157 Records: The Gift
Tim Buckley's jazzy masterpiece, 'Happy Sad' and 156 other great 1960s/1970s records entered my house last week in four canvas bags, the result of a meeting on Friday with a new potential client.
Here's how it happened:
After a 35 minute drive from my South Side office to McDonald, PA, I got out of my car and approached a large Victorian house. On the porch, a petite woman, waved. K.E. is a new potential client, and this was my first meeting with her to see if I could help her with her renovation project.
The self described 'hippie chick' wants to renovate her kitchen. After talking with her for a while about her project, we both realized that we were about the same age, and I told her about my re-discovery of the pleasure of listening to records.
"Records," she said, smiling, "why, I have alot of records that I'm trying to get rid of. I don't want to throw them away; I want someone to enjoy them. Do you want them?" I hemmed and hawed, feeling somewhat ashamed of myself for talking about my record obsession in a first client meeting! "No, that's alright," I stammered, "its okay."
"No, really, Paul, please take them. You will be doing my husband and me a favor. We are cleaning out our attic and looking for a good home for our records. Please take them!"
Well, needless to say, I accepted her generous gift. I was so excited, like a kid in a candy store or on Christmas morning... A whole collection of records - what would I find? I couldn't wait to get home from work and begin to sift through the new additions to my collection.
The great thing about a collection of records like this one is how much it tells you about the person or persons who assembled it. The Marshall Tucker Band next to Judy Collins. Johnny Mathis meets John Sebastian. Black Sabbath vs. Joni Mitchell.
This collection in particular is rich with classic 70s rock, and female singer songwriters. As I introduce these disks to my collection, I am keeping track of where the records came from, adding a new column to my spreadsheet, one devoted to where I bought a record or who gave it to me.
So, since Friday, guess what I've been doing? Cleaning records, changing sleeves, updating my record collection list, counting. 157 records is a lot of music - and most of it is great!
Thanks so much again K.E. for the most generous gift!
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