Introducing the vinyl log

Whilst power walking last night, I was listening to 10cc, primarily songs drawn from their second and third albums ('Sheet music' and 'The original soundtrack'). Listening to those songs brings up powerful memories, so after wallowing in them for a while, I thought of a way of making those memories more permanent.

After returning home, I created an ordered list (by month of purchase) of vinyl records which I own/ed; I intend  to write about them over the coming year on the anniversary of their purchase. For example, on April 5, 1974, I became the possessor of "The silent corner and the empty stage", a solo album by Peter Hammill, so I shall write about the acquisition of this record (and possibly about the songs) in three days time.

Obviously, I was anal enough in my teens to write the purchase dates on each record (I suspect that I am not alone in this). The data was transferred to cd sleeves when I updated the media and from there to the cd database program which I wrote years ago. I obtained about two thirds of the dates for my list from the database but there were obvious lacunae in the data. As a result, I had to find all the original vinyl records and record their purchase dates.

There will still be records missing from this list: those which I discarded at some stage. A few which come to mind are "Cricklewood Green" and "Watt" by Ten Years After which I bought in 1970 but tired of some time later. I bought the three record version of Woodstock at some stage but sold it after moving to London, the same as with King Crimson and 'Lizard'. Out of sight, out of mind (although I bought a 30 year anniversary cd remix of 'Lizard' whilst on holiday in Eilat about fifteen years ago).

Whilst compiling the list, it became clear that whilst I generally remember the circumstances surrounding records bought before I emigrated to Israel, the circumstances of those bought/acquired afterwards are somewhat hazy. But this is a general problem and I think that it's because pre-emigration, I was always doing something different and memorable. When I became an adult, I would go to work every day and one day would melt into another.