[78-L] Collecting vs. 'Investing'

[William A Brent]

At 02:36 AM 7/16/2009, you wrote:
>
>I'm fascinated by the reasons why we get into this in the first place.
>

My Grandfather, and The Jolson Story.

My grandfather was a worker in the electric company here in NYC (Con Ed), among
other things - but he loved music. During prohibition he would earn 
his refreshments
at the local "speaks" by banging away at a piano. By the time I came 
along, his self
taught play-by-ear banging was confined to house parties and an hour or two of
personal enjoyment (whenever his wife was out of the house :-).
To be able to play in the bars back then, he needed to know just about any song
-and- pick the tune up by simply hearing it.
Through him I came to know most of the popular music from the gay 90's on up.
I never learned to play, and my family at most ever had about 20 records (they
believed in radio - in those days you could always find good music on the air).
So if I wanted to hear the songs I liked, when I wanted, then I had 
to buy a record.
here again - it was the specific song I was interested in (as far as I knew, it
was my father who performed it).
Then somewhere along the line, NY TV channel 9 (WOR) got ahold of The Jolson
Story, and ran it on their "Million Dollar Movie" feature - this 
meant every night at
8 and several times on the week-end.
Well after a week of this, I had to have every Jolson recording I could find.
and that's where it began.
Jolson, of course, recorded many of the song I liked, and through his records
I discovered other songs - and through those - other performers and so on.
One of those original 20 records my family had was a Mills Brothers album
(my uncle brought it back from Japan in the early 1950s). My Grand 
Father (again)
was a fan of the Brothers and again - they recorded many of the songs 
I knew and
liked. So there was my introduction to vocal group harmony (and you 
couldn't ask
for a better guide).
So hear I sit, 40 years after I bought my first record, with 23,000+ 
companions for it,
and a legacy of music I've been lucky enough to pass on to my kids. 
(One of whom
is now - today- performing at the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland.

Not such a bad hobby - is it?

and (just to keep with the subject of the thread) - I never bought a 
single record
(or album :-) because I thought it would be a good investment, or 
because it had
some $$ value.  Gads! If I thought these piles of vinyl and lacquer 
were worth something,
I might never play them - then what would be the point?

Bill