I was listening to the owner of a local radio station here in Jackson Mississippi a few weeks ago. We were in a forum setting and people were asking him questions about his station. He owns a Classic Rap station, I asked him to define classic rap, and I was happy with the answer. Basically, the rap I like. Another person asked who his biggest demographic was, his answer surprised me but made complete sense, 30-40 year old white men. And though I believe that he might have been exaggerating I could see his point.

The Album for this week’s Friday Vinyl is none other than Doctor Dre’s The Chronic. Let me say for the record early in high school I would have never admitted to liking this album, in fact by luck I was introduced to this album when I was older and not trying so hard to fit into the heavy metal clique. I was first introduced realistically to this album when I was a junior in High School in 1996. I liked bands like the Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill but for some reason I could argue that they weren’t really rap music. The first time I considered Dr. Dre was during history class when a kid turned around and sold me the “Nuthin But a G Thing” single on cassette for 5 dollars. I bought it because I knew it had been stolen and it made me feel bad ass. Of course it was still a few years before I acknowledged publically that I liked rap music.

Sadly my reasoning had always been racially based. It wasn’t respectable music, not just because of the content but because of the culture behind it, or at least that is what I told myself. Around the same time Metallica was being referred to as Devil Music, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osborn always had been, and I defended them to the core. For some reason I could say Black Sabbath had been shafted but the themes in Rap music were just inappropriate.

Over the years and through a lot of introspection I learned the real reason I argued so thoroughly that rap music wasn’t real music. First off, the content did make me uncomfortable. They used a lot of sexual language but even more than that they were explaining a culture that was alien to me. I didn’t understand the culture and that misunderstanding led to fear. Living in a predominately white area I didn’t have the chance to interact with many African Americans neither had my family. Of course an easier way to say it is, I was a racist.

I ask your grace on that point because in all honesty, I didn’t understand, but I do now and work to change my perspective and make amends. Everyone around me even the white people were listening to this music, it wasn’t really considered mainstream even for that day, in fact, it was considered disruptive by the mainstream, in hindsight I think that is part of the reason the people around me loved it, and when G Thing came out I could no longer argue I didn’t like the music. I wonder if it is too cheesy to say that Doctor Dre helped me confront my inherent racism.

Of course, that was 1996 and this album came out in 1992. In 92 I was listening to Nirvana, STP, and Pearl Jam. I don’t regret my music choices for the time as much as I regret the limitations I placed upon myself. Over time I learned that all musical genres contain great works, The Chronic is a great work. This album came out in 1992 after the breakup of NWA and Doctor Dre didn’t release another studio album until 2000. I actually owned that album before I owned this one, in fact, this is the first time I bought a full copy. I think part of what I love so much about this album is the difference between this one and Chronic 2001. 1992 introduced us to this young rapper, filled with angst, 2001 gave us that same man, but this time with the ability to look back and see his mistakes. We all know the story, or at least we should, the breakup of NWA, was not very clean and the Doctor and Easy E leapt directly into a feud, a feud that would later fill him with sadness. Easy E died while Dre was in prison, and never getting to say goodbye stayed with him. The road between Death Row and Aftermath was long and hard, but a moral tale for the ages. The first album introduced us to an angry young rapper the second a retrospective father.

In that time Dre introduced us to great artists, and ushered in what some would call the Golden Age of rap, not everyone but some. I don’t know enough about rap music to say whether I agree or not, I know that the 1990’s produced a lot of rap music that I loved in hindsight and the early 2000’s music I loved the first time out.

I haven’t said much about the record itself or the artwork, and they are great but this retrospective isn’t about how wonderful the record is, it is about a visit to the doctor that helped heal my soul. 

I had to order this record separately, it wasn’t just sitting on the shelf. I Ordered it from a local record store. About two weeks ago I walked in and found the second Stone Temple Pilots album and picked it up because, who knows when I will see it again, but I realized that I really wanted to hear Core. I like to support local stores when I can since this medium is in decline. Sometimes I go online but only when I really have to.

Core was one of the first CD’s I owned. And though I don’t refer to Stone Temple Pilots as my favorite grunge band they are the reason I stuck with the music style as long as I did. There were three or four bands that started the grunge era, STP was one of them. Of course I still like them all.

My memory of this album though, doesn’t really come from the CD but the dub to cassette that I shortly made that Christmas morning after receiving it from Santa. Because, though I was now moving into the digital age I couldn’t afford to fully convert to digital music. I still had a Walkman and a paper route that required steady music to keep me sane through the process of chucking papers onto porches. In fact the reason I know this album so well, and so fully is because I immediately converted it to analog. Do to the conversion I couldn’t skip ahead to songs, listen to the same song over and over again, and I had to flip it over to listen to the B side so I wouldn’t have to rewind.

