Against the wind

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to have my own turntable and start building a vinyl collection. Unfortunately, I could never quite justify forking over the money required to buy my own new shiny record player.

In the past week, my dad was kind enough to pass on his old turntable to me.


Needless to say, I was elated.

I love music in its many forms and through many mediums. Whether I'm streaming CBC Music via my cell phone or online, listening to my own library on my iPod, iTunes or on my Bose dock, I absolutely love listening to my music. I've had a discman and a cassette player before and now my iPod is something that I rarely go anywhere without. The most significant thing missing for me was a turntable.

Now, many people (my father included) will argue that vinyl is on its way out because the sound quality isn't the same as what we get with MP3s on iPods nowadays. While I won't debate the sound quality argument, I will debate the notion that vinyl is on its way out.

Vinyl was OUT a long time ago. It was the long-lost and forgotten means of listening to music. Records warped easily if not properly stored, needles went missing off turntables that weren't properly maintained and milk crates full of vinyl took up more space than most people could afford to dedicate to their music collection.

And sadly, vinyl almost went extinct. Almost.

Then the new millenium came and vinyl found a new lease on life. Whether it was hipster culture or something else, I do not know, but vinyl started to make a roaring comeback. Current artists began to start releasing their material on vinyl again and people started to buy it up again. While music sales were going down due to the growing popularity of pirating music online, vinyl sales were on the rise. People were going back in time, so to speak, to listen to their music.

Today record shops are and have been popping up all over trendy districts in large cities for the greater part of the last decade.

Now, to switch back to the sound quality discussion that I mentioned earlier.

I can't argue that the sound quality is the same when listening to vinyl versus listening to an MP3 or high quality audio file on your iPod. Here is what I will say...

When you drop the needle down on your favorite record and it starts to play, there is a certain character to the sound that you don't get anywhere else. Maybe I am becoming a bit hipster (I hope not), but to me that character adds to the overall experience of listening to the music. I've always been someone that likes to throw on a record, start it up and listen from front to back all in one sitting. There is something truly satisfying about listening to a musical work from beginning to end all in one go. That is an experience and I feel that listening via a vinyl record adds to it.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and say, "shame on you" for not owning a record player and not sitting to enjoy a full-on emotional experience with your music. Music is different for every person and that is what makes it such a powerful and important form of art. Just don't question me when I tell you that I'm going to spend a summer afternoon on the patio listening to my records, with nothing more than cooler full of ice cold beverages and the warmth of the sunshine.

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After inheriting my father's record player, I needed to go out and get started on filling out my collection. It was a nice sunny Saturday in Toronto, so I figured that my best bet was to wander down Queen St. West in search of second-hand record stores and boy did I luck out.

I ended up spending $57 on vinyl and came home with 14 records, all of which I am excited to get home and throw on the turntable:

1. The Unforgettable Fire by U2
2. Live Under A Blood Red Sky by U2
3. October by U2
4. Against the Wind by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
5. Band on the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings
6. I Love Rock-n-Roll by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
7. Greatest Hits 1974-78 by Steve Miller Band
8. Zenyatta Mondatta by The Police
9. Ghost in the Machine by The Police
10. Who Are You by The Who
11. Fame and Fashion by David Bowie
12. Eddie Money by Eddie Money
13. Bad to the Bone by George Thorogood & the Destroyers
14. PRISM by PRISM

A number of these are albums or artists that my dad originally introduced me to, so I thought it was fitting they would be among the first to go into my collection. 

Enjoy the title track off Bob Seger's Against the Wind. I absolutely love this song. It is quite possibly my favorite Seger song.

Against the Wind by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band

Seems like yesterday
But it was long ago
Janey was lovely, she was the queen of my nights
There in the darkness with the radio playlng low
And the secrets that we shared
The mountains that we moved
Caught like a wildfire out of control
Till there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove 

And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh so tight
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then 

Against the wind
We were runnin' against the wind
We were young and strong
We were runnin' against the wind 

And the years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded bv strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home
And I guess I lost my way
There were oh so many roads
I was living to run and running to live
Never worried about paying or even how much I owed
Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searchin'
Searching for shelter again and again 

Against the wind
A little something against the wind
I found myself seeking shelter against the wind 

Well, those drifters days are past me now
I've got so much more to think about
Deadlines and commitments
What to leave in, what to leave out 

Against the wind
I'm still runnin' against the wind
I'm older now but still runnin' against the wind 

Well, I'm older now and still runnin' against the wind 

Still runnin'
I'm still runnin' against the wind
I'm still runnin'
I'm still runnin' against the wind 

Still runnin'
Runnin' against the wind, runnin' against the wind 

See the young man run
Watch the young man run
Watch the young man runnin'
I'll be runnin' against the wind 

Let the cowboys ride
Let the cowboys ride
They'll be ridin' against the wind
Against the wind