Bill Young
Michigan Record Club
Bill
Young was born in 1958 and grew up in Sanford. He had four older sisters and
they all liked to listen to music. His parents had a small collection of older
country music. This led to a lifelong love for music and his eventual sojourn
into record collecting.
Bill recalls, “I was young when the Beatles
made their impact on our radio stations. I also remember their impact on my
sisters. I found it interesting and quite amusing that the girls were so
smitten by the Beatles. They were also fond of Elvis and his style of rock
& roll. I thought he was great. I made it a point to watch all of his
movies at the local Drive-in Theatre.”
As
he approached his teenage years, one of the biggest problems was that he didn’t
have any good radio stations to. “So if we wanted to listen to the new rock and
roll music, we had to buy the records. I started out listening to my sisters
45’s but in my opinion they were already out dated. At the age of twelve I was
buying my own music.”
In the early seventies Bill found that his
musical tastes leaned more toward the Rolling Stones than the Beatles. “The
first album I bought was “Let It Bleed” by the Rolling Stones, using my paper
route money and my lawn mowing money, I was able to buy several records. But
not just records. I also started buying Creem magazine which I shared with my
friends. This was how we kept pace with the rest of the music world.”
By
the time Bill reached the age of sixteen his collection consisted of all types
of rock music. As he got older, the rock got harder. “We did not take good care
of our vinyl as teenagers, said Bill, quite often I would leave my records at
my friends homes never to see them again. Once I started driving, I bought
8-track tapes and soon after that cassette tapes. These were great because it
was so much easier to take your music with you. No matter where I was, I could
hear the loud sound of music. My vinyl collection became a distant memory.”
When
Bill was in the military, his desire for vinyl returned with a vengeance. “I
had my own place off base and the first thing I bought was new stereo system,
of course this included a turntable. I bought some of my old vinyl favorites
and many new artists too. This was during the early 1980’s. I didn’t keep many
of the records I bought during this period because we simply played them to
death!
Bill has grown older. After working
twenty-seven years as a chemical operator, he’s retired due to heart problems
but his love for vinyl has grown so much in recent years that he decided to use
the new technology on the internet to form a Record Club.
“My thoughts were that if so many interest
groups were gathering on Facebook, then why not try to find other people that
have the same love of records that I have. That’s how the Michigan Record Club
was conceived. For several years, there seemed to be a big decline in vinyl
record sales. It became so bad that most all artists and music producers gave
up on vinyl. Nearly every yard sale had a box of old records that people were
selling so cheap that they were almost giving them away. I started buying when
people were selling but I didn’t get too carried away. The record club began to
build slowly. I thought we were a dying breed. The only store that sold records
was a place called “Records and Tapes Galore.”
Bill
soon noticed that more and more people were becoming friends to his Facebook
page. “I had over 2000 friends (including this writer). Then Facebook shut down
the page. Without any notice, I was told that the record club needed to be in a
different format. I was dejected. I had to start the club all over again following
a new format called a group. I was thrilled to see the people coming back to
the club. I was also excited to see that vinyl record sales were making a comeback.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that vinyl is returning.”
Like
so many purists of great analog sound, Bill bemoans the rise of disposable
music. “ As the format of music evolved from vinyl to tape, to compact disks
and finally to digital MP3 and streaming, we lost that personal connection that
we had with our love of music. People will still continue to stream music as
they are traveling and working but when you are home relaxing, what better way
to kick back and listen to your favorite band than to put on an album, read the
back of the album cover and enjoy the rich analog sound of vinyl!”
Michigan
Record Club does not have any real formal meetings. “We don’t have dues to pay
and most anyone is free to join. I have removed people that didn’t follow the
simple rule of being kind and thoughtful. Many of the club members now actually
are friends and we all buy, sell and swap records with each other. I get phone calls
from people that think we are a “Brick and Mortar” store. They ask if I have
records for sale or even if we fix turntables. I explain what the Club is and
then I give them guidance to get whatever they need. I have never run a regular
record store but I have bought the entire content of a record store. I would
much rather help run record shows. The Club supports and helps sponsor a local
show in Bay City twice a year. We also are in close contact with many other
record show promoters in the state. Record shows are my favorite place to pick
up records. They have a large selection of records and it is the best place to
find the hard to get records. I still like yard sales and looking for people
that are will to sell their collections too!
If
you would like to join the Michigan Record Club contact Bill Young through his
Facebook page or call him @ 1-989-839-5709
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