Review: Old Records Never Die: One Man's Quest for His Vinyl and His Past

View all my reviews Old Records Never Die: One Man's Quest for His Vinyl and His Past by Eric Spitznagel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found out about this book through a vinyl Facebook group and the premise sounded interesting. A vinyl enthusiast attempts to recover and rebuild the record collection he sold decades ago to pay his bills. Now hitting middle age with a new child, an understanding but worried wife, a job offer that will mean consistent income and a major move, and then to top it off a heartbreaking phone call from his mother informing him his father died. Enter one mid-life crisis.

In his journey through his mid-life crisis, his quest is to recover the 2000+ vinyl collection he sold away to pay the bills in the late 90s. Not just any copy will do. His quest is for his exact copies. The same covers with his ex-girlfriend's phone numbers written on them and scratches in just the right spot, and all.

It's a quest that takes him to a muddy reunion concert, a closed record shop turned kids karate studio, vinyl conventions, stealing a record from a college radio station, and smoking bad weed in an old record shop owner's basement. All the while reminiscing about past loves and most of all the music he loved along the way. He's missing his life as it was and worried about a new job and family that's pushing him to be more responsible.

I could identify with some of the mid-life crisis anxiety having gone through(and still on tail end of) it myself. His music tastes were mixed(Sorry Eric. when I hear an album titled "Let it Be" I think of The Beatles and not The Replacements.) but that's understandable cause everyone's music preference is different.

I did like his focus on the music and how it intertwines with life. It's as if the albums were snapshots of his life. I"d describe it as life having its own soundtrack and each of ours is unique. Also that even the imperfections like ex-girlfriend's phone number on an album, mud/blood splattered cover from a punk rock concert, or scratches & pops on the vinyl. This was a bit refreshing as I see in vinyl enthusiasts groups on Facebook who obsesses over slight scratches, grading quality, and spend a couple of thousand dollars on record cleaning gadgets. It's one thing to take care of something but when the cleaning obsession takes over I think you're losing the point of the records which is the experience of playing them. This I believe Eric gets. Life is full of imperfections.

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