I love my record collection. I’m not an audiophile, in fact I’m a huge slob when it comes to the cleanliness of my music. I’ve listened through tiny broken speakers, radio adapters that made my iPod sound like far away AM radio and beat up records that skip frequently and hiss when you put them on. People normally listen to vinyl because they love how it sounds. I really collect because I love owning the piece. I love music because it speaks to me, it soundtracks my life. I’m more interested in what’s getting through to me than what is technically good. Gifts are most definitely my love language (and words of affirmation, but that’s not what this is about), so receiving a record is possibly the highest form of love you can give me. To me the giver acknowledges my love for music and my love of the sentimental. Here is a short list of some pieces that have great value to me, and if you’ve ever been to my house I’ve probably shown you and tried to get you to admire them.
David Bowie- Aladdin Sane
My wife got me a record player for our first Christmas as a married couple. I was so excited, I had wanted one for years. I wanted to go to thrift stores and dig through what they had, hoping to find a dusty gem I could claim ownership of. At the time I listened to a lot of music, but had barely explored music made before my lifetime. I think maybe the Beatles, Elton John, CCR and Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys are the only things I dipped my toes into. I thought ‘classic rock’was unappealing for some reason. I had to go to work the day after Christmas and didn’t get off until 8pm. I had an hour before Saver’s and Goodwill would close, so I rushed to dig. Saver’s was slim pickins, but I bought my very first record there. No, not the David Bowie one I’ll get to in a minute. A super beat up copy of ‘Who’s Next’ by The Who. It got the first spin on my new record player when I got back to AdriElle’s parents house that night, as we were spending the night with them. It’s one of my favorites and made me regret my attitude towards classic rock. Baba O’Riley is such an amazing opener and would have absolutely appealed to me as a teenager; Won’t Get Fooled Again is one of my all time favorites. So why isn’t The Who getting credit here? After Saver’s I hit up Goodwill and only had 15 minutes until they closed. I know God loves me, but I’m always surprised to find out He likes me. I went to the records and found a treasure trove I have never since found. 5 dollars later I owned Metallica ‘Master Of Puppets'(!!!!), Suicidal Tendencies ‘Suicidal Tendencies’, Pink Floyd ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, Led Zeppelin ‘II’ and David Bowie’s ‘Aladdin Sane’. I find cool records every once in a while, for the most part it’s just Andy Williams horrible Christmas albums and crap I wouldn’t let sit on my shelf. I didn’t even realize how lucky I was, but I was still elated. I rushed to Adri’s parent’s place, plugged in my record player and started listening. The classic rock wall was breaking. When Mary, my wife’s mom came around to see what I was up to I showed her my new collection. I don’t think she understood my excitement but was happy for me. When I showed her Aladdin Sane, she made a face and said ‘gross’. I knew of David Bowie only from ‘The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou’ soundtrack, which happens to be my favorite soundtrack ever. Now I’m discovering that he’s gross to my mother in law; I have a new favorite artist. I forgot that I wasn’t really a teenager, as an adult it’s not so much rebellion as it is childishness. Nevertheless, I listened and loved it, and picked up everything David Bowie I could get my hands on. Aladdin Sane is great, but probably 4th or 5th on my list of favorite albums by Bowie. I just thought it was a funny story. When David Bowie died earlier this year I saw the world take to Instagram and mourn/try to get people to notice they like cool art too, and man it bugged me. I know some people really treasured his music, but it comes off so insincere to me when people act like they have poured over him when they clearly have a steady ear diet of OneRepublic and Maroon5. Anywho, when he died I listened to this twice over and pretended to like cool art too.
