Record Store Day: The Bad
78 rpm? Seriously, pressing a record that spins at 78 rpm? I don’t fancy myself as a "record collector", I don’t buy records to preserve them, I don’t buy records as an investment, I buy records to listen to them. I suspect that most people who listen to vinyl fall into the same boat as myself, and I am fairly certain, very few have a turntable who can play a 78.Capitol/EMI released a double single 10" featuring two stellar Beach Boys tracks, "Good Vibrations" and the mythical song from SmiLe, "Heroes and Villans". Not only would you be getting these two songs, but the vinyl also included alternate takes of the two tracks. Unfortunately, there was a catch, and a major catch at that. It was pressed at 78 RPM. What would have been at the top of my list for Record Store Day turned into a debate as to whether or not I should buy a record I will probably never play.
Aesthetically, the packaging was gorgeous; pictures couldn’t do it justice. It may even be a good conversation piece - although nobody comes over my place who has even the slightest interest in vinyl. Maybe Capitol/EMI was going for a real vintage feel, maybe even something so artsy that only the biggest hipsters could understand, because the logic behind pressing a 78 clearly goes over my head.
78's for the most part, were a World War II era staple, following the war, 45's and 33 1/3 RPM became the norm. Most tables don’t even support the speed, begging the question, why would a format that was primarily used pre-1950s, a format that is now essentially extinct, be pressed in the year 2011? It’s not as if the sound is superior, it’s not like it has some major niche market it's gravitating to, it has no advantages that I could conceive.
For a day that encourages music consumption, pressing a 78 rpm vinyl seems to achieve the opposite. It instead is promoting a useless purchase of a record for nothing more than to be a conversation piece, or to be "pretty." It’s truly a shame considering how fine the packaging was, and more importantly, how spectacular the musical material is.
posted by Jeff at 8:22 PM
5 Comments:
Read your earlier posts; you've answered your own question. This isn't about you Jeff and what you'd like. This is about rarities, limited releases, special items -- that can be flipped for profit. 78 rpm? Who's going to notice!? It's just gonna sit in a pile somewhere to look good.
What you need is a 1950s auto-changer record player like the Alba version we had at home. In fact I think it had a 16 rpm setting as well! As a kid I had great fun playing records at the wrong speed and 78 or 16 was always a great laugh. Spookily, you could make men sound like women and vice versa. What fun!
Hatter - Well that is a problem. RSD should revolve around my interests, lol.
Music Obsessive - I actually just picked up a new turntable, a pretty good one too, and it doesn't play 78's. Maybe if I looked around hard enough I could find one, but I don't have much of a desire to play 78s considering I don't own any and never seed them sold in any record stores. That's pretty cool though - an auto-changer record player.
Hey I just got a Nashville Music Business Directory. It has the contact information for publishers, producers, studios and more in the Nashville area. It’s a very cool book with lots of information. Including publishers that accept unsolicited material. I got it at www.NashvilleConnection.com. There’s also a live studio webcam on the site where I bought the book. Cool stuff A+. Check it out or send it to a friend.
I have a $100 record player from Target that has a 78 rpm option. Not hard to find.
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