Bill Clinton (yes, I know this is photoshopped)
 
Famous faces and their record collections.

Patti Smith
 

Sophia Loren
 

Serge Gainsbourg
 

Jack Nicholson
 

Jimi Hendrix
 

Elvis Presley
 

Iggy Pop
 

Eve Meyer
 

Deborah Harry and Chris Stein
 

Madlib
 

Björk
 

Cherie Currie
 

The Cramps
 

Brian Wilson
 

Anita Pallenberg and Donald Cammell
 

Erykah Badu
 

James Dean
 

John Lennon
 

Joe Strummer
 

Gian Maria Volonte
 

Agnetha Fältskog
 

Marilyn Monroe
 

Marc Bolan
 

Natalie Wood
 

Marlon Brando
 

Audrey Hepburn
 

John Lennon and Paul McCartney
 

Joan Collins
 

Chewbacca
 
(via Schallplatten and Google)

I been up to Madlibs. That’s about 1/100th of it.

@rossangeles

Imagine being Otis’s maid…

Anyone know where Patti is in that shot? It’s not Bleeker Bob’s, obviously.

That’s Anjelica Huston in the bikini with Jack Nicholson, too!

Can I just take a minute here and say Joan Fucking Collins?

Mama mia…

@Em: I’m pretty sure the Patti photo is at Subterranean Records, which used to be on Cornelia Street.

@Em

Patti’s in Subterranean Records on Cornelia Street, off Sixth Ave. Great store.

maybe you might not want to include someone using timecode vinyl as a means of manipulating an MP3. It kinda goes against what you are trying to show here. Albeit a celebrity and looks like a record it is in fact not. ie: Erykah Badu

hmmm…. the photo of Erykah Badu shows her using Serato Scratch records.

I’m sure she’s got some amazing records in her collection, but that’s a strange picture to use.

hahaha…. dylan said the same thing as me, and I have a feeling I know that ‘dylan’ (got the link from you bro)

Man those are some great pics.

Love all those old record players. IPod just isn’t the same.

Ooh, Audrey!

Brian Wilson made me think of Licorice Pizza stores - showing my age!

I thought I recognized that little joint. Almost all those west village record stores are gone now.

Man, I love that Brando picture. The cat and him are both looking at something; he’s still managing to hold onto his cig. These are nice.

The photo of Elvis just slays me. He looks as if he’s engaged in prayer.

For some people, the idea of a record cleaning machined arrived a little to late. Hate to think how they’d treat a CD.

Yep, that’s Patti at Hideout. Great store back then.

These are great!

dylan/mike, I have no idea what you’re talking about.  Timecode vinyl, manipulation, what?  whatever.

Cool about sleuthing out Patti’s location, though, and glad to see Marlon’s a cat lover.

The Erykah Badu pic doesn’t count—those are Serato scratch discs, they are just a sine wave etched into vinyl used to control mp3’s on a laptop (which is probably just off to the side, out of the shot), and Serato has spelled the end of dance music vinyl on a large scale, so that photo is sort of the <i>opposite</i> of a famous person and their vinyl.

oops. you guys beat me to it.  nevermind.

I love it that Bjork has a Julius Hemphill record in her hands!

Frigging awesome collection of photos. Thanks Mike.

Joan Collins is so old, she’s got a 10” of FS’s “Swing Easy”.

not to be a jerk, but I’d like to point out that “holding an anonymous record for a photo shoot” and
“being photographed in a record store” are not the same thing as “posing with [one’s] record collection.” Madlib and Blondie are perhaps the only ones that properly fit that description.

still, it’s a nice collection of photos! also, nice to see that Debbie Harry and Chris Stein were Cluster fans.

Technically, Erykah Badu is using Serato!

Many terrible turntables and worse record care! The real test would be how many of these folks would still be spinning vinyl or would have switched to bad sounding convenient formats like CDs or worse MP3s….

Vinyl is back however, so that’s what counts. You can get just about anything new now on LP…

What is that CD in the John Lennon picture ?

Yeah, Patti at Subterranean.  I spent a good portion of my paper route money in there as a kid.. I miss that place!  And 99, Freebeing, Rocks In Your Head, Golden Disc, Record Runner, Sounds (when they had that singles wall). I try to still spend money in record stores here in NYC, but man.. the atmosphere at most of ‘em (O.M. excepted).. fucking bovine indifference from the flyover masquerading as New York cool. At least Bleeker Bob had a sense of humor.

Oh wait.. this was about that Patti pic.  Sorry for the rant.  Yeah, great fucking photo. Thanks for that.

Care to share your photo sources? Would love to see who and where I can get nice prints of these.

That Jack Nicholson pic, i believe it necessary to mention the lady next to him seems to be Anjelica Huston.

-G.

Is that 9th Wonder standing next to Erykah Badu- He has one of the greatest collections of vinyl around!

I was able to identify 81% of the albums in the Deborah Harry/Chris Stein photo. 

