Many of his friends will probably share my own memories of being introduced to wonderful new music through Alan’s vinyl record collection. During a recent visit to Phoenix, Susan and I discussed how sad it would be if that collection was lost – as a piece. In fact, we decided rather the opposite course would be ideal: somehow retain the integrity of the collection and even make it visible. Shareable, at least as titles and covers. We decided to do this and so Susan kindly offered me the contents if I could ship it across to England. Which is where it now is (visitors welcome!). As for the shareable part, I have tried to achieve this with the present website – which I hope conjures up some memories and perhaps offers a starting point for following up some titles at the local (or more likely, online) record store.
About the albums
The range of this collection indicates the reach of Alan’s enthusiasm for music. But it is not a snapshot of that. Because it is only a vinyl view. With each arrival of new media for sharing music (cassettes, CDs, digital recordings), Alan’s appetite continued to flourish but now beyond vinyl. Nevertheless if there is a snapshot feature here it is perhaps one of the Providence and Chicago years. And it is rich indeed. My attempts at classification for purposes of this site are surely flawed, as are all such exercises. But, hopefully, it at least supports some effective browsing. More details below.
This website
The images found on the ‘galleries’ pages should create orderly displays on tablets and smartphones – although they are evidently best viewed on desktop devices. There are two viewing formats. One is a carousel of front and back covers. The other is an aerial view of whole sets. Many of these covers are a visual treat. And many remind us how much effort was once put into ‘liner notes’. An effort no long much with us in new formats.
Because there are a lot of images and the underlying coding is crude, the galleries can be a little sluggish to load and respond. Particularly when browsing the back covers in the slider carousel format. Just keep clicking perhaps. If there are apparently missing images or gross mis-classifications, feel free to contact me (charles.crook AT gmail.com). In a few cases I have included a link to spotify if I know that an album is available there – but few are. However, if tempted to source something that you see here, try the Discogs site.