“My dad is not just a music lover, but a person who experiences music on a very special level and has shared his memories and his vast collection with me from when I was very little. In our front room, underneath a now extinct silver tape/record/radio player, was a cabinet full of vinyl recordings of everyone from Dolly Parton to Michael Jackson.
I remember two records I wanted my dad to play for me constantly were Harry Nilsson’s The Point! and Prokofiev’s Peter and The Wolf. I can listen to “Me and My Arrow” or the theme of the Grandfather on bassoon on these same vinyl recordings, and it takes right back to tiny me dancing for hours in that front room.
I loved the very first scratches the vinyl made, how that outer rim of that spinning plate created an anticipation for the sounds which were sure to come as the needle was carried further and further toward the center. It is an unforgettable memory.”
—Emily
Pearl and the Beard | Sweetness
“While I think I had a couple of childrens’ records, the most memorable record I remember first came from a collection of comic strips called “Bloom County” by Berkley Breathed. It was called “Billy and the Boingers Bootleg.” I took it out of the book and it was in the shape of a square. It was amazing to put it on my record player for the first time, because I didn’t think it would work since it was so thin AND square and came from a book, but it did, and it was amazing.”
—Jeremy
“Well, my first memory of vinyl is actually similar to Mirah’s (cited in her guest blog here.) Carol King’s musical interpretation of Maurice Sendak’s “Really Rosie” was definitely the first record I loved and played on repeat as a child. My dad had heard it when he was 18 years old, and bought it with the intention of playing it for his future children.
Eleven years later I was born, and have been totally hooked on that album ever since. But since my parents are such huge music lovers, we had tons of vinyl in our house. We had stacks and stacks of vinyl… mostly of my parents’ two favorite artists, Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa. I even had a few records of my own as a kid, one of my favorites being a collection of songs from Jim Henson’s series “Fraggle Rock.”
Pearl and the Beard | Reverend
But the record that stands out the most visually in my mind was Captain Beefheart’s “Trout Mask Replica.” I was terrified of it.”
—Jocelyn
Enter to win Pearl and the Beard’s brand new LP Killing the Darlings by leaving us a note in the comments to this post. Stream the tracks, check out the vid, and do your best to implore us to send you the record. Arm-twisting is wholly justified. We’ll choose our winner on Wednesday, July 13! North America and Canada residents only, please.
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Pearl and the Beard on Tour
June 29 – Pinhook, Durham, NC
June 30 – Blue Moon Café, Shepherdstown, WV
July 1 – The Red Palace, Washington, DC
July 7 – Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
