CARLTON FLETCHER: Fads fade, but vinyl is forever

Old days, good times I remember.

— Chicago

I’ve been given a reason in recent weeks to reacquaint myself with my vinyl record collection. As I’ve listened to the often scratched-up LPs, their pops, cracks and skips only endearing them further, I’ve fallen in love again.

Because even with their flaws, the sound of vinyl on a good turntable that’s part of a good sound system beats the tinny digital recordings that pass for music today all to hell and gone. The fact that many of the albums I’m listening to are 50 years old or older just makes the format all that more amazing.

Vinyl recording, by the way, has staged a late-in-the-game comeback in recent years, gaining in popularity among serious young music lovers while all other formats continue their pathway to obscurity. And with musician/producer purists like the incomparable Jack White becoming strong advocates of the format, it appears vinyl recordings — their capacity to capture high- and low-end sonics that are lost in the digital compression process — have already advanced beyond the passing fancy stage.

Of course, baby boomer record collectors beware: Those albums you used to buy for three and four bucks at G.C. Murphy in Tifton or at Gibson’s in Albany? They’re 35 to 40 bucks now! I got that bit of sticker shock when my younger daughter declared she wanted a vinyl recording of one of her favorite artist’s latest. I was initially happy to find the LP at a local music store, then stunned by the cost.

I guess the trip back to the future is a costly one.

For some reason, as I’ve listened to my album collection, the fads that were a part of specific eras have come back to me. I can’t, for instance, listen to my Parliament-Funkadelic LPs without thinking of George Clinton’s and Bootsy Collins’ sky-high Afros — which have made their way back around for some fashion-conscious young folks … and I consider that a good thing except for maybe Erykah Badu’s literally over-the-top ‘Fro — bell-bottom pants and platform shoes of the late-60s/early-70s.

As anyone who knows me knows, my fashion sense is all but non-existent. That same young teen daughter who’s developed an interest in vinyl insists on picking out what clothes are suitable for me to wear if we go anywhere together. But I will go doddering into old age believing that bell-bottoms were the height of fashion cool, especially when paired with platform-soled shoes (I called them “guy heels.”)

If you know Ocilla, Georgia, you might guess that this small town was not exactly the Carnaby Street/Savile Row of American fashion when I was coming along. But there was a funky little shop in nearby Tifton that sold the latest fashions, and I spent what little money I had for incidentals during that time at that shop. One of my prized purchases was a pair of blue jean-colored 2-inch platform heels.

As might be expected, those shoes got laughs all around when I first started wearing them in the hallways of Irwin County High as a dorky 16-year-old sophomore. But Carolyn Paulk liked them, and that was pretty much all that mattered at that time. Plus, by the time I was halfway through my senior year, I caught about half of my teammates on the football team wearing those shoes, usually when I didn’t know they had them. My brother Donny took them first, and he was kind enough to “loan them out” to pretty much any guy who wore up to a size 10.

I think Mike McDaniel had on the shoes the last time I saw them.

There are other fads that specific music dredges up: “spinner rims” (which were about as silly and useless as curb feelers) from the early days of hip-hop; guys in drag from the glam era; “fade” haircuts of the new-Jack swing era; skinny ties of the shoe-gazer band era; flannel from the grunge era (never a bad look); trucker caps from the bro’ country days; strategically-worn tube socks from the early Chili Peppers/Rage Against the Machine days; and maybe the worst fad of all, leisure suits from the disco era.

Ahh, fads — bless ‘em all — may come and go, but those vinyl records will still be spinning at 33 1/3 long after I’m gone.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.