LPs

I don’t know how it started I suppose it was about the tenth grade
I never bought much music I just listened to whatever was played
But there was classic rock there on the radio and it was blowing my mind
And it was all the records no one wanted now so they were easy to find

So I started getting LPs
They only cost a little. And these LPs
Are all the ones I needed from the sixties
With all the psychedelic art on all the great sleeves
Much cooler and much cheaper than the CDs
And that’s the way I caught the disease
I caught the disease for LPs

There wasn’t any internet; a lot of the times you just took a shot
Pretty soon you figured out what records would be awesome or not
If the year was from the sixties; it was probably good bang for your buck
If the year was from the eighties; it was guaranteed to totally suck

I started learning about the LPs
At that time education just cost low fees
Three dollars for this Dylan record oh yes please
And The Cream, and Rolling Stones, and Arlo Guthrie
A giant treasure trove all for pennies
And that’s how I caught the disease
I caught the disease for LPs

By 1994, I had completed all my Zeppelin and Floyd (Zeppelin and Floyd)
I had all the early Traffic but their later stuff just made me annoyed (made me annoyed)
You realize that the radio just scratches at the top of the dirt (top of the dirt)
When four bucks can buy you Crown of Creation with the lyric insert

So I had a lot of LPs
My friends were mostly clueless; it was just me
In an ocean of cheap vinyl like a black sea
I hardly had an income but it was easy
An awesome world awaited with a cheap key
And sometimes in the garbage, they were just free
And that's how I caught the disease
I caught the disease for LPs

And then the nineties ended and I wasn’t no teenager no more (teenager no more)
I started getting shakes when I would pass any used record store (used record store)
I got the finger muscles you develop when you flip through a stack (flip through a stack)
Crate digging for the cheap and obscure and there was no turning back

A total junkie for the LPs
And nothing in the world was gonna help me
You'd see me quit no sooner than see hell freeze
And there was nothing like the thrill of getting lucky
I'd be flying five sheets to the breeze
‘cause the world was still in wash in LPs
And I still had the disease for LPs

Nowadays, that stuff is so expensive I don't bother to try
Everything is reissued and plus everything is priced really high
The field is overcrowded it’s impossible to get a good fix
So I walk right past the records and flip through the used compact disks

Yeah nowadays it’s mostly CDs
No wants to keep them so there's plenty
Folk, and Punk, and Prog, Bluegrass and Rap, and Indie
Bonus tracks and liner notes [?] empty
As long as I could still make a good discovery
I still got that music hunger disease
That disease I caught from LPs
When they were dirt cheap in the 1990s

Whatever people don't want that the time to get it
Take a chance on something it might blow your mind
And if it's cheap there’s less chance you'll regret it
No more frowning at my stacks, because of the stupid albums I used to try
Nowadays, looking back, I just regret the ones I didn’t buy