Wow. All I Got Is: Wow.

Having a big old stack of records over there in the corner of my living room just feels right. I'm at a loss for words to describe how I feel. Going through them all was like doing archaeology on my own life. My mom's maiden name is all over these. I'm sure she bought some of them before she even met my dad. There are one or two with her married name AFTER she married my sister's dad. My dad has been Harry Gernant for as long as I've known him but he wrote his name on some of the records he owned, and on them he's Harry Theodore Christopher Gernant III. I knew he had a middle name and a confirmation name, and I knew he was a third. But he never used all that. When did that change?

When I was a kid, I used to sit with my dad and watch Mr. Rogers. He and my mom split up when I was two. And now as I write this, I'm sitting at a table with my two-year-old son while he eats his supper and watches Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, a show based on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. And over there on the shelf is my dad's copy of The Who, Live At Leeds, and Music From Big Pink, and Bringing It All Back Home.

Back when we were little, my mom used to claim the only thing she loved more than my sister and I was the Beatles. She played them all the time for us. She would sing us their songs (even when we begged her to stop). And now I have all her original Beatles LPs. All of them. Even their crappy solo albums. I even have the Plastic Ono Band... which I am aware is nothing to brag about. But still. 

The way a lot of people grew up, the center of their home, their hearth, was their TV. When I grew up the shrine to our household gods was the record player and the collection of albums surrounding it. There was always music playing. I'm going through these records and I'm laughing at my mom for buying Kenny G, and at my dad for his unabashed love of Peter, Paul & Mary and all the other folk music he used to listen to. But I'm also reminiscing about the Band, and Dylan, and the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

I had no idea that what I was listening to was monumental when I was a kid. I just knew I liked it. And some of it I knew I hated. But the music was ever-present. Even some of the stuff I hated brings a smile to my face.

There are songs here that I loved, still love, but that I haven't listened to for over twenty years. Forget listened to. Forget sitting down and listening to them, I haven't HEARD them. I haven't heard them MENTIONED for twenty fucking years. 

There's a lot of stuff missing from this collection. Lost in a move or a divorce. Broken or thrown away. There's no Marley, no Toots and the Maytals, no reggae at all. I was really hoping to find a vinyl copy of the soundtrack to The Harder They Come. Most of my dad's Who albums aren't here. There's only one Zeppelin album. Most of the good Elton John albums are missing. I don't know what happened to all them. I can't ask my mom because for some reason she not only decided not to give me any of her albums, but to not even mention it to me when she gave them to my sister. She's weird sometimes and I just don't feel like getting into it. Not for her, but for me. I don't feel like trying to make her feel better about the fact that I think she did something shitty. It's easier for me to just not get into it with her at all. 

I didn't have a great childhood. Things are cool now, but I didn't always have a great relationship with both of my parents. I'm not going to go into it because it's a boring story that happens to thousands of people every day and my version isn't gonna be any more interesting than yours is. But most of the good memories from my childhood have something to do with the music on these records. I mean, not the records by Billy Ocean or Arlo Guthrie. The music on the other ones. Anyway, now I got them back and that's kind of cool. 

This picture of all these records represents a fair amount of work. So far, it represents a busy weekend. Going forward it represents a lot more work and a considerable expense. I don't even know if I'll be able to get the majority of them to play. I didn't want to take the platters out until I had the stuff I needed to clean them up right, and the sleeves I need to put them into to take care of them after that. But I did sneak a peek at a few. Some of them are terrifying to look at. But one or two looked pretty pristine. So I have high hopes. With any luck the ones that play will be Springsteen and Dylan and the ones that are fucked beyond recognition will be Laura Branigan and Waylon fucking Jennings.

I took pictures of all the covers as I was putting them away, and I plan to post a picture of each with my impressions or memories of them as I go, the way I've been doing. But there are so many that if I did them all now I'd be awake for a few days. So I'm gonna have to do that as I have time. 

I don't know when or where I'm going to find a decent turntable that I can afford. And I have to talk to a musician friend of my dad's about the best way to clean them up. I'll get sleeves for them pretty soon. But until I know how to clean them up they won't really do me much good. 

Anyway, that's where it's at right now. More to come later.