Comments on: Robert Crumb On Record Collecting

By: Curtis Linder

Curtis Linder — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:58:11 +0000

As for price, if you have a store near you called Half Price Records (Records and Magazines) is a good start. They in many states: http://www.halfpricebooks.com/find_a_store.html The one near me has lots of decent records starting at fifty cents. The "better ones" are up at $2.97.

By: Laura Demilio

Laura Demilio — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:03:34 +0000

Hey, I wish I’d known people like Crumb when I was a kid. There always was the batch of people haunting junk stores and antique booths, or even just “asking around” for old things they’d hope people didn’t want anymore. The other aspect is: everyone assumes that record collecting is a “guy” thing. Well, I’m a middle-aged woman who collects records (traditional jazz and blues, ragtime, opera, and classical)and I have been doing it since my early teens. My husband doesn’t have a problem with it the way apparently a lot of wives do when their spouses collect – the only complaint he ever had was the mustiness of the 78’s bothering his allergies, so we had to devise alternate methods of cleaning and storing. However, I detected a certain snobbery; indeed, often downright chauvanism – in some male collectors I’ve run across when I mentioned my shared passion for old recordings: how could a mere FEMALE know anything really about jazz?! How could she be really capable of appreciating the music? Or there’s the inherent snobbery of musicologists – because I am not a musician, how could I possibly comprehend the nuances of the recordings? This all gets really off-putting when one is a music lover and also appreciates, as well as is knowledgeable of, artists of the past. I’m crazy about the Jazz Age/Great Depression era: the movies, the culture, the books and magazines, and the performers in both the jazz and operatic world. If one is willing to read and research, collecting is not daunting. I’ve always had fun doing it as well as taking it seriously as something beyond a “hobby.” And it’s pretty mind-boggling to discover what still lurks at yard sales and flea markets – maybe I can’t always get the most rarified hot jazz sides, but I’ve stumbled upon some treasures among the blur of 1920’s pop, and know how to determine the ubiquitous from the harder-to-find. It’s great listening – I transfer everything onto cd to preserve it, but there’s assuredly something to be said for the ambience, not to mention the ritual, of playing original 78’s.

By: Screamin' Dave

Screamin' Dave — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:25:37 +0000

….and somewhat humorously – but to my good fortune – the stack of records that I scored (Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, etc.) were in fantastic condition. Now the records I left behind (Pat Boone, Night Ranger, Air Supply, add the name of some other wank act) had been played endlessly, as noted by the deep scratches.

Great Crumb passage, thanks for including it. I will have to pick up this book.

By: Screamin' Dave

Screamin' Dave — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:11:42 +0000

The problem with record collecting nowadays is that it is all so expensive…isn’t it? I live in the midwest, and “scout” for old 78’s and blues LPs in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri…and there isn’t anything. Maybe the Lennon Sisters on Gatefold vinyl, Statler Brothers, or countless Shaun Cassidy discs.

No, the only good stuff I can see is on ebay, or other sale sites, and it is all priced out of my budget. Jelly Roll Morton 78 for 300 dollars? Robert Johnson for 2000 big ones? Wow. I wish that I had been alive to collect back in the 60’s and 70’s when a real bargain could be had; but now it is harder and harder to be a collector. I have managed to start a burgeoning collection by managing to run into some of it by negotiating with a public library to give me their old stuff for cheap once they discarded it in favor of CD format (they were actually nice enough to give me some great stuff at a dollar a record).

By: synthhead

synthhead — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:18:27 +0000

‘cmon Rob – I bet you’ve got a stash of vinyl still…..

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:49:16 +0000

Yeah, its a pretty sick obsession. I watched a friend blow his rent money on old records – which is great, but they dont hold up to rain well and are a pain to sleep on. As long as those collectors dont claim to be giving back to the music they’re hiding from the remainder of society, I’m fine with it. Keep it all to yourself, its yours and you’re so much cooler than the guy with an ipod listening to BattleHooch. Yeah for you.