Friday Music Day

FMD — 7″ Vinyl Singles

18 Comments

I haven't bought into the vinyl renaissance. Part of the reason is that I've bought vinyl when I was a kid and young adult, then cassettes, then CDs, now streaming services. I'm not going back to buying albums that I've owned on like three other platforms. Also I like the long playing feature that CDs, I-tunes, and streaming services provides. I do have about 20-30 albums that I've kept or collected along the way that I will listen to occasionally, but not often.

However, I am a sucker for 7" singles and continue to scour record stores and bookstores for cool singles, especially older classic singles, 70's AM Radio hits, and punk singles from the 1970s and early 1980s. I'm not looking for pristine copies that are collectibles, but actually well used (to a degree) records from the era. I also have an older type record player with a tinny speaker.

Basically I love listening to I Want to Hold Your Hand, Heartbreak Hotel, Brown Eyed Girl, etc., as they were probably listened to by some teenager some 50, 60 years ago. It's a thrill to think that someone was probably in their rec room or bedroom listening to this same record and hearing Elvis for the first time, or the Beatles after just seeing them on the Ed Sullivan show.

Have you gotten back into vinyl? Do your parents or grandparents still have a stash of 45rpms stuck in a closet somewhere (if so, hit me up). Do you sometimes just listen to old records and go over the cover, liner notes, and photos?

Also, drop 'em if you got 'em.

18 thoughts on “FMD — 7″ Vinyl Singles”

  1. Spending the morning listening to the new album by The Body - I've Seen All I Need To See. It's perfectly overwhelming and obliterating, like every other The Body album.

    1. I originally posted this as 45" singles. When I saw my mistake I correct the 45 part but probably should have corrected the " part.

  3. I have gotten into vinyl, somewhat. I limit price to $10 and only buy records that were released before 1982.

    I do enjoy the "event" of listening to a record as opposed to streaming.

  4. Never heard of Tony Molina until earlier this week. Now I'm kinda obsessed. Every tune is about a minute long, give or take 15 seconds. Shades of Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr, Thin Lizzy, Pinkerton-era Weezer, and GBV. Best line I've read about him: For people who think Guided by Voices songs are too long. This is his second "LP"--10 songs in just under 12 minutes.

  5. Some of my fondest childhood memories are from when I was 5-6 years old and sneaking into my brothers room and playing their 45 singles with one of those spindles that you could stackabout 10 records on. When they were done, you'd flip the whole stack over and play the B-sides. They had a mess of Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Motown--and many others, maybe 200 in total. Yes, I am old.

    The sad ending to that story is I found out my mom had thrown them away after driving down to Mankato with a friend from college who had just come into possession of an old jukebox. To quote my mom as as my friend and I looked on slack-jawed, "Oh, those dusty old things weren't worth anything, were they?"

    Somewhere I still have the 7" of the Mat's "I'm in Trouble/If Only You Were Lonely" and Husker Du's "Makes No Sense at All/Love is All Around (MTM Theme)".

    1. I have a bunch of early to mid-80's local punk/rock singles including those you mentioned above.

      My wife used to talked about this treasure trove of early to mid-70s AM 45 radio hit singles they had as a kid. Unfortunately it got lost when their parents split up and my mother-in-law moved to California.

      1. Bummer. I think certain landfills might have a lot of wax.

        You in particular should check out the Tony Molina I posted above. And then listen to him blaze through "Everything Flows" live.

    2. My dad ran the Spamtown CC radio station for a number of years when I was young. He would bring home some of the longhair music that he received and wouldn't so much as spit on, let alone play on the air. I had a 45 of the Doors' Riders on the Storm that I played the heck out of, among other things (I think, later, he brought home a copy of the Stones' album, Goats' Head Soup).

    1. I was gonna pre-order the new Hold Steady, but I am 6 cents short on my gift card I have.

      I mean I'll still order it I just have to use my actual cc.

  7. I grew up with a small crate of a strange collection of 45s. Mostly 80s singles, but with a buncha randos thrown in as well (one of the stranger ones that came to mind was this one). They were mostly destroyed due to wear and tear and poor treatment. As I grew older, I learned to take care of my vinyl better. I amassed a decent sized collection from garage sales and thrift stores, though mostly pilfered from my dad's much larger collection. Unfortunately, I was "encouraged" to give up most of my collection in the move to Chicago.

    I did save my favorites though and have added to my small collection over the years. I wouldn't say I "collect" vinyl, but I do make the occasional purchase. I'm not replacing anything I already have, but if I want to support an artist, or back in the days that you could go to shows, I'll grab an album here and there. As I'm pretty much fully digital, it's nice to have some physical music to hold onto. Also, since pretty much every LP comes with a digital download these days, it's easy to listen to without having to power up the rig if you're not feeling it.

  8. B-sides were definitely the secret weapon of the 45. I still remember many of my early 45's B-sides: "Learn How to Fall", "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five", "A Good Time Man Like Me Ain't Got No Business (Singin' the Blues)", and of course "American Pie (part 2)"

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