John Stocker- Jesus In My Soul
The next week after getting a record player I was hitting up thrift stores looking for vinyl. At a shop in Loveland I grabbed a copy of ‘Off The Wall’by Michael Jackson, which I didn’t realize was a fairly common one to find. I was still excited, but what I found next blew that find away. It was a fabled record by the Senior Pastor of Resurrection Fellowship John Stocker. If you aren’t from Rez this record may not have any value to you, but this guy is a personal hero to me. Stocker is a cowboy: fearless and blunt; yet he is so full of compassion and understanding, truly one of the all time greats when it comes to pastors. I yelled out when I found it, the shop owner was surprised that I found such delight in something that didn’t look valuable. He gave it to me for a buck, but charged me $10 for the MJ. When I got home my wife and I listened to it and laughed. I would put it on for my parents and my friends from Rez, it was the life of the party. That year we threw the best New Years Eve party, and my friend Dillon and I pumped my records for all to hear. The most requested and best loved that night was easily this one. It’s not a parody record, it’s not bad in any sense either. It sounds like the Carpenters or James Taylor, if all their songs were about Jesus. I took the record to church one Sunday and some friends and I approached him in his back office. When I asked him to autograph it he was a little embarrassed, and when I sang him the chorus from ‘Our God Has Done A Good Thing’ he was a lot embarrassed. He had a sense of humor about it and said ‘I’m glad you guys get to have a laugh at my expense.’ To my knowledge I have the only autographed copy in the world, score! Recently I got to have breakfast with Pastor John, just him and I. I know he’s not an international celebrity, but I was still star struck. He was so encouraging and wise, fearless and blunt, compassionate and understanding. I love this man and I love his record.
Sonic Youth- Daydream Nation
I have a friend named Jerry Cuba. We volunteered in the Jr High department at Rez together and bonded over music. Jerry was about 20 years older than me and has possibly the best taste in music of anyone I’ve ever known. Jerry was even the drummer for Denver’s premiere psychedelic doom band Soul Merchant’s in the 80’s, and they once opened for the Dead Kennedys. I was still listening to what I listened to in high school (emo, hardcore, punk…not stupid, just limited) and Jerry would always introduce me to bands that influenced the bands I liked. When I told him of my new found obsession with vinyl he got really excited and told me about his extensive collection. I still need to go to his house someday and admire his collection, which probably makes mine look lame in comparison. Jerry has a big heart and is super generous, and one day he showed up to church with a gift for me. I unwrapped it and it was a brand new copy of Sonic Youth ‘Daydream Nation’. It was a 4lp deluxe edition with extensive liner notes. I was blown away by his extreme generosity. I don’t know if he knows the magnitude of how much his gift meant to me then or now.
I went home and put it on and didn’t quite get it. It seemed slow and monotonous, and droned on for the full record. The 4th record has four cover songs on it, including ‘Within You Without You’ by the Beatles. I fought hard to even pay attention to it, it wasn’t appealing to me. I was confused by the influence this band had on so many artists and critics. Even so, I was absolutely blessed by my friend and refused to let my first impression of the music become my opinion. I gave it quite a few spins before I started to actually enjoy it. It wasn’t until after a few months after my oldest daughter was born that it started to click and make sense. I was giving Raphaela a bottle and listening to the first records first side and decided I loved it, not because of it being a gift but because of Silver Rocket being fast noisy punk rock song. I don’t know how I had missed it before, maybe I expected all punk to sound like Rancid (whom I love) and dismissed anything that didn’t fit into that. All the songs started opening up to me. Total Trash, Teen Age Riot, Cross The Breeze, the cover of Within You Without You are the sound of cool. There’s a great documentary called ‘Kill Your Idol’s’ about New York’s brand of post-punk called No Wave that has a bunch of cool footage of Sonic Youth helping pioneer different music. After I saw it I had a newfound appreciation of the band and Daydream. When I embraced this kind of rock and roll a lot of great music made sense to me that I had written off as pretentious. The Smiths, who I swore any of my old friends only liked because a cool older friend loved them made sense now. Joy Division became one of my favorites. The Smiths and Joy Division don’t sound a lot like Sonic Youth, but to me it was because of Daydream Nation that I really gave them focused listens. Knowing that a guy like Jerry knows better than you on what’s good helps you trust their opinion instead on relying on your own first evaluation and personal taste. Thanks again for this gift Jerry, it goes beyond a deluxe set gift.
