I remember we said that vinyl is incredibly tenacious.
Old vinyl.
Solid, in thick cardboard envelopes.
Tenacious.
Just like old books.
Who, tell me, would think of looking at and lovingly stroking, gently inserting into place, CD inserts?
Absurd.
Unthinkable ...
Take envelopes from the 1940s and 1960s - there is so much expression in each letter, what a "monstrous eclecticism"!
How all this was done - what glues, seams, inner envelopes with dozens of tiny photo albums of the recording studio.
Song titles, sometimes lyrics, and even a modest ad: "Visit Colorado!"
"Buy turpentine!" ...
Albums of Elvis 56: Elvis Presley - like a frame torn from a time train, a piece of paper torn out on the fly, the letters of the name stuck to it as if by accident, on the back - an article;
ELVIS - half-turned with a guitar, light falling from nowhere - a new apostle of a new era, again an article on the back.
And a thought: what did he do the next moment, after the photo?
To the gallery page
Texts.
Large texts that had to be read - and they were read.
A short excursion - do you catch the general meaning of the phrase?
A short excursion into something important and big.
Albums of Nat King Cole 52nd: Unforgettable - in black and blue and with a yellow face of Cole, like a horror movie, and like a couple in love at night and a singer smiling at them with an incredible velvet baritone;
Penthouse Serenade.
Nat King Cole at the Piano - with a grand piano cover, and under it all the songs with the mirages of a big city and again with two lovers ...
Albums of Johnny Cash 64th: I Walk the Line - with a wry, half-sarcastic grimace-grin, capital J, ate half of the greasy coke;
Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian - with Kesham, similar to Goyko Mitic, who embarked on the warpath for the rights of all Indians of the universe on this and that side of the Warsaw Pact.
Style.
Madness.
The present.
I would like to pick up and consider.
Possess and inherit.
What is magic and power?
In the natural course of things.
Will explain.
Nat King Cole, who could have turned 102 on March 17, has been smoking menthol cigarettes all his adult life: “Choosing the right key in a song means everything for a serious vocalist, and smoking ... helps me get the hoarseness in my voice, which is so like the public.
If you want to sing, start smoking ... Do you love your audience? .. "
They envied him as hell - the purest phrasing, the exceptional accuracy of the proportions of bitterness and honey in the voice.
Ballads.
Hymns ...
Yes, Cole died early, leaving behind absolutely unoccupied space.
And I do not urge you to smoke (especially menthol cigarettes - I myself suffered from this in my youth).
I am only saying that, following the goal, the masters of the past made sacrifices on the altar of their victories.
Sometimes costing them their lives.
And one more thing: many of them - and almost all of them - knew how to age beautifully and courageously.
What can not be said about the "megastars" of the present time, with all their might keep themselves in the corridor "18-32 / evening make-up".
If Cash had recorded his last five albums with this makeup ...
Jerry Lee Lewis.
Dried through and through by the sun, whiskey, trials and own bile.
Check out his shows over the past 40 years.
Slowly, slowly turning into a decrepit ruin, he still continues to tear the world and the halls apart.
Into small pathetic pieces.
Even if he needs help getting up on stage.
BB King.
Immense.
On a high bar stool with an unchanged guitar.
Virtually no movement in the last 20 years of his career.
And the raging halls around ...
How they knew how to stay on stage.
On stage, not for her.
By the way, on the same day, on the same day with Nat Cole, another significant person for me was born - Kurt Russell (he turned 70).
Of course, he is not exactly a singer, although he played Elvis very well in the film of the same name in the 78th.
Russell is a man.
Consciously aware of himself in time and space.
For 38 years he has been living for himself and living with the beauty of Goldie Hawn, and let at least someone dare to say that this is not so - that she is not a beauty and not a princess.
Of course, since the days of “Man Overboard,” both have aged a lot.
But how!
With what pomp and luxury!
Now the gray-haired Serpent Plisskin plays Santa in The Christmas Chronicles, and his wife plays Santa's wife.
It seems to me that this is a beautiful story.
About vinyl envelopes, over the years only gaining weight, density and meaning.
Everything stepped over the horizon, lost sight of: printing, sound carriers, design principles, methods of attracting attention.
One thing is bad - there is less and less desire to buy a new-made, shiny with joy with all its might.
I understand.
Very extensive reflections ...
But what can I do with at least four hundred CDs that have lost their appeal a few years after they were acquired?
I listen to them - yes.
But they don't interact with me.
No yellowed pages.
There are no scratches on the apple.
A singer, a musician who lives his work through and through, to meat and bones, gradually wears out, fades to nothing, turns gray and sometimes malfunctions, just like vinyl 70 years ago, with difficulty giving the last, fastest and punched tracks - closer to the core of the disc, closer to death.
When side A ends on the disc, don't universes burn out, worlds are not overthrown? ..
Everything takes time.
Blame.
Relationships.
Significant things.
Elvis never released an album with a teddy bear on the cover, with the immortal and unkillable your lovin 'teddy bear.
But Jackson, who was Michael, revealed to the world of Thriller, where on the inside spread, as if imposingly, and meanwhile, tensely, lounging in a white suit, starred with ... a tiger.
A cute tiger cub, washed and combed, with beautiful stripes and a button-nose.
To the gallery page
You remember, you must remember: it was Jackson who became the bridge from that time to this ... His first albums were released on vinyl, only on vinyl - there was no other.
And then...
And then the tiger cub grew up and ate everyone and everything together with show business.
And he went to bed.
Into the taiga or wherever else.
What was left in the place of his meal?
The era of vinyl, like the era of the now almost mystical TSB (Great Soviet Encyclopedia - 31 volumes of sacred knowledge, buy while you still have it), reminds us of sleeping everywhere, including in drawers of desks, in bookcases, tiny tiger cubs.
Don't let yourself be devoured.
The present is worth preserving and inheriting.
To the world.
Children.
It was a speech about vinyl records, antediluvian printing and prehistoric design.
And also - about the masters of the past, who above all put the voice of the Highest Present, which lived within them.
However, you shouldn't burn a CD right now.
You never know what and when it will be required for kindling.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.