By Scott Westerman – Curator – Keener13.com
My first 45: Limbo Rock by Chubby Checker. My first LP: Shut Down Vol II by the Beach Boys. LPs who’s grooves I wore out with repeated play: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Earth, Wind & Fire. The number of LPs and 45s in my library now: 672

Remember the sound of putting a needle to vinyl and waiting for the first track to vibrate out of the grooves, through the cartridge and the pre-amp, across the amplifier’s power transistors (after adding appropriate bass and pressing the ‘loudness’ button) and along the two pairs of copper wires towards those expensive speakers that were the heartbeat of that stereo system that cost almost as much as your first automobile?

In the day, exploring an album often meant discovering a deep track, about three cuts in, that would never be selected as a single, but touched something at your emotional core (Quatermass – Good Lord Knows is one of my faves). If the LP was Abbey Road or Dark Side of the Moon, it meant 45 minutes of bliss, interrupted only by the amount of time it took to flip the disk to side two. If it was The Firesign Theater’s “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pilers”, it was something you replayed until the Adventures of Porgie and Mudhead were burned, line by line, into your long term memory.

Vinyl was an experience you shared. Listening to the Bridge Over Troubled Water LP while exploring the heights of passion with a half dozen other junior high couples in the dark corners of a friend’s basement. Wondering what the heck the obscure band was that the guys at Discount Records always liked to play while you and your testosterone charged buddies were trying to sneak a peak at banned Jimi Hendrix “Electric Lady Land” album cover. Or running Funkadelic’s “I Got A Thing” over and over so your band could learn the nuances of a bass line, a wah wah peddle, and some drum licks in a hopeless attempt at imitation.

Vinyl, when mixed with the 12AX7A vacuum tubes that powered your stereo created a warmth that added an indescribable something that the best digital Pro Tools plug-in could never recreate. The LP’s cover became a work of art in itself. Sgt. Pepper’s cover launched a hundred analytical dissertations, fed the Beatle rumor mill and became fodder for trivia buffs who memorized the names and faces of every image thereon.

Vinyl, in the hands of the right disc jockey became an instrument that could create a symphony where disparate artists came together in a seamless harmonic whole to take you on an emotional roller coaster ride.

Then came one turn of the evolutionary road, where it was thought that Vinyl was as anachronistic as a pterodactyl, technically deficient and ultimately too fragile to be a permanent part of the audio archive. CDs and their successor, the MP3 were pure digital storage devices that could be identically cloned without the generational losses inherent in the magnetically arranged iron filings on strips of Mylar or the vibratory bands encircling black plastic.

For three decades we’ve believed that digital perfection was the be all and end all. But now, it seems that everything old is new again. Even as CD sales continue to decline, vinyl is in a renaissance.

The Chicago Tribune quotes Ken Shipley, co-owner of the Numero Group, a Chicago label that specializes in reissues of underground soul music. “We’re seeing the (vinyl) resurgence in all walks of life: from 50-year-old guys who want high-quality product to match their high-end stereos to 19-year-old kids who are sick of the minimalist Ikea design that has plagued dorm rooms for the last decade..Vinyl is the new books.”

Pressing plants are being brought out of mothballs and limited edition vinyl box sets are selling out, at price points that would make CD manufacturers salivate. Bill Gagnon, senior vice president of catalog marketing at EMI Music told the Trib that he expects vinyl to eventually make up about 4% of EMI’s revenue. As with everything else, its the younger generation that is driving the demand.

Will the LP supplant digital? Nope. The pure ease of carrying your entire record library around in a cigarette box that renders it perfectly and pristine first time, every time ensures a digital future.

But like the Keener generation, new audiences are discovering the same magic we remember from that first time we put needle to groove.