American Hardcore-Soundtrack
For my 23rd birthday my wife invited a bunch of friends over to hang out, and I asked my friend Dillon Groeneman to DJ. We had these massive speakers just sitting in our living room from AdriElle’s mom’s dance studio, which she had just retired from. The sound out of those things were insane. Dillon brought a bunch of his records to spin and a good time was had by all. At the end of the night Dillon gave me a gift from his own collection, the soundtrack to the documentary American Hardcore. The movie is about a branch of punk rock that takes place from 1978-1986 and was nationwide. Dillon, Michael (Adri’s brother) and I had watched this film and it made quite the impact on me. I was interested in hardcore punk but only knew of Black Flag and Minor Threat before I saw this. I was introduced to dozens of bands (Flipper and 7 Seconds to name two) that I wouldn’t have accessed if it wasn’t for their exposure in American Hardcore. The soundtrack has 26 songs by different bands, most of the songs lasting about 30 seconds. The rawness and fury of these songs are unmatched in any other genre of music. It’s the sound of discontent, the sound of change. It changed not only the sound of punk but the entire culture of punk as well. Go watch the movie, it’s amazing what these a lot of these bands did for practically no money, just because they loved it. I’ve since discovered and loved several of the bands from the soundtrack, and gone searching for other hardcore bands from the era. I was touched that Dillon gave me something I know was precious to him. It was a sign of our friendship and our bond over music that still goes on to this day.
Elvis Costello And The Imposters- Momofuku
My wife gave this to me after a particularly hard week of life. We had a possible job opportunity in Wisconsin to be youth pastors, but that was a few months in the distance. I was in between jobs at the time and was having a terrible time finding work. I started getting panicked but my wife would calm me down and remind me we were okay. One day she surprised me with this record just to tell me she loved me and that she believed in me. She knew I liked Elvis Costello and was pretty sure I didn’t have this one. It’s near impossible for me not to like anything by him. Elvis Costello seems to put out a record every year, I don’t have time to listen to every one of them; I get overwhelmed when I try to acquire all of his music. I assumed at the time that his music from 2008 wasn’t going to be very good, he was probably putting stuff out for fans who refused to let go that he was a big deal in the 70’s and 80’s. This is a great record that I would have missed if it hadn’t been for my wife’s kindness to me. The song that starts off side two ‘Stella Hurt’ belongs at the beginning of a movie about cool guys, like bank robbers or something. The background vocals of ‘Harry Worth’ are sublime, the song itself is like a lost Vampire Weekend song with Costello singing. I love his voice so much, I’m not sure how he ever got popular because it’s not super conventional. His voice is real and emotive, which would probably disqualify him from most television singing contest shows. Anyway, I’ve treasured this record for years. A guy who buys used records from people came to my house when I had to sell some of my collection to make ends meet in 2011. I regret selling him everything I did, but it would have been hard to forgive myself if I would have taken him up on his offer for this one. He offered me $30 for it, but I declined because it was special to me. I probably could have found another copy later, but not the one my wife gave me to encourage me when I needed it. That’s worth way more than $30.
Slow Magic- Triangle
I have always supported friends who are in bands by going to as many of their shows as I could. One of my most talented friends started a project by himself and goes by the name Slow Magic. He wears a mask and conceals his identity, and even though this blog will only be seen by a few that probably already know the person I won’t reveal who it is. I’ve had some of the best live music experiences watching Slow Magic. Once in early 2012 I was invited to go watch him play in a weird artist commune of some sort, in the middle of a bunch of factories. It seems like everyone was doing drugs except for me, and everyone was dressed cooler. Than again, I’m a church boy from one of the whitest part of America. I bet it was akin to a sheltered 7 year old seeing a scene from a PG-13 movie (they were smoking the cigarettes!) It was dark and cold in the place, the musicians played music that matched the venue and how I was feeling there perfectly. I wasn’t sitting in judgement of these people, I just felt in my spirit that they were in darkness. I spent the entirety of the night praying in the Spirit, too chicken to actually talk to anyone. There was no stage, the artists just played on the floor. Before his set, Slow’s computer froze up and wouldn’t play his music. He improvised, borrowing a friends iPod who had his music on it. He couldn’t just stand there while people listened to his music, so he went to his car where he just happened to have a drum. When Slow Magic played I felt darkness lift, and so did the audience. People danced and smiled, He was under Divine influence. I told his mother this at one of his shows a couple of years ago, she asks me to repeat that every time I see her. Slow Magic is not a Christian music project, I’m not sure my friend considers what he’s doing to be spiritual at all. I know that the gifting and the call of God are irrevocable. Back to the record at hand, called Triangle. Actually it’s just the shape of a triangle for the album title, but I’m not sure what button to push to make that appear. Slow came over to my place one day with the test press of his album and we listened to it together. Every five seconds I was oohing and aahing, so impressed that someone I knew was making such incredible music. He gave me a copy as soon as they were pressed, and it’s made for family dance parties ever since. I bought the album off of iTunes, refusing to just receive free stuff from my friend. This, and Slow’s other insanely amazing ‘How To Run Away’ were the soundtrack to my youth group. So proud of my friend, so blessed by his music, so valuable are his records to me.
