The Fatherlode, Part Two
I am at the top of the staircase in my childhood home. It is Saturday morning, and I am the first to wake. We have been here two days already, and I haven’t yet ventured to the Fatherlode.
To be honest, I’ve been apprehensive. What if it’s not what I remember it being? What if it is all in horrible condition? That would just make me sad. I have long said that I did not care enough for my records when I was a kid, but I didn’t remember how my Dad cared for his. I have high hopes but unknown expectations.
As I reach the lower tier of the stairwell, I look over the side - at the chest I will soon open. I call it a chest, for lack of a better term. This house was built in 1907. There are several built-in chests on the first floor of the home, all of which have 115 years of use - and wear.
There are several pictures to move off the lid before I can open it. Some blankets, too - and a pillow my Grandmother cross-stitched for me when I was around my son’s age. I get a little sentimental about it, then place it on the stairs next to the other items.
This bin is about 20 inches high, maybe two feet in depth, and four to five feet from side to side. I could take actual measurements, but I am unsure where to find a tape measure. I will post a picture, but you get the idea.
I pull a nearby chair to the front of the bin and sit. I lift the lid. The first thing that catches my eye is more blankets and old board games stacked to the left in the chest. As I move these items, I see the bin is at least two-thirds full of old records. Without an actual count, I compare its size to my memory of my current collection in Arizona, which is only about 80 records. I am guessing there are about 350 albums here.
I have no system or strategy, but it soon forms. I take a handful of records from the closest stack and flip through them.
“These are definitely Dad’s,” I think to myself. Lots of old soul music - and more jazz than I would have expected. My Dad was born in 1947, so he was about 17 when the Beatles played Ed Sullivan in February 1964. Beatles records were some of the first to be found in the trove - Meet the Beatles, Something New, Beatles ’65 - and a couple of copies of the soundtrack to A Hard Day’s Night. I pulled them all for inspection later, and continued.
Flipping through the collection, I find a vast assortment. Stan Getz. Buddy Rich. I hadn’t expected much jazz, but Mom tells me he loved that stuff. I was a drummer growing up, so I had a passing interest in the Buddy Rich albums.
I am looking for the classic rock records I remember so vividly. Some are here - Simon and Garfunkel’s Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme, Sweet Baby James by James Taylor, Carole King’s Tapestry. Fun fact of the day - before the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever soundtrack came out in 1979, this was the biggest-selling record of all-time. Tapestry has sold over 14 million copies and was absolutely getting put in my inspection pile.
Having just watched the excellent Soulsville USA documentary series on HBO, I am a little melancholic upon finding The History of Otis Redding and The Dock of the Bay. I mean - who doesn’t love The Dock of the Bay? This timeless song was rushed out following Otis Redding’s shocking death in a plane crash in 1968. Still heartbreaking 56 years later.
I am not finding some of the records I remember, like the Santana and Clapton albums I had anticipated. There are amazing finds, for sure, but the collection seems like 85% there compared to my memory. Had someone else had access to the collection before me? Did the albums get relocated? Is my memory worse than I feared? Likely.
Before any disappointment settles in, however, I find a few of my sister’s records here, too. Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. A Thriller 12” single. Rapper’s Delight and White Lines… we had pretty disparate musical tastes. I am hoping maybe I’ll come across Prince’s 1999 or Purple Rain, but that doesn’t work out. Instead, there’s the Bay City Rollers Greatest Hits - missing its cover. I briefly consider keeping this one - I mean, “Saturday Night” is a banger that I used to play back in the day with my short-lived college rock band. It gets put in the pile.
The first of my records to show up is Asia’s Alpha album from 1983. Actually, I assume this one is mine—I don’t recall ever owning it. It could be from my sister’s collection, too. I put it in a new pile of records, starting to separate the collection by who the records belonged to. If she wants it, she can have it—it’s a pretty easy decision not to bring this one back to Arizona.
More get added to this pile. Have you ever heard of Tom Kimmel? I am streaming “That’s Freedom” from his debut 5 To 1 because I have no idea what this even is. It’s a 1980s American anthem, and I think I can figure out why it is forgotten. The second track, “Shake,” is better, but I will add this on Spotify and leave the record here. This song sounds like The Gaslight Anthem, which is a good thing.
When I was in college, I did a summer internship at WECQ (CQ102) and WGVA here in Geneva, New York. One of my tasks was to go through a warehouse of items for disposal. I remember finding old 78 RPM records from The Wizard of Oz - which I had kept for my mother, who loves that film. They are in the bin, along with a stack of old Westwood One radio shows.
Rock over London, In Concert, Rolling Stone magazine “History of Rock and Roll” - I remember stockpiling a bunch of these and find them here with my collection. I don’t know if they’ve ever even been played. There are probably 30 or so of them in this bin. Most don’t have the sheets with them that would tell me what’s featured on the album, but I Googled one of the In Concert albums by the code on the album, and it says it is an Elton John show. Determining the contents and collectibility of the Westwood One discs will take time and research, which is a mission for another time.
With the albums pulled from the chest, I see a small box and examine its contents. We have some 45 RPM records to look at also. I decided to go through those later, as there is another case of 45s I am aware of that has yet to be found. Having completed the initial review of the Lode’s contents, I now have a stack of about 70 records for closer inspection. The remaining albums are sorted by music type and get put back in the bin. We are developing plans for what to do with them, but they are safe here for now.
I now have some trifling concerns, however. The specific albums I had been seeking from my collection aren’t here. Surely, they are in the house somewhere, and I remember them being contained by a grey case that held about 20 records. If they aren’t here, they are almost certainly in the attic.
The adventure continues…
