In the late 70's and early 80's when coloured and special vinyl started to appear I picked up a few. Graham Parker's legendary The Pink Parker and Split Enz' laser etched True Colours come to mind. However I was always more interested in the music than the medium and so collected lps for the music not the colour of the vinyl. New vinyl releases these days frequently come with limited edition coloured vinyl releases. I do not seek these out but have picked up a few almost accidentally through Amazon and other online purchases. When the new record arrives there is a brief feeling that maybe this limited release may become a valuable collectible. Then I quickly realise that I will not be selling it so will never realise that $20 profit and have to put up with the bloody awful colour every time I play it. I will admit to having paid an exorbitant amount about 10 years ago for Ryan Adam's part time band The Finger's bloody awful We are Fuck You album on red vinyl - and that has appreciated very nicely (currently selling for about $500) especially as I have never played it.
I also think that coloured vinyl has some pretty big limitations which I see or perceive as;
- You can not see dust on the record so have to brush each record every time
- If it is "see through" you have the added disadvantage that you tend to walk away from the turntable dizzy everytime but maybe that brings back the feeling of listening to music in the 70's
- I suspect that the vinyl is also not as good a quality as they seem to be noisier.
In the last 4 years I have added probably 10 of these frustrating little buggers to my collection - the latest yesterday when I received a copy of The Both. The worst of which in terms of visual appearance would be The Hold Steady's gold vinyl teeth dreams. However the worst offender would be Preservation Hall Jazz Band's bluegrass effort American Legacies which comes in see through green and that leaves your head spinning every time. Enough to stop me playing it!
No comments:
Post a Comment