Leonard Bernstein- Gershwin: Rhapsody In Blue/American In Paris
I know nothing about classical music. I enjoy some of it a lot, especially if it’s related to Looney Tunes or movies I’ve seen. I’m not entirely sure this piece is considered classical or jazz, I think it’s both. My friend Kevin had records someone gave him, so I got a call and he asked if I wanted to look through and take anything I wanted. Kevin brought them to my youth room for me and I started digging, mostly beat up common Goodwill stuff. I dug this out and recognized the names of Bernstein and Gershwin and put it in the save pile (most of the records made it to the garbage pile). I brought it up to my office along with names I recognized (Mozart and Bach, I have no way of telling if the records are good recordings are not). I had a turntable in my office, so I put on this record. I wasn’t expecting to have a music moment, but I really did. This song was the United Airlines song!!! I know that song! Lovers of classical music might scoff at my gateway to their high brow art form is a commercial, but I’m not pretending to know anything. I love this piece of music. It’s no longer the commercial for me, it’s the brilliant piano playing by Bernstein followed by the sudden force of the band playing the grand happy allegro, then slowing down again and starting up again. I’m sure I’m describing it all wrong, but I don’t care. I love this record because it caught me by surprise, and I’m drawn to listen to it more than others in my collection. In my office this got the most spins, probably because it’s easy to listen to if I’m working and immensely enjoyable if I stop everything and actively listen. Maybe someday I’ll really take to classical music and I’ll be able to point to this as my gateway. Until then it’s my token symphony record, to be played if I need to impress Uncle Pennybags should the occasion ever arise.
Walt Disney Productions- Splashdance
My father in law gave me his collection to hold onto. It’s not mine to keep just yet, but I can display and listen to it. Not sure if he wants them back, so I’ll include this in my collection selection. There were well over 1000 records to go through, and I pulled maybe 300 out that I knew or was interested in. The rest are still in boxes, just waiting to be gone through and discovered on a different OCD rainy day. A lot of Disney records including a curious one titled Splashdance. My daughters and I were having a listening party after I unearthed a bunch of these. A pile of albums we were checking out laid out on my record room’s end table. Pepper insisted that Splashdance be the next thing played after digging through the pile. It’s a children’s pop music album, not remarkable in any way. Except for the second song, entitled ‘Happy, Happy Birthday To You’. After this came on, I moved the needle back to hear it again. We listened to it 7 times in a row. This song should dethrone the classic happy birthday song; it already has in the Hupp house. Every birthday celebrated here, including all the girl’s cousins get this song pumped at full volume. The dance party that happens when this one spins is unrivaled here. I’m glad we gave this a chance, we’ve made so many great memories with this tune. You’ve probably never heard it, so take a listen.
