June 12, 2021 Record Store Day

“Something’s at the edge of your mind, you don’t know what it is
Something you were hoping to find but you’re not sure what it is
Then you hear the music and it all comes crystal clear
The music does the talking says the things you want to hear

I’m young, I’m wild and I’m free
I’ve got the magic power of the music in me”

I heard this magical musical piece from the Canadian rock band Triumph this morning and it brought me back to a day and a time that always lifted my spirits. The feeling of the music surged through my body and my soul. Triumph has released a fortieth-anniversary box set of their iconic album Allied Forces in celebration of Record Store Day.

Now we have heard it all, there is a day for everything.

Record store day was created in support of the few remaining record stores left in today’s online world. A world that has changed even faster since covid invaded our lives. Music is now easier to get than ever before and the old way of visiting a retail location and picking out the newest release is quickly fading away. I miss those days of visiting the record store and spending time looking through bargain bins or searching the new releases for undiscovered gems of musical treasure.

Now we have the instant gratification of online music. And it’s not the same. Today’s youth will never know the joy of finding an undiscovered gem recommended by the person behind the counter at places like Sam The Record Man, A & B Sound, and many more stores that used to dot the urban landscape.

I remember as a youth I would take the CTrain and go shopping at The Record Store on Tenth Sreet in the Kensington district of Calgary. My cousin worked there and they sold new and used records and cassettes. I would browse the records and ask his opinion. There was a turn-table behind the counter and he would put on a record if someone wanted to sample it. It was a simple time when life was slow and we had time to decide on a purchase. When I only had fifteen bucks and a record was three dollars or two for five – the decision was an important one. 

Today music is free and available everywhere. It is a wonderful world where new music is played for us by apps like Spotify, Itunes, and of course YouTube – still, something is missing…

It’s too easy. 

My love of music has expanded thanks in no small part to these apps. So I can’t look at it as a bad thing. But I do miss those times in the eighty’s and nineties when I had time to spend a day exploring music, new and old. 

The last few years have seen a resurgence of vinyl and rock and roll music. Bands like Greta Van Fleet, Halestorm, Five Finger Death Punch, and of course The Pretty Reckless have brought about a resurgence in rock and roll in my life. These bands have released their new music on record. Ironically my beautiful wife bought me the new Pretty Reckless record on red vinyl, only she didn’t realize it at the time. Online orders can work that way sometimes. Back in the day we would actually touch, feel and hold things before we bought them. 

Now life is getting more online, more disconnected. 

Record Store Day brings me back to those days of my youth. Days that will never return, but I celebrate nonetheless. I need to return to the record store and go buy that box set from Triumph. But it is so much easier to turn on YouTube and watch the music flow through my screen and my stereo.

It really is too easy.

I realize that’s ok as I cranked up another amazing Triumph song that will forever speak to my soul:

“Music holds the secret,
To know it can make you whole
It’s not just a game of notes,
It’s the sound inside your soul
The magic of the melody
Runs through you like a stream
The notes that play flow through your head
Like a dream”

Hold On Copyright Triumph Just A Game c1979