heaven. I went there when times were good and I went there when things went wrong. There were albums to study by. There were albums for celebration. There were albums to drown my broken heart.Everything I needed could be found in those spinning discs.

Have you ever just watched a record player turn? I mean look, it’s called a “turn table” for crying out loud, that’s what it does! You put the needle down; you select the rpm; you set the volume; then the music does the rest.

They say there are grooves on a record, but there is actually just one on each side. One long channel for the needle to travel in and translate into sound. Round and round and round and the progress can be hard to notice. Sounds like joy to me, but it also sounds like life. I move through my track and translate what I am encountering to anyone who has made the choice to listen. Sometimes my stereo is up so loud that it disturbs the neighbors and sometimes there’s a scratch that make me either repeat until the needle gets moved or I go careening off course. Sometimes it’s jazz and sometimes it’s rock and roll. The point is, it’s music. My life…your life…our lives…all of it is music.

I said I have thousands of albums. I can only play one at a time, so the one on the platter is the one that makes the noise, but all of them are still music. Just because they are waiting for their time to get played does not make them any less music. Has someone left you on a shelf? You’re still music. Don’t think that makes you any less worthwhile. I’ve got Beatles albums on the shelf. I’ve got some classics and some very obscure pieces. Any record I grab get’s it’s time to play then it goes back into the crowd. You will get your time. When it comes, sing for the heavens to hear. And until then…

–Rise Up!!