Ever since May 16, 2020, I have been spinning my entire album collection from A to Z on what to me is the greatest audio format of all time, vinyl. I thought about this as a strategy to speed the pandemic even faster and it is working tremendously. To keep you guys updated, I am still on the letter “L” where I am close to being done with one of the most overrated (and at the same time interesting) bands ever, Little Feat. I have been discovering so many talented music artists’ discographies on Spotify that was new to my ears as well such as Kate Bush, Frank Zappa, XTC, and an artist that has popped up a couple times in movies this year, Sparks. Obviously, I heard the entire discographies of Prince and Madonna too because why not? Heck, I’ve also been in heavy rotation with a couple of music-related channels targeted to my audience that need severe support like Listography and Sea of Tranquility. I’m not saying that movies are not in my blood anymore because they still are one of them. I will forever be aware of what movies to watch each week because I especially need to catch up on the big ones like “No Time to Die” and “Shang-Chi”. However, what I am trying to say to you guys is that listening to music is my second blood (and sometimes can be my main blood) because of the sheer melodies and vibrant vocal performances it can offer. Listening or revisiting to music on vinyl or online has been one of those events in life that have really sped up the pandemic for me and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

I obviously cannot love every genre in the world because I despise genres such as bluegrass, country, and blues unless if these genres are done in a unique way. However, my main interests in music range from pop and rock in the 1960’s through the 1990’s. I can get into these same genres (and sometimes different music) into different decades too, but that kind of music throughout those decades are in my blood. My favorite artist till the day I die will always and forever be The Beatles. I know it might be a bland and boring answer to some, but it is because the sheer and creative musicianship of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr is just so untouchable. They went through many genres from tackling British Invasion-style pop to psychedelic rock that never gets old.

The idea with playing my entire vinyl collection from A to Z came up in my head in May of 2020 where I was looking at my collection down in my basement thinking that it could potentially speed up the pandemic and make it less boring. Another part of the main reason why is because whenever if there is a boring or a just plain terrible album, I can sell a good chunk of them at Half Price Books once it is all safe for me to go there. On Saturday, May 16, 2020, I pumped up my current turntable I still have, the Audio Technica AT-LP120, which despite looking like a rip-off of a Technics turntable, it is by far the best sounding turntable I have ever had that at times is a godsend in audio quality. The first artist I still have in my collection of vinyl that I started on that day was AC/DC with their American debut from 1976, “High Voltage”. I may not be the hugest fan of their simple meat and potatoes music, but it was a start of a marathon for me that will possibly not end until the fourth quarter of 2022 with my last artist under “Z” with ZZ Top. The “A’s” of my vinyl collection were not nearly as strong as I would think since I am not a huge fan of Aerosmith and The Allman Brothers Band, but one of the “A” artists I played was one of my favorite artists ever (and possibly the most underrated artist) with The Alan Parsons Project.

Once the “A’s” of my vinyl collection started to conclude, I discovered this down-to-earth and humble person named Pete Pardo from a YouTube channel called Sea of Tranquility (which is also the blog name) where he talked extensively about progressive rock and jazz fusion music people should check out. The way he reviewed and described each album as “barnstorming” and “killer” easily connected with me and I still to this day check out during selected weeks to his weekly shows with his special guests involving “The Hudson Valley Squares” and “In the Prog Seat” as well as re-watching his album rankings and Top 10 Songs. In “In the Prog Seat”, one of the guests of the show, Chuck Alvarez, introduced me to this band called Renaissance, which is a progressive rock band comprised entirely of orchestral music replacing heavy guitar riffs fronted by the angelic Annie Haslam. When people like Pete Pardo and Chuck Alvarez introduced me to new music comparing to other artists I love, that just showed me that my music asset was starting to grow stronger than before.

Then the “B’s” and “C’s” came along in my record collection and there came some of my favorite artists of all-time like David Bowie, The Cars and The Beach Boys. Not just that, these letters allowed me to invest in artists that I haven’t played their records yet such as Elvis Costello, Captain Beyond, Eric Clapton, and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Elvis Costello was the one that shocked me how good of an artist because from listening to his music, I thought he was just a punk and new wave artist. I then found out he is not at all and he tackles other genres like baroque pop with “Imperial Bedroom” and raw, acoustic rock with “Blood and Chocolate”.

