I was busy looking for guitar tutorials on YouTube when the algorithm threw a documentary called Stuck in the Groove in my direction. The algorithm knows me fairly well, so I thought I’d check it out.

This U.K. film was released five years ago. It’s about people (like me) who continue to listen to and love vinyl, regardless of whether or not it’s deemed to be in or out of style. I was truly amongst people like me when I listened to the people being interviewed.

I love vinyl. It’s been a part of my world for more than 50 years. I have music in multiple formats throughout my collection, but I find the acquisition of vinyl to be the most satisfying. Going to the store and buying records will forever be one of my favorite things to do.

And yeah, I’m a believer in certain things sounding better on vinyl, particularly jazz.

Now before you get your undies in a bunch, please understand that I am not telling you how to enjoy your music, okay? Everybody’s got their own thing when it comes listening. Whether it’s vinyl, cassettes, CDs or streaming, it makes me no difference. That you’re listening in the first place is more than enough for me. Enjoy your music however you like.

For me, it’s almost always about the vinyl. And it goes beyond sound.

One of my favorite memories is going to Peaches Records in St. Louis with my dad at least once a month. This started around 1978. Or we’d really wild out and make our way to Vintage Vinyl. Either way, adventure lay ahead.

I loved having the music flood my senses from the instant we opened the shop’s door. I saw (and still see) a store full of records the way Scrooge McDuck sees a cave full of gold coins. There was treasure everywhere! For any other 12-year-old, it might have been a sensory overload. Not for this kid!

I loved going through row after row of browser bins. I wasn’t just looking for music I knew. I was almost always looking for a new sound to explore. When I wasn’t, I would still go through the bins just to look at all the album artwork. Much of it was just fantastic! There’s no better way to enjoy album art than via an actual LP. Compact discs often make the effort, but it’s just not the same. And forget about streaming thumbnails. It’s no bueno!

And yes, there were times when I bought a record based on the cover’s artwork. Risky? Definitely! But that was part of the adventure! If I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I’d look into something else. If the artwork caught my eye, it just might be worth taking home. I was rarely disappointed.

I remember taking my $10 allowance and plopping $6.98 (plus tax) on the counter for a copy of Styx’s Pieces of Eight, the first LP I ever bought for myself. I still get a few butterflies thinking about dropping the needle of my own record player onto the vinyl and hearing those sounds come pouring out of my stereo speakers.

I left a lot of allowance in record stores. As far as I’m concerned, it was money well spent!

While Peaches has long since closed, I still visit Vintage Vinyl (say that fast three times) whenever I’m back in St. Louis. No matter how many times I go there, I’m always flooded with nostalgia from the moment I walk through the door.

Before moving to Chicago, my usual record store hangout was Planet Score Records. Small, but intimate and full of wonderful finds. The owners, Tim Lohman and Joe Stulce, are top-flight dudes who love talking to true music junkies. I know because I was one of them. We’ve passed more than a few hours talking music.

Since moving to Chicago, I’ve found a ton of cool record shops. I’ll be addressing them in the near future by way of videos on my YouTube channel. Rest assured, these folks know what they’re doing.

I often hear vinyl detractors go on about how records develop pops and cracks over time. “Well,” I say, “that wouldn’t happen if you actually took care of them!” I saw my dad cleaning each and every record with a Discwasher before dropping the needle. Every. Single. Time. So, guess who else started doing it? Every. Single. Time.

I’ve come to love “crate diving” at record stores. Every shop has hundreds of records in bargain bins. The record covers might be tattered and the vinyl might be “well played,” but you’ll rarely pay more than four bucks for an album. Sometimes it’s only a dollar or two. It’s a great way to invest in unfamiliar music. If you don’t like the album, you’re not out much. No harm, no foul.

My first great find was a copy of Genesis’s Seconds Out. I paid two bucks for a double-LP set. Yeah, there were a couple of scratches and pops, but it was well worth it. And cleaning the vinyl before play helps. To this day, Seconds Out remains my favorite live album of all time.^

I did a nice crate dive at Hyde Park Records, which isn’t far from where I live. As I walked into the store, I gave myself a set of rules. I could only buy jazz. I had to stick to artists A through D. And I couldn’t buy anything costing more than five dollars. I walked out with 25 albums and paid $100 after taxes. I still need to get around to playing some of those records!

Each and every record got the intense cleaning treatment. This involves a small spray bottle consisting of three parts distilled (NOT tap) water, one part Isopropyl (NOT rubbing) alcohol, and one or two drops of liquid dish soap. Shake well and spray lightly over the vinyl before wiping dry in a circular motion with a clean, soft cloth. Repeat as needed.

Does it work? I bought an original pressing of a Sidney Bechet album for three bucks. It sounded like a popcorn factory! I gave the album a triple spray treatment and got at least 85 to 90 percent of the noise out! Not bad for a record that sounded like the last owner had been playing frisbee with it.

Not only is keeping your records essential for good sound, it also depends on your sound system. The better the equipment, the better the sound.

When I retired from the police department, I received a good-sized payout along with my pension. I swore I was going to do two things with that payout above all else: I was going to find a condo in Chicago and I was going to seriously upgrade my sound system. I’ve managed to do both.

My sound system was at least 20 years old. My receiver and turntable were adequate. My primary CD player gave out on me after almost two decades. The two I bought afterwards were crap. So, I strolled into Decibel Audio in Wicker Park (as displayed via t-shirt by John Cusack in the movie High Fidelity) and ultimately dropped about $3,300 on an amplifier (no AM/FM radio) a turntable, and a stylus for said turntable. I spent another $500 on a CD player from the Marantz website. Then another $200 or so on a subwoofer. It seems insane, but what I bought was really in the “upper middle” or “low high” class of sound systems. The only thing I kept from my old system was my pair of 280-watt Cerwin-Vega speakers.

My system sounds glorious! I thank the hi-Fi gods. I’m pulling details out of records old and new I never knew were there! It sounds like a cliché (hell, it is a cliché), but the vinyl does sound a bit warmer. It goes through your body in a different way. That’s the only way I can describe it. However you describe it, I love it!

As for the movie, I really enjoyed listening to kindred spirits discuss their love for vinyl, including playfully picking on the occasional hipster that buys records like they just discovered fire! Welcome to the club, kid. Best of all, the movie visited a couple of shops I’ve already visited in Chicago. One more reason to believe I moved to the right place.

As I’ve said, listen to your music any way you like. Theres nothing to be held against you. But as long as they keep selling vinyl, I’m gonna keep buying it.

^ When I bought Seconds Out on CD, I prepared myself to hear the pop of crackle on certain songs, because that’s the only way I knew them! It was a long time before I could shake that habit!

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