Old Records Never Die by Eric Spitznagel

High Fidelity meets Killing Yourself to Live in this memoir of one man's search for his lost record collection.

High Fidelity meets Killing Yourself to Live in this memoir of one man's search for his lost record collection.

As he finds himself within spitting distance of middle age, journalist Eric Spitznagel feels acutely the loss of . . . something. Freedom? Maybe. Coolness? Could be. The records he sold in a financial pinch? Definitely. To find out for sure, he sets out on a quest to find the original vinyl artifacts from his past. Not just copies. The exact same records: The Bon Jovi record with his first girlfriend's phone number scrawled on the front sleeve. The KISS Alive II he once shared with his little brother. The Replacements’ Let It Be that he's pretty sure, twenty years later, would still smell like weed.

As he embarks on his hero's journey, he reminisces about the actual records, the music, and the people he listened with—old girlfriends, high school pals, and, most poignantly, his father and his young son. He explores the magic of music and memory as he interweaves his adventures in record culture with questions about our connection to our past, whether we can ever recapture it, and whether we would want to if we could.

Foreword by Jeff Tweedy

Eric Spitznagel

Reviews

The perfect combination of a vinyl completist's dream and nightmare

Patton Oswalt, author of Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

Funny, smart, even a bit wistful at times. The way Spitznagel feels about the Pixies - that's similar to the way I feel about Spitznagel's writing

A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically

Memories are far more indelible when married to the physical world, and Spitznagel proves the point in this vivid book. We love vinyl records because they combine the tactile, the visual, the seeable effects of age and care and carelessness. When he searches for the records he lost and sold, Spitznagel is trying to return to a tangible past, and he details that process with great sensitivity and impact

Dave Eggers, author of The Circle