I have to admit, although I know a bunch of Beatles songs, I don't know if I've ever really sat down and listened to a single Beatles album from start to finish. At some point last year a friend's dad gifted us his record collection as it was just collecting dust, and he wanted to it to go to someone who would use it.
Fast forward to today, and I decided to finally break out one of these albums. I started with The White Album, and the version we have is an original US stereo pressing. After a quick cleaning and new sleeves I get this spinning. As I sink into the album I can't help but to stop and think about how crazy vinyl really is. This physical piece of vinyl I'm handling is now playing for me, as a somewhat new discovery, 52 years after it's release. I'm getting the same first experience as a friend's father had in childhood. This record has somehow traveled with him through life and is in excellent shape. The mix and recording is impressive for it's age. The songs are timeless, as many of them are still hits today with regular radio play.
It's quite an experience. It's something that would never happen with anything other than vinyl. It can happen with CDs, but not to the same age, and possibly not to the same level of quality and impact. The resilience of this format is insane, and there is nothing better to remind me of that than listening to a string of timeless hits in their original format, being enjoyed as they were intended.