Sunday July 2, 2017 Vinyl Records

The vinyl record made a comeback about ten years ago and continues to grow in popularity. New artists often prefer to release their newest work in this format and there is a thriving scene in reissuing classic titles. Now, your public lirary is launching the reintroduction of vinyl into our library collections with a celebration of the music of 1967, the year of the breakthrough Beatles album Sgt. Pepper and the year that rock albums truly came of age. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of this watershed year we have gathered fifty albums of 1967 and installed a listening station with two turntables at the Waverley Library. This allows one to deep dive into the music of that intensivly creative era and to enjoy the unique pleasures of the vinyl experience.

The music of 1967 displayed a tremendous variety as bands eager to test new ideas, dramatically altered the form of popular music and drew on wide influences of blues, folk, eastern music, jazz, classical and the avante-garde to expand the musical vocabulary. The experimentation showed towards music was paralleled in the stories of social and cultural movements around the world and also in the blossoming of creativity in album cover art. These facts adds even more resonance to the experience of listening to this music whether it is to relive an idealistic time which you have gone through before, or whether you are discovering this music for the first time.

Seemingly all at once, many important figures in the field were creating landmark albums every month, and defining how music would develop over the coming years. There was an overwhelming number of major artists who were releasing their classic works, or debuting their music for the first time in 1967. Heavyweights such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Kinks, Aretha Franklin and the Who were in their prime but also appearing for the first time were such artists as Leonard Cohen, the Doors, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Procol Harem, the Velvet Underground, Traffic, Van Morrison, the Moody Blues and many others. Just seeing that short list of names should tell you why it was such a defining year for music.

We want everyone to enjoy to enjoy this opportunity to have a hands-on relationshp with this music. Starting this upcoming week, you can find some of the records to try out at the listening station (bring your own earphones or buy one at the desk) and staff will be happy to help those who are unfamiliar with  the technology. The collection of fifty abums allows us to provide a wide range of music from the big names and classic titles to lesser-known albums, and some interesting oddities.

Some albums are in new remastered heavy vinyl and some are actually fifty year old originals. The whole installation involves quite a bit of experimentation as we endeavour to find out what works best for library users. We hope that you will try out the listening stations and share what you think about this new aural experience @ Your Library.

Angela Meady