Blow Up OST, Goldfinger OST, Cluster II, Antoine Recontre Les Problems, Bay City Rollers “Rock & Roll Love Letter,” ???, “A Slice of” The Cake, ???, The Exorcist OST, ???, Love S/T, Mr. Lucky OST, Nino Rota “Musiche Da Film”, Shangri-Las “I Can Never Go Home Any More,” Strangeloves “I Want Candy” and The Pretty Things S/T.

Anyone want to fill in the blanks?

another one in Harry/Stein photo is Sam Sham & the Pharoahs lp(to the left of Exorcist)

Nice to see Paul with Freewheelin’. You hear about him playing it, but now I’ve seen him with a copy. Ben E. King’s Don’t Play That Song is also there.

Two years ago I found a PYE record player tossed in a skip (along with a bag of cassettes).
The cassettes sold at a market, needle bought, bliss attained and still going strong.

Oh yeah: Björk and Agnetha Fältskog are never sexier than when seen in record shops.

Belew says: What is that CD in the John Lennon picture ?

Not a CD, probably a reel to reel tape box.  Lennon died 2 years before CDs were commercially available and that photo looks to be from around 1968/1969.

Check out Clint Eastwood lounging with his jazz records.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Y2F7daFbH4M/Sp_ga77_D9I/AAAAAAAACkY/k5L7KKJ0aEw/s400/Clint+Eastwood+listens+to+records+at+home,+October+1,+1959.jpg&imgrefurl=http://theclinteastwoodarchive.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html&usg=__sTZa27FAdzu0a4rlrKRfE-PFkjw=&h=336&w=400&sz=24&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=vgS10SE_3xP0-M:&tbnh=122&tbnw=147&ei=2M72TaGnH4e3tweyxuHdCg&prev;=/search?q=clint+eastwood+records&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=557&gbv=2&tbm=isch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=119&vpy=73&dur=1430&hovh=206&hovw=245&tx=191&ty=111&page=1&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&biw=1280&bih=557

Sorry, that link was all screwy. Just the other day I stumbled across this photo of Eastwood chilling to some vinyl and wondered if there were any other photos of celebrities listening to records. And then I found this Dangerous Mind posting (courtesy of BoingBoing). Anyway, here’s the actual link. Just scroll down to see Eastwood in his prime lounging with his head resting on a stack of vinyl.

http://theclinteastwoodarchive.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Thanks, Kev. That crossed my mind after giving it more thought.

Kev says:

Belew says: What is that CD in the John Lennon picture ?

Not a CD, probably a reel to reel tape box.  Lennon died 2 years before CDs were commercially available and that photo looks to be from around 1968/1969.

erykah badu has serato control records, not vinyls

Please note that that’s Angelica Houston in that shot with Jack Nicholson - it was probably her collection too!

I’ve read through all the comments and I have to point out (as clearly no one else has) that that is Angelica Huston beside Jack Nicholson.

Just in case you missed it, did anyone mention that Patti is in Subterranean and that is Angelica Houston is next to horny ole Jack?

Better still, that’s a teenaged Anjelica Huston as well as teenaged Agnetha ABBA…

Okay, Eve Meyer gets my vote for record collector of my dreams.

Regarding Marilyn:  I’ll have what she’s having…

Interesting to see the guitars in the Lennon & Joe Strummer pix—Lennon is either hang out in George’s pad when the photo was taken, or he was a closet Gretsch player.

Strummer’s acoustic, on the other hand, appears to be sans strings…

To the left of the Rollers LP is French pop LP Antoine Recontre Les Problemes

OK here is the LP to the right of the Rollers in the Debbie Harry photo “Soupy Sales Sez Do The Mouse and other teen hits”

Is that Rossangeles of DJ Me DJ You fame? How’s things? I used to DJ with Fantastic Plastic Machine when he was on Emperor Norton.

Many people covered the fact that serato control plates =/= vinyl…but did anyone notice that the mixer isn’t even on in that particular photo?

MANY of these photos were taken before CD even existed.  I think I see some 10 inch shellac 78’s in a few. The cigs (Dean, Brando) don’t help.

But Audrey!!!

@W.R. German

You can’t see Strummer’s strings? Maybe you need a new screen?

W.R. German says:

Interesting to see the guitars in the Lennon & Joe Strummer pix—Lennon is either hang out in George’s pad when the photo was taken, or he was a closet Gretsch player.

Strummer’s acoustic, on the other hand, appears to be sans strings…

I think I will do a series: “people and their iTunes collection.”

But seriously, I love these photos of people with their records!!!

Looks like Bjork is in Ray’s Jazz Shop in London. Used to be on Shaftesbury Avenue. Spent many a lunch break in there in the 80s. Now a cafe.

http://vimeo.com/1546186

Now that’s someone who cares about vinyls…

http://www.airusersblog.com/storage/dj_saddam.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1297291932754

Vinyl is the blood that runs through our veins; records our sustenance.

