The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I've always thought that the "world of collecting" anything is rather small. I collect folk art pottery, pocket watches and a few other things along with phonographs and find the same type of comments from people about them all. It's also the same types of personalities who are collectors, no matter what the genre... you can find people who collect cars, beer bottles, oil cans, old computers, McDonald wrappers, etc. and it all boils down to two motivations: (1) desire for money, or (2) an obsession with the actual items. Some people love to pick and discover items to sell to other people and other people become hoarders of stuff that they like and don't want to part with... It's really an escape from the unpleasant reality of daily living, like any other addiction... Most "normal" people don't see how eccentric their lives are that revolve around drinking, partying, clubbing, etc. which I don't understand at all... I just don't care what other people think about my collecting...

Curt A wrote:I've always thought that the "world of collecting" anything is rather small. I collect folk art pottery, pocket watches and a few other things along with phonographs and find the same type of comments from people about them all. It's also the same types of personalities who are collectors, no matter what the genre... you can find people who collect cars, beer bottles, oil cans, old computers, McDonald wrappers, etc. and it all boils down to two motivations: (1) desire for money, or (2) an obsession with the actual items. Some people love to pick and discover items to sell to other people and other people become hoarders of stuff that they like and don't want to part with... It's really an escape from the unpleasant reality of daily living, like any other addiction... Most "normal" people don't see how eccentric their lives are that revolve around drinking, partying, clubbing, etc. which I don't understand at all... I just don't care what other people think about my collecting...

Well said !

I played a record for the 18-year-old son of a neighbor. He remarked, "That's crazy!" But, at the same time he had a look of wonderment on his face and was smiling the whole time. He never took his eyes off the record. I think "crazy" for him was a term of admiration.

Edit: I realize the thread is stated to be about "the most stupid comment." I in no way would call my neighbor's son "stupid." On the contrary, he is a brilliant young man, and I never meant to construe what he said as "stupid."

CharliePhono wrote:I played a record for the 18-year-old son of a neighbor. He remarked, "That's crazy!" But, at the same time he had a look of wonderment on his face and was smiling the whole time. He never took his eyes off the record. I think "crazy" for him was a term of admiration.

Exactly right! I bet you that's what he was thinking. Nice of you to have demonstrated one of the phonographs. I've taught a few visitors how to start the motors and all that as well--they almost don't like touching them, almost like the phonograph is alive or sentient and responds only to its handler. I think most younger folks have a hard time imagining anything that old (and in the grand scheme of things, they're not that old really.)

Think about it. Imagine being 18, lived in a post-2000 world your whole life. To you, old music is Green Day or My Chemical Romance. Rock and roll is for Boomers, unless you consciously like "old music" and go around grooving to Steppenwolf. Depression is a serious mental health issue, not a period of economic downturn. Old technology is a corded pushbutton phone, or a CRT television. A real antique is a Toyota Corolla AE86 set up for drifting, a floppy diskette, a Salad Shooter, or one of those fish things from the '80s that sings "Don't worry, be happy." And then you see a windup phonograph.

It looks like the bastard love child of a casket and a coffee-grinder, heavier and bulkier than anything you expect to use. You've seen them in the background of a thousand video games. The music sounds a lot like the soundtrack from Cuphead, or from Fallout, or Bioshock Infinite. In that sense, it links your time, and a forgotten world. Something is making it work--it has a suspiciously small amount of actual mechanism; just a heavy-duty gearbox and a bathtub spout for a tonearm. You crank it. Nothing happens. You put a record on. Nothing happens. It starts spinning on its own. Controls are functional without the first bit of electricity...and then the music starts, loud music, music you can not only hear, but also feel the vibrations of. And the music itself: whatever is on those old heavy discs or wax cylinders, is a music foreign to your own world: instead of "The Black Parade" you have "Ready for the River," instead of Johnny Cash's take on "Foolish Questions" you have Billy Murray. Rather than Billie Ellish there is Ada Jones and Vesta Victoria; not Madonna, but Nora Bayes; no Lady Gaga, but Olive Kline and Elsie Baker.

Essentially, artifact value makes the phonograph seem like a sort of opening into another world. It is a tangible link with a past we will never live, but which we keep experiencing.

I guess in that sense it really would be "crazy."

CharliePhono wrote:I played a record for the 18-year-old son of a neighbor. He remarked, "That's crazy!" But, at the same time he had a look of wonderment on his face and was smiling the whole time. He never took his eyes off the record. I think "crazy" for him was a term of admiration.

I use that term for things i'm impressed with a lot.

marcapra wrote:Is the original poster a teenager in high school? Sounds like what I would expect from many teenagers who may only relate to rap music today. I'm a retired teacher and I once played a 1930 jazz record by Fess Williams to an 8th grade classroom. I'll never try that again! They just don't relate to it at all. Except of course for a few non conformists who have independent taste.

How long ago was this? I bet some kids liked it but pretended not to to look cool to their peers. I’ve been there.