Re: Steve Earle/old vinyl/Huddie Ledbetter

[thomas . gorham]

Lance Davis wrote:

<<Also--and on a completely unrelated note--can someone offer a reason why
record companies used to make double LP's with Side 1 backed with Side 4?
Call me crazy, but wouldn't it make more sense to have Side 2 on the flip
since the record is already right there on the friggin turntable?>>

The answer: so you could automagically play two following one and three
following four.  Side three following two required manual intervention.

At one time most turntables came with a cheesy device called a record
changer designed to give Linnies and other vinal purists the heebie
jeebies. The spidle was about four or five inches tall and allowed you to
stack lps above the currently playing record.  When the tone arm got to the
lead out groves it retracted, the next lp in the stack dropped to the
spinning platter and the tone arm repositioned itself and plopped down over
the lead in groves.  Not too good for the record and the VTA was almost
always off but convenient.

Cheers...TG, feeling like an old timer

np Roseanne Cash - The Wheel