Erykah Badu has 2 records - Serato Control Vinyl x 2

PLEASE PULL BADU PHOTO AS A VINYL ENTHUSIAST IT MAKES ME ILL.

Vinyl is the best

The Marilyn photo is *Otherworldly*!

Great pics!

pretty awesome

There is something wrong with the idea associated with the pictures.  Of course, for a vast majority of these celebrities whose pictures were taken, it was during the time of LPs / vinyl / records and possibly, no competing format was around (CDs, MP3, Ipod, etc.).  Please show us more pictures of modern celebrities, circa 2000 to the present, who prefer LPs over that of Ipod and the like.

Great old pictures….....
James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Marlin Brando are pictured with laquer 78 rpms….....not vinyl.
A few others have 78s also.

All those fingermarks!!  Enough to make any collector WEEP.

What I find so very striking was the sheer seemingly limitless titles of talented and quality performers that were (are) available from the heyday of the vinyl Lp era, the true love and interest in music of all kinds by the most common man (or women) of the time, the lust to covet and collect in large number, the importance and public celebration of a new release date, local record stores as a social gathering place, the almost pedestrian, or common place focus of Hifi reproduction as a center piece in the home and as a means to entertain and gather friends and family and set the mood, It seems to be dovetailed with and influential to so many of the heavy weight architects, trend setters, and artists of that time, not to mention making a handsomely robust business for the recording industry. well, that was then.

And this is now. I can’t help but feel we went socially, more than a bit off track when the silver drink coasters showed up and subsequently were then rammed down the “consumer’s” throat as some kind of replacement for the real thing. It is also curious and to how, at such an alarming degree, at the same time the interest and understanding of the importance of high fidelity reproduction was also lost from the consciousness of the collective society, ironic ah.  In contrast, today many, many of us appear to be so collectively splintered and sidetracked by a plethora of digital representations (noise) of what was once artistry, talent, and thought provoking entertainment. What happen to the soul?

Importantly, vinyl is at last back on the shelves, all new and shiny in its large graphic format and shrink wrapped coverings. It’s also funny how hard a good idea is to kill. I’m just happy that it’s back, big time! and that I never stopped collecting and caring for it.  Such a wide variety of it is now here and available for the asking… maybe it is back to stay, maybe for a long while, hope so…
and yes, nice pictures!

Happy Listening!

High fidelity has gone “underground” because consumer electronics journalism today has been usurped by computer geeks who know nothing about sound and think everything costing more than a few hundred dollars is “expensive.”

Thus writers who know nothing about picture and sound review cameras and audio gear because they connect to a computer. The ignorance is alarming.

I got into a fight with Walt Mossberg the incredibly arrogant gadget writer for The Wall Street Journal about a review he’d done of the first Apple Airport Express, which has a D/A converter in it. He didn’t bother to mention how it sounded.

I asked him why not. He replied honestly that he really didn’t know much about sound. When I offered to help he got pissed and said his readers “didn’t give a shit about sound” and neither did he.

The other problem is you can go into a Best Buy and see HDTV but not hear good audio.

When kids come to visit with their MP3s and I play them the LP version of their “classic rock” favorites they discovered on line it blows their minds and they realize they’ve been cheated and handed lies when told that MP3s sound “good enough.”

Gizmodo.com sent a young reporter over to do a story dumping on audiophiles (we’re a big target: not camera buffs, wine fanatics, gearheads, etc.—just audiophiles) but after he listened for a few hours he changed his tune. You might find this story interesting:
http://gizmodo.com/5213042/why-we-need-audiophiles

I agree with Mr. Fremers comments about the younger generations not really experiencing what myself and others(older) grew up with. Its not about the great sounding stuff he gets to review the pics show. Its
how Hendrix and Lennon and the rest are connecting with the actual music. Of course we all dig the
latest gear…Its about that disc they’re clutching.
All the new technology is fabulous, but give me my
vinyl.
By the way Michael, I enjoy your articles.
The unenlightened amongst us just haven’t been to the church of killer audio -yet.

Most people have no idea what’s in those grooves! It keeps getting better and better. The people who made the records from the 50s and 60s had no idea how good it was. A famous mastering engineer visited recently and I played him one of his cuts. He said he heard things here on vinyl he didn’t hear on the master tape in his mastering room! Amazing.

Funny how much of the music we now spend uber amounts of cash to recreate was originally made with
not that exotic(by todays standards)equipment.

My 65 Fender deluxe reverb is the amp that all
of us hear in countless classic rock. Inside
nothing fancy.All the tones came from whomever
had that Les Paul or Strat.

Michael, Any chance that mastering dude
do any early70s stuff. I dig the 1st release “Montrose”. Sounds HUGE on my modded RP1.

That album was with I think a 18-20 year old Sammy Hagar. Great guitar,bass and drums with
Sammy at his best. Check that one out on your
reference system. You will have the band in the room with you. I think I can hear the amps dynamics pretty good on mine. Check out Good-Rockin’ tonight. Killer blues cover
with incredible air guitar by Ronnie Montose.