Page 69 - The Hunt - Fall 2021

Memories
Vinyl and radio buffs wax nostalgic over voices from the past.
When Nipper’s master died, the mixed-breed terrier went home with the dead man’s brother, painter Francis Barraud. Earlier, Barraud made a recording of his sibling on a revolutionary machine that engraved his spoken words onto a cylinder. At some point, Barraud thought
it might be consoling to play the dead man’s voice so the bereaved dog could hear it.
Barraud memorialized the pet’s reaction in a painting of a puzzled Nipper peering into the big horn, his head at an angle. The work was purchased by the Gramophone Company, a precursor of RCA Victor, and became the iconic logo for its records.
People are a little more complex. We have great memories of when we heard sounds made somewhere else and transported via
a variety of inventions—chiefly various iterations of telephones, radios, and record players or their digital successors. “There are 20 to 30 guys who are serious collectors, and some come in two or three days a week to see what LPs have come into the store,” says Blane Dulin, proprietor of Goodboy Vinyl, a small shop on Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington that stocks thousands of albums.
Vinyl was almost extinct. But it’s since made a comeback, spurred by a mix of nostalgia, digital disenchantment and
audiophilic obsession. Goodboy is one of a growing number record stores in the region. Some held on through lean times, while others are brand new. “Most customers are middle-aged, but we get younger people, as well,” says Dulin, glancing at a college-aged couple browsing in the country section.
Most used albums in Dulin’s store average about $8 each, with new and reissued LPs running $20-$30. There are extremes, from the more beat-up vinyl in the dollar bin to coveted jazz recordings that fetch $300- $3,000 each. LP collectors typically aren’t trying to make money from ferreting out rare records. “Mostly, they’re looking to round out
By Roger Morris
Sound
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VINTAGE