Of course with this album the B side is the side that has all the popular songs, at least the early ones. Plush comes to the end of the Album and so does Creep. And yes, I know Wicked Garden was released as a video on MTV. This well mastered 180 gram vinyl record however has to break the album into 3 sides. Creep and Plush actually appear on two separate records. So it is good this is a good solid album, because otherwise spamming my favorite songs would be impossible.

Of course I can’t help but comment about how “Shiny” the album cover is, and how wonderful the art on the unused portion of the record is. They used the blank space on the back of non-existent side four to recreate the cover art in negative space. That is what I love about vinyl re-releases, the art work in the extra space. Due to the size of the record, there is so much more to look at. But then, that is part of the reason I am willing to go the extra mile and buy vinyl.

This album is full of great music, especially for those of us who were going through “Things” as teenagers and young adults. It is apparent now that the band itself was going through “Things.” We know that Weiland was in and out of drug treatment centers, and could not get along with the rest of the group. We also know that Velvet Revolver (the band Weiland went to after STP) did not want him to return. I would always hear that he was difficult to deal with. Of course, that is just gossip I have never met him, but I will always be thankful for the albums they did together…  And though water cleanses, washes dirty away, and makes new STP may never come together again. 

Music speaks to me for different reasons. Some music feeds the militant activist, some the eclectic mystic, and some feeds the lonely teenager. Weezer’s Blue album does the latter two. During high school I would struggle to enjoy bands, sometimes because there were only a few songs that spoke to me, others spoke only to one major part of me. The fact was, that if Weezer had only fed the lonely teenager who was scared to talk to girls I probably wouldn’t have been near the fan I am. In fact if it is was just going to be about girls I’d have listened to country Music.

Weezer did something different than a lot of bands at the time, well maybe I shouldn’t say it that way. Weezer utilized the basics, and they were good at it. They didn’t pave new ground, and still they weren’t like anyone else. They knew their music, they knew their instruments but in the end they knew how to make music that would speak not just through its words but its droning melodies and drive. But one of the best examples of this is during Surf Wax America I wasn’t a surfer so I didn’t understand the theory but the descending harmony between the two singers was simply beautiful.

We were introduced to this band before Windows 95 came out. I know that because the Windows 95 CD that was standard at the time had the video for Buddy Holly embedded into it. The introduction came through the cacophony of The Sweater Song, there really wasn’t much to this song, and it was basically about a sweater that one can choose to destroy or keep. It wasn’t hard to destroy this sweater one would need to simply hold string while they walked away. I imagine most fans have attributed the lyrics to this song to something special in their lives. Maybe the singer’s sweater represents the willingness to put our own security in the hands of someone we care for. It might represent to some the first time we say, “I love you,” with the fear of it not being returned, or even maybe just, “I’m sorry.” Regardless if one chooses to walk away, we will be left naked, with nothing. Though, it could just be a song about a sweater. All I really know is that in the end is that when Patrick Wilson starts running around his drum set banging on the cymbals, I was hooked.

Of course the version on the LP is very different. There is talk about a ride to the party after the show. One woman who wants to go but her friends don’t want to go, I don’t know It doesn’t make sense. Over the years I have tried to make sense of it, and the best I have read is that he was going to try and tell a story based on the songs of the album, but that fell apart so they just added it as it was.

The album is so well loved by those of a certain nerdy persuasion because it dealt with important themes around security and feeling safe. In The Garage deals with this theme directly.  When do we feel safe? When we can put our hands directly on our dungeon masters guide and 20 sided die. The garage, in their song, was where they could be themselves. They pay homage to this on the inside artwork, the instruments are set up on a concrete floor, probably a garage where they write the words to their songs.

Say it Ain’t Soapproaches, so well, the depths of our souls, is talks about what makes us who we are through a story. The bridge tells us the background of the story set in a letter to the singer’s step-father. 

But as a teenager no song affected me like Only in dreams. I was afraid to talk to girls, at least tell them how I felt, but I would dreams of the dances, holding a girl and floating. The song proved that even guys dream of romance.

After this album Weezer took a break, Rivers Cuomo went to college and nothing came out. This became a traumatic time for Rivers, but that is another story for another Friday. But don’t worry, I have every intention of telling that one as soon as I can find some vinyl.

I ordered my copy of Weezer’s self-titled album (the blue one) and came out with the Original Master Recording. This album was rereleased and repressed from the original masters. The nice and heavy record came in a special static bag, which I love because I am tired of shocking myself. I love this addition to my collection. This album holds a special place in my own story. In fact I didn’t realize until later that not everyone gets some of my life references to this album. I noticed I kept having to explain what I meant when I referred to the after party of my Wedding (as opposed to the reception) as the party after the show.