One of the best Christmas presents I have ever received is a turntable. In fact, every turntable I’ve ever owned, was a Christmas present. The first one was from my mom. It was a Hi-Fi Stereo component, with adjusting speeds for 33 LPs; 78s; and 45s. The gift was accompanied by the first album I ever owned too — “Imagination” from Gladys Knight and the Pips! A very popular LP at the time, it featured the songs “Midnight Train to Georgia”, “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” and “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination,” a song that to this day, still inspires me.
The motor on my compact stereo eventually died and I tossed the unit. The second turntable I got was a new fangled SONY brand in the 80s from a dear friend who was inspired by my love of music. This one ejected, you put on the disc and reloaded it with vinyl; there was a beam of light inside that illuminated on the stylus. Pretty cool, although fancy, not the greatest quality, but it played my records — so I was happy. 
I was living in Harlem just before the beginning of the crack era 
— my apartment got broken in to, my turntable and my cassette tape recorder were both stolen. At one point, I even had personalized labels made, to stick on the label of my records.
My third and current turntable was bestowed upon me by my wife two Christmas’ ago. A Crosley, I can actually transfer my vinyl to compact disc by way of computer. Although its a fantastic feature, I’ve been really enjoying listening to my records again, on a turntable. I’ll take advantage of the new technology soon enough, as my dad wants me to transfer some, if not all of his records to CD. I can finally use some turntable covers I’ve had for years too — first up has been Def Jam since I got my new toy. There’s just something about lifting a stylus and placing it on the groove of a round piece of spinning black vinyl, that delivers music in an organic way that’s no comparison to clicking and dragging tunes into my i-pod.
That’s it – that’s my vinyl testimonial. Here’s some of the music I’ve been enjoying lately. I took these shots with my crappy camera phone, to give them that nostalgic look 😉
For the love of vinyl and good music
c-dub
