Vinyls are back and I don't mean your couch!

I remember years ago when my oldest son Ryan was going through our CD collection and came across our box of Vinyl Records. I think it was maybe 4 or 5 years and he might have been 9 or so. He loved the big pictures and thought they were so "Cool" to hang on the walls of "his" garage. He was getting into Rock and Roll Music and had reclaimed our family garage as "Rockin' Ryan's Garage". His musical Man cave, cross that out, BOY CAVE. It had guitars on the wall, a seven piece Pearl drum set that he got from his cousin Elyse and stacks and stacks of CDs and music magazines on the shelves. The little Rocker was born.

He would listen to our Motley Crue, Poison, Ratt CDs but when he found this big box with these big pictures on it and we tried to tell him that is what we used to listen to for music, he thought the photos were so cool. We had organized lots of our CDs into these nice big black leather binders sorted alphabetically with the CD covers in front of the pockets. But here were these big record cases ranging from the 1970's to the 1990s. His favorites he picked out were Led Zeppelin; "In through the Out Door", Quiet Riot; "Metal Health", Guns 'n Roses; "Appetite for Destruction", Nirvana; "Nevermind" and Sonic Youth. These he took out and hung proudly on the garage walls. They would sit there for years and travel throughout the house moves, never to be opened and discover the LP inside.

Fast forward to November 2011, Ryan now 13, pulls out my old LPs and finds our old turntable that I have sitting around. He plays Guns n Roses and sits back and listens to the whole album. He then proceeds to pull out all the LPs and randomly plays songs from them. He has this look like he has discovered something special. He cranks up the speakers, he listens carefully and he then comes inside as if to tell us he has some very important news. He then sits down to ask what happened to Records? Why do we not listen to them if the sound quality is so much better and crisper. He goes on to tell us how he discovered new music on so many songs that he had heard hundreds of timees before. Stephen and I looked at each other and smiled, a big Cheshire cat smile. "Our son is a true music aficionado", we exclaimed! We knew long ago the difference of the sound quality and how as soon as CDs and Ipods were the norm, people had settled by replacing "quality" with "convenience".

Ryan had then demanded to replace his 1000+ CD collection with the Vinyl LPs. Of course after we told him how that might be impossible since many CDs do not come on LP version, we decided to take him to all of our favorite used record stores. These are the same stores he would go to in search of used CDs of 80's Rock, Glam, Heavy Metal Bands. Now he was in search of Vinyl and he was hooked. He first bought up all the "Motley Crue" section at Vinyl Solutions, our favorite home town record store. He now has a 200+ long list of his "Wanted" LPs and takes it with him whenever we shop in the city at Rasputin, Amoeba Records, The Last Record Store and of course online via ebay and craigslist.

For his 14th birthday in December, he didn't ask for a new guitar, or a new bass drum for his set, or a jacket from Forgotten Saints (that he asked for Xmas!) this time he wanted his own Record Player, not a USB turntable. His own Record Player with Speakers. The special thing was that my Mom gave Ryan my father's Record Player that he had in his house for many years playing his Bobby Darrin, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin Records. My father passed away in September 2011 and Ryan was very close to my father so when he got the record player he was doubly excited. To have a piece of his grandfather's history and be able to create his own history playing his favorite Vinyls, that was a dream come true. He has made us proud. So now, when one of his favorite bands comes out with a new CD, he checks their website to see if they have an LP of it. If not, he has begun emailing them with requests. The other day, we caught him doing a blind sound test with his friends playing Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil" on his record player versus his Ipod. Afterwards, his friend came in to tell us that he is going to ask his parents for one of those record player things.... Ahhh... so maybe all things do come back into style. Ryan now has over 150 LPs and is growing that collection strong. Now let me see if I can find my roller skates and pull out some Xanadu... well maybe not. Hope he never finds my brother's 8 tracks.

~Marisol

I couldn't finish this without listing my top 5 Records that Ryan found of mine:

5. Gary Wright "Dream Weaver" I think I stole this one from one of my older sisters. I loved the title song!

4. Def Leopard "Pyromania" - This whole album reminds me of my times cruising the El Camino in high school. Those were the days back in San Mateo.

3. Andy Gibb - "Shadow Dancing" - Still inside to this day is my handwritten note to Andy Gibb asking him to go to the Winter Formal with me. I never finished. I reread it and decided, I was such a dork!!

2. The Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" I think this was one of my brothers, I think I almost felt like I owned "pornography" when I had this one hidden under my bed for years!

1. Eddie Money "No Control" This was my old life history rapped up on a record.