Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh was once asked by a Christian Priest once to explain Buddhism. The response was simple, “We sit, we walk, and we sleep.” The priest was confused and replied saying, “We do those things too.” To that Thich Nhat Hanh said, “Yes but when we do it we know we’re doing it.”

I remember as a child sitting, back against the wall, headphones on, just listening to the music, I had to sit because the cord didn’t reach far enough to walk around, and there are no portable record players. I would sit and just listen, nothing else going on. Today most of my music has become background noise, and why not, music is cheap to buy, easy to find, and digital so even if we lose our player we are still backed up on a cloud.

I was sitting one day, listening to Pearl Jam’s album Ten, more specifically the redux. Pearl Jam is very important in my generation’s return to vinyl. Yes, there were some bands still releasing records, but Pearl Jam released their album Verses first on vinyl. I don’t own that album, I have never heard it, in fact I have never heard any Pearl Jam beyond Ten, and until I looked at the record, I never noticed that of the ten songs I really just knew 5, and that is the reason this album gets a spot on Friday Vinyl, even on this Tuesday.

I was sitting in the stereo room, my wife was in the kitchen helping our daughter with her homework, I was uninvolved at the time, so with my break I decided to listen to this record. Actually I thought, “I would like to hear Black but the track lines are very thin, so I started from the beginning with Once, I sat down in my special “listening chair” and took in the sounds.

The album come with two records, one is the original mastering, the second is a remastered version referred to as Redux. The cover opens to reveal the lyrics, the front has the members standing tall high fiving. The vinyl is nice and heavy providing smooth solid sound. This Vinyl set gives me something I can’t get through a digital download or CD, art, feel, and connection.

Eddie Vedder was also one of those musicians who spoke up for his beliefs, whether about supporting Napster, opposing Ticketmaster, or a woman right to choose. Eddie’s work outside of music kept his name in my head even during my break from Seattle Grunge. There was something more to this band than simply the music they played, and that was something I couldn’t pirate.

As the record continued to spin I listened and it was as if I had never heard it before. I finally got to the song I had wanted to hear and the sounds and tones came alive in a new way. For a week I sang the songs, and now I even enjoy the section I skipped with the CDs. The words and tones were alive again, I think for three reasons: The Vinyl, The Redux, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The music was not the background for what I was doing, the music was what I was doing. It was like magic, and it left my arms raised in a V.