On June 10, Capitol released a box set with the Beach Boys US Singles from their 1962-1966 prime. This 66 track collection features both the A and B sides, the original mono mixes, stereo mixes and a ton of other goodies that we’ve come to expect with Beach Boy re-releases. It includes a 48 page hardbound book. Capitol has the new media marketing nailed too. The official Beach Boy website has a special section devoted to the box set that includes a flash player allowing you to listen to your favorite tune in its original glorious mono format.

At Keener13.com, we have all the original Beach Boy singles on 45, every Beach Boy LP?and just about every Capitol CD re-issue, including the first box set. Even though we haven’t bought one music CD during the last year, we’re headed to Borders to get this collection. The packaging and the aggregated content can’t be duplicated on ITunes and the product is created with such attention to detail and class, that it will be well worth the investment.

I’m thinking about how carefully the Disney folks manage their brands. They study every possible marketing channel and have found ways to package their products in every conceivable format to maximize the customer value add and associated cash flow. As the RIAA and record companies lament mp3 sharing, packages like this are the way to regenerate interest and supercharge sales.

Beyond the haircuts, one of the distinctive visuals associated with the Beatles is the logo that adorned Ringo’s Ludwig drum kit. Brian Epstein was an early believer in the holistic approach to rock n roll branding. The hair, the suits, the boots, the guitars, the drums and the logo all contributed to the total Beatle experience. As a recent Freep slide show details a band’s logo is often instantly recognizable. Throughout the Keener era, you looked for The Brand when you flipped through albums at Harmony House, when you perused the newspaper concert pages and when you made those t-shirt purchases at the live shows. Dean Torrence, famously half of Jan & Dean, made a living in the imaging space crafting logos for the Turtles, Nillson and The Beach Boys. And today, The Brand is becoming more important that the records that were once its foundation. Radiohead and Prince have virtually given away their music in support of concert dates and merchandising. And Madonna recently abandoned Warner for Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, who will try to maximize cash flows through multiple revenue streams, the records are almost secondary.. Frank Maruca had an innate understanding of The Brand in the run-up to Keener’s Halloween night launch 44 years ago, printing matchbooks, bumper stickers?and high school book covers and plastering the station’s distinctive blue logo wherever he could. Even now, seeing it in its various incarnations instantly brings back memories.

“I’m not braggin babe so don’t put me down, but I’ve got the fastest set of wheels in town.” With that sentence, Brian Wilson and Roger Christian kicked off one of the most popular car songs of all time. Little Deuce Coupe was actually a B-Side, released on the flip of Surfer Girl in July of 1963, three months before WKMH became WKNR. Along with the album of the same name, Little Deuce Coupe cemented the Beach Boys’ reputation as THE hot rod band of the 60s. But none of this would have happened if Capitol Records had not tweaked Brian Wilson’s ire. That same summer, the Beach Boys’ label released a car compilation entitled “Shut Down” that featured the Boys’ single of the same name along with 409 and a host of other non-Beach Boy material. It happend without Brian Wilson’s involvement or approval and he immediately decided that the band should fire back with a hot rod album of their own. Brian, along with DJ Christian, polished the lyrics of a half dozen new car songs and the band rushed into the studio in September, recording 8 new automotive tinged tracks, tacking on the previously released Deuce Coupe, Our Car Club and Shut Down and topping off the production with Be True To Your School. The album was released in October, only 12 weeks after the Surfer Girl collection (with Little Deuce Coupe on board) hit the record stores. The single peaked nationally at number 4. Little Deuce Coupe, the LP, eventually went platinum and is still available today on CD, coupled with All Summer Long. The album is also notable as the last time we hear David Marks’ rhythm guitar. Al Jardine had returned during the Deuce Coupe sessions becoming Marks’ permanent replacement. It’s one of those Keener anomalies that while the Beach Boys charted 21 times on the station, “Be True To Your School” was the only tune from Deuce Coupe that made it to the WKNR Music Guide. There’s a Detroit connection to the iconic blue and white Deuce Coupe that’s featured on the album cover. Read Susan Whitall’s fascinating story for the details.