Vinyl Nostalgia I grew up in a home with a record player and shellac and vinyl records. My grandfather collected them (hence Chór Czejanda), and then my uncle (including Trubadurzy, Czerwone Gitary, and Krzysztof Klenczon). Whenever I was bored, I’d listen to them one after another, memorize the lyrics, and sing at the top of my lungs the hit “Ballada Wagonowa” from Maryla Rodowicz’s first album, *Żyj mój świecie* (1970), which, incidentally, was recorded without drums, as well as Klenczon’s “Port.”
My uncle went off to the army, then came back and got married, and by then I was already buying my own records and sound postcards. That’s when the era of Hungarian rock began, and with my carefully saved allowance, I’d buy records by Omega, Locomotiv GT, and whatever else I could get my hands on at the store. I could never afford vinyl from the West, but when a well-off classmate dropped Deep Purple’s *Machine Head* on the floor, I spent all my savings to buy back the record with the chipped edge (the legendary “Highway Star” didn’t start until the second minute, but the solo was in its entirety, and that’s what mattered).
In 1980, I bought my first Beatles LP (a compilation released in East Germany by the Amiga label), but I dreamed of *Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band* at night and promised myself that one day I’d have that record. Many years later, the first pressings of nearly all the Beatles’ albums found their way onto my shelf, along with a whole host of other wonderful records, and from a passion for music fueled by years of longing, the YouTube series *Winyle Na Wideo* was born. I actually talk about this in the video below.