Publisher's Synopsis
With lists of 45 rpm records on almost every page, this book is a great reference for nearly two thousand popular songs from the seventies and eighties. The story is powered by the sound and structure of music, the history of radio and charts, the visual appeal of labels and sleeves, and the experience of shopping and becoming a collector. Whether you skim the surface or dive into the details, it's an enjoyable trip down memory lane.
Steven Elliott is a longtime audiophile, musician, and record collector. He was born in the sixties but is truly a child of the seventies. He enjoys playing the piano along with his favourite songs on the stereo. He feels strongly that collecting, especially 45 RPM records, is not just a way of making order out of chaos. Since 1974, he has spent years backing up his records to tape and CD, trying to capture and replicate that elusive analogue sound. From the days of a simple record player and tape machine, he now uses a music CD burner. His discussions with people who truly don't understand the concept of analogue are extremely short, if non-existent. He has balked at those album fans who believe that collecting singles is a waste of time. "Why would you collect the single even once, if you already have the song on an album?" His response is "while you can find an album anywhere, you can't find singles just anywhere". Perfectly sized clear plastic bins with lids have become the ultimate way to store his 45 RPM collection and carefully crafted codes describe the many different attributes that just one single can have. Steve still marvels at how the single page of ideas about 45 RPM records he typed out years ago morphed into a full story. And it became more than just a story, a reference book of sorts, when he started reconciling all the song titles in each list in the story with the appendices full of those same titles. There is something special about the 45 RPM record and Steve takes us on an insightful journey as he tells that story.