Once when I was invested in hearing an Elvis Costello album ranking considering that Pete Pardo is not into new wave, I saw this ranking of all of Elvis Costello’s albums ranked by another down-to-earth and humble person named Jason Reis from a channel called Listography, which is a channel that plans to cover every discography of a popular and well-received artist possible. Hearing his detailed critical analysis on each album felt similar and different to Pete Pardo’s analysis, but I engaged in his album ranking completely and like Sea of Tranquility, checked out his videos with his guests Joe and Ryan Kramzer. All of them not just love talking about music, but also have a ton of smack talk in each other through their humor that still lures me to watch their videos weekly. Their “Albums of the Year”, album rankings, Top 10 song lists, and their ongoing “Songs of the Year” videos are the ones I would definitely recommend and all videos showcase their humorous and quirky personalities. The rest of the letters in my vinyl collection are history, my friends, and you are about to hear it.

Delving into my ongoing vinyl marathon, the one aspect that I am getting out of this is that I think I am starting to love progressive rock more and more. From listening to the discographies of artists such as Genesis and Jethro Tull on both vinyl and Spotify, the immense keyboards and flute and the epic-length run times made me feel like I was on an adventure like no other. When I first listened to their records when I was twelve or thirteen (the age I got those records also), I just did not get sucked into them as I do right now. Before I latched onto doing the marathon, I only knew the band’s huge hits and most-played songs on the radio. Knowing that my local classic rock radio station just plays the same old songs from Boston and Led Zeppelin and happily ignores playing “Minstrel in the Gallery” by Tull and “Eleventh Earl of Mar” by Genesis just cringes me more and more.

To be honest, Pete Pardo’s passionate opinion got me just as hooked to these artists’ deep cuts like Sirius XM’s “Deep Tracks” channel. Speaking of deep cuts, I feel like after this huge vinyl marathon and listening to many new artists on Spotify, I will have an appreciation for the artist’s deep cuts because I feel that these tracks are the artist’s true colors where they show off their melody and passion. Another reason why is because there will always be those tiresome hits from these artists that I want to shut off like Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” where I want to only hear the song only once a year or just hear it in the inclusion of the album. The only difference to this is there are those handful of songs that are played on the radio constantly I can actually tolerate. “Crazy on You” by Heart and “Sweet Talkin’ Woman” by Electric Light Orchestra are examples.

If you want to know who my favorite artists I have delved into thus far in my marathon, which some I have not changed my opinion about ever since I was twelve or thirteen, I would definitely say in alphabetical order, they are The Alan Parsons Project, David Bowie, The Beach Boys, The Cars, Electric Light Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, The Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, Billy Joel, Elton John, Journey, The Kinks, Kiss, and Led Zeppelin. I know it seems like I put too much, but all of these artists are very similar to me because they each tackled into different genres which blew my mind and still blow my mind. Because of both this marathon and listening to Spotify as well, Genesis, Kate Bush, and Jethro Tull are now a few of my favorite artists of all time because their ambitiously melodic style connects with me so much.

I am proud to say that this month made me extra satisfied from listening to all of the collages I made off of my “Voice Memos” app on my phone. What makes the magic in these collages is that I record samples off of Spotify from my computer’s speakers on my phone. Something in my mind truly told me to create this magic. In the future, I am also not afraid to experience more of artists’ many discographies that interest me like Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark, Depeche Mode, The Psychedelic Furs, Marvin Gaye, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Parliament on Spotify before buying them on vinyl at a record store. I cannot wait when 2022 comes to rediscover my thoughts on artists such as The Rolling Stones, Rush, Styx, Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren, and Talking Heads’ discographies because it will showcase their techniques they can offer and will most importantly make my life more exciting.

To Sea of Tranquilty and Listography, thank you for getting me invested into this wonderful thing called music. I hope you are listening.