Featured Essay: My First Record Player

by Jonathan Lee

During The Great Purge of 2019 I had to part with many things I didn’t want to part with, one being my first record player, a mid-70s portable model made by RCA. It hadn’t been used in years and was just collecting dust. The only value it had was sentimental. In the late 90s I’d seen one identical to it as part of a rock n’ roll themed exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. If you’ve never seen one, it folds up with the speakers in the back and a built-in handle on top. You can swing the speakers out or detach them for more separation. 

The sides of my speakers were adorned with decals that came with Grand Funk Railroad’s We’re An American Band album from 1973. Mine is one of the original transparent yellow vinyl pressings. I decorated the interior with stickers from Kiss’s Rock n’ Roll Over album from 1976. The one I saw at the exhibit had the interior gutted. In its place was a diorama of a teenager’s bedroom from the 70s replete with a blacklight and blacklight posters. It was in the folded up position so you were only afforded a small peek inside. It is one of the most beautiful and imaginative works of art I’ve ever seen. 

In memory of my friend Jon Hinson, who we lost in a 4-wheeler accident in 1976 at the age of 37, I’d always wanted to put the live version of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” from Made In Japan from 1972 on the turntable and then set off a couple strategically placed M-80s underneath it, blowing the turntable and the record to Kingdom Come. Unless you knew Jon, you might not understand. He loved both the song and explosives, especially those he created himself. I could not think of a more fitting tribute to someone I loved so dearly. He was like a brother to me. 

Once the smoke would clear and the remnants of the record player sit in rubble on the ground, the lasting memories would be of playing some of the first albums I ever owned: the Grand Funk Railroad (purchased for a party), Kiss Alive!, Black Sabbath Paranoid, ZZ Top Tres Hombres, etc. I will also never forget the summer of 1981 when I gave it a workout with my copy of the debut album from David Lindley and El Rayo-X El Rayo-X. I set it up in the shade on my parents’ patio so I could listen to it while doing yard work. 

Though I have no regrets, I am a bit saddened that it met its demise in a dumpster when it could have gone out in a blaze of glory to the refrain of Ritchie Blackmore’s infamous guitar riff from “Smoke on the Water.” 

Addendum 

This record player was of the cheap, starter variety that would have made me the bane of existence of the vinyl gatekeepers of social media today. For me, it was about the love of the music. Yes, I could have played my records on my parent’s much nicer stereo in the living room, and I did. 

Still, I liked having my own record player in my room and the ability to take it most anywhere I wanted: the patio, our beach cottage, or in the basement of a house still under construction in my neighborhood where we ran a drop cord so we could listen to Tres Hombres, Pure Prairie League’s Two Lane Highway, and Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut to our hearts content while getting drunk on cheap homemade wine. 

Playlist/Soundtrack 

Grand Funk Railroad “We’re An American Band” (from We’re An American Band)

Kiss “Black Diamond” (from Alive!) 

Kiss “I Want You” (from Rock n’ Roll Over) 

ZZ Top “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” (from Tres Hombres) 

Black Sabbath “Fairies Wear Boots” (from Paranoid) 

Black Sabbath “The Wizard” (from Black Sabbath) 

Pure Prairie League “Two Lane Highway” (from Two Lane Highway) 

Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water” (from Made in Japan) 

Playlist on Apple Music 

Bio 

Jonathan Lee is a writer, artist, photographer and sometime skateboarding enthusiast who resides on the coast of North Carolina. His work has been published in the print publications No Depression and Mojo as well as online at Guitartown, Welfare Music, Fresh Dirt, Clink Magazine, Miles of Music, and Candid Slice. He periodically shares his musings on music on his blog, The Company I Keep. 

Bluesky 

https://bsky.app/profile/beetlebump.bsky.social