Al Green- Greatest Hits
In 2015 my 30th birthday came to pass. I knew my wife was planning a celebration for a later day when I could be with my friends, but the day itself was just our family. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We went to a movie with our girls, because Pepper’s birthday is the day after mine. There is a large book/media store next to the theater that has records. My wife was encouraging me to get a record because she knew I would love that. I carried a new shrink wrapped copy of Al Green Greatest Hits around the store for 30 minutes or so, intending to buy it. For some reason I really felt bad about spending money and eventually put it back, even though AdriElle was telling me I should get it. We left without any records, which my wife was chalking up to me turning 30 and feeling sorry for myself. That’s partially true, but I usually will still purchase records if I’m feeling sorry for myself. The next day we had a birthday party for Pepper, and my parents told me they had a surprise for me. My mom and dad walked into the house with a heavy box for me. Inside were a ton of records from my uncle Dennis, who was very sick. Uncle D wanted me to have his records after we had talked about vinyl when I saw him last. What a treasure trove this was! I was particularly excited about The Allman Brothers ‘Eat A Peach’ and T. Rex ‘The Slider’, but the gift that lit me up was the copy of Al Green’s Greatest Hits. I had almost purchased it the day before and was now being rewarded for holding off. I would rather much own an original copy of this instead of a repress. 2015 was the hardest year of my life ministry wise, it seemed like being faithful was only causing us harm. Galatians 6:9 says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” God is always speaking; when you actually turn your ear and listen, it’s life! My heart was weary just before that, but my countenance changed when I received that record. I was hearing God in the store on my birthday and I was hearing Him in my house with my reward.
I already had it on my iPod and knew all the songs, but spinning it in my record room has another effect altogether. It’s a classic greatest hits album, all killer no filler. I’ve changed my favorite song on it 5 different times, and this last time listening I felt a 6th change coming with ‘I Can’t Get Next To You’. ‘Here I Am (Come And Take Me)’ was my favorite at the time of getting my copy of it, ‘Tired Of Being Alone’ was the song that made me like Al Green. This is most definitely where I would start someone who was interested in R&B but didn’t know what to begin with. I wonder if people who love R&B love this or if it’s just clueless white guys from white towns who love it. I don’t know, but if you don’t like Al Green than you can just leave.
Bob Dylan- Blood On The Tracks
My uncle Dennis went to be home with the Lord on February 29, 2016 at my parents house. He became a Christian later in life and was passionate for the gospel, wanting people to know the message of what Jesus had done for them. He and I had great conversations about spiritual things, but we also talked a lot about music. He had already given me a big box of records months earlier, but held back his most treasured ones. We celebrated and mourned as he passed into glory. My brother and I served communion to my parents and my cousin Natalie, Dennis’s daughter. It was a miracle that he died when he did, because Natalie had to be at the airport to fly back to Nebraska soon. I volunteered to take her, so we got her stuff together and got ready to go. My dad helped me load up stuff that uncle D wanted to give me before we rushed out. When I got home later that evening I brought a rather heavy box inside, curious of what I found. It was uncle D’s most treasured records, and I spent the rest of the evening shouting and yelling at my wife ‘it’s Peter Gabriel era Genesis! Awesome!’and ‘holy cow! Bruce Springsteen!’ and the such. One I was excited about was Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks. I know it’s a well loved album and that it would look nice in my collection, but I didn’t expect to become fond of it.
I’ve got some of the classic Dylan albums on my iPod, expecting that someday it would make sense to me. I hadn’t yet heard Blood On The Tracks. I think most people my age that gush over Bob Dylan are absolutely pretending to like him. I don’t even think they’ve listened to it. My reason for thinking that is Rolling Stone puts out lists of greatest albums, most influential artists, greatest songs etc. When I wanted to be knowledgeable about what was good music I would read everything I could on that subject. So did other people, and when I would talk about music with people and they would talk about Bob Dylan’s influence in their lives and his artistry they would quote the same Rolling Stone articles I had read like it was their own thoughts. This has happened on 8 different occasions that I can remember by people around my age, give or take 15 years. Whenever I listened to him I thought it was dreadful, and I had been trying to understand it for over 10 years. I knew that it was impossible that everybody had decided that his music was good when it was clearly bad. I knew that it had to be something I was missing like not being around in the 60’s and not being able to appreciate it being groundbreaking or something.
Regardless, I had a bad taste in my mouth from ‘music snobs’ who didn’t actually listen to music. So when I listened to Blood On The Tracks for the first time and actually liked it. I thought I had grown up. I listened to it a few more times the same week and liked it more, not blindly because I knew I was supposed to but genuinely liking it. Now it was time to listen to Blonde On Blonde again, I could become a real Dylan fan. Nope, still bored. So I like this one among the others I don’t care for. I hold onto the other ones thinking that maybe someday I’ll love it, but from now on when Bob Dylan comes up in conversation I can proudly say ‘I like Blood On The Tracks.’
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