January 30, 2024 • 38 mins
People of all ages are becoming more forgetful. Justin and Lance discuss what may be the cause of our memory issues, and how to improve our cognitive ability. Finally, Justin connects these topics to music and shares his personal vinyl collection.
tags: tsou, justin weller, lance jackson, music, memory, forget, health, physical, walking, partner, cognition, brain, psychology, neuroscience
tags: tsou, justin weller, lance jackson, music, memory, forget, health, physical, walking, partner, cognition, brain, psychology, neuroscience
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Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Today on the State of US,why we keep forgetting stuff and Vinyl spins
back. Welcome to the State ofUS. I'm your host, Justin T.
(00:27):
Weller, joined, of course,today by the one and only friendly
redneck liberal senior resident historian here atTrue Chat, and that educator of more
than thirty five years, mister LanceEl Jackson. Today we're going to look
at why we're all forgetting things rightnow, short term memory issues and temporary
moments of forgetfulness are happening to moreof us more often these days, according
(00:51):
to memory experts and an article inthe Wall Street Journal. We're also going
to talk about, and you mightsay, why are these paired together?
Why millennials want their parents vinyl records. Sales of LP's soared during the pandemic
as younger listeners discovered they're nostalgic andsensory appeal. See if you can figure
out the link. But before wedive in, Lance, what is the
(01:15):
word of the day, Well,the word of the day is what did
you ask me? I said,what is the word of the day?
That's bad? That's bad, isn'tit? I should I shouldn't joke about
not about forgetting things because I forgetenough for the day is yeah, no,
no, I was. I wasjust a little a little punny there
to start to show, but it'sreally not funny because I have sat here
just staring out into space, like, what's the word I want to use?
(01:38):
What's the word I want to Bradleyhas to, you know, edit
things. So this is this onehits a little close to home. But
it's nice to know that it's justnot us old people that are forgetting things,
as we'll talk about in the article. But the word of the day
is mensural. I've never heard ofthis before. M, E, N,
S U are all three syllables,and in music, it means designating
(02:05):
or or of polyphonic music in whicheach note is given a strictly determined value.
Oh, I've silenced him, folks, Oh well he's not. He's
not sure. I want what todo with this one. I may get
a win. I don't know ifI can figure out what to do with
it. I just say it's amusic term I've never heard, and it
(02:29):
is, yes, I have notheard it. I'm not sure how I
would, seeing as I don't understandwhat the definition means. It might be
complicated to attempt to use it.That's why I thought I would get you.
Well, I'll help you out.Polyphonic means having or making many sounds.
Does menstrual have any other definitions ofmeasure? This tricky one? Tricky,
(02:54):
So we'll see if I can rememberthat today? See lance can remember
it short temporary instances of forgetfulness.Easy for you to say, that's right.
Yeah, those senior moments are happeningto more of us more often these
days. Memory experts say, we'refinding it difficult to recall simple things that
(03:16):
should come easily, even how toperform routine acts that once seemed like second
nature. Are you Are you experiencingthis firsthand? Lance is that there are
moments, yes, when I havethat because here it says here somewhere.
Some studies show that memorability peaks inpeople's twenties and gradually declines from there.
(03:38):
Others suggest that the sharpest decline startsaround age sixty. Doctor Reeg says,
and for our listeners benefit, whattype of age category from that descriptor?
Do you follow? I'm in mymiddle twenties, okay, I am sicker
in the former, not the last. I am sixty, right, But
Grant Shields was teaching a college similarto twenty four students last week when his
(04:00):
mind went blake. He'd forgotten thename of his teaching assistant. I was
embarrassed, said doctor Shield, whothought he heard students laugh when he said
the wrong name, then struggled torecover. I wish my memory was as
good as it used to be.Okay, you read that, you're thinking,
oh, he's an older person who'steaching a college class. Doctor Shield
is thirty two years old. Heis a memory researcher, and he was
(04:24):
teaching a class on how stress affectscognition. Thirty two baby. Not just
as old people. It can happento all of us. One of the
neuroscientists and professors of cognitive science atthe University of California said, our brains
are like computers with so many tabsopen right now. This slows down our
(04:46):
processing power, and memory is oneof the areas that falters. A lot
of what they talk about. Lancetwo focuses on, you know, through
the pandemic and the way the worldis changing. With a lot of change
occurring in your life. Change requiresa lot more mental energy than most of
us understand. Because it's not allconscious, but there's a lot of unconscious
(05:10):
things happening. For you to dealwith things that are not routine, things
that are not standard, things thatare out of the ordinary, your brain
has to work harder. And ifyou think about it, it does make
sense. We rely heavily right onpatterns and past experience to form the ability
for us to make fast decisions andto proceed through life without having to work
(05:34):
too hard at certain things. Well, and another point they make too is
memory comes from novelty. If youget in the drudgery of doing the same
thing over and over every day,then you don't necessarily remember, you know,
like what do you have for breakfast? I don't know, you know,
But if you normally have a bowlof cereal for breakfast, but then
(05:56):
one day you decide to have scrambledeggs and bacon toast, and you remember
that because oh I had no different, you know, and it sticks out
in your memory and the aroma,and you know, there's all those other
sensory items that go into memory aswell that can be triggered. You know,
there's there are things when you know, certain smells or certain sites that
(06:18):
then trigger memory, and so noveltyhelps, and sometimes we get in that
rut right where we're just scrolling onour phones and just look. I don't
know. I don't do that.My phone doesn't scroll. But I see
people I've heard, I've I've heardof this thing of people taking their phone
(06:38):
and using their thumb and just scrolling, not paying attention to what else is
going on, and just time goesby, and then oh, they wonder
why they can't remember something. Whatdid you look at? I don't I
mean, I asked my wife thatall the time. What are you looking
at over there? I don't know, I'm just scrolling. The human existence
(06:59):
can be summed up in the twentyfirst century as I'm just scrolling, I'm
gonna get you know, what doyou get at? You? A T
shirt? Him? I'm just rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling on the
river. I'm just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling on the river. Do doop
deep duped doodoop. I'd be abackup singer performance by the friendly redneck liberal
(07:25):
in the In the back half oftoday's show, as we get into the
the music, I will say thatpersonally, I mean this memory thing I've
I've noticed some you know, thereis a lot going on, because you
might say, well, I listenedto what Justin said and then what Land
said, and it sounds like that. Lots of change is not always good
for memory. But then unique thingsare, and a lot of that deals
(07:47):
with it comes back to that lovelyword. Stress is the change stressful is
the adjustment to your schedule stressful.For example, if you're taking a Sunday
drive and Sunday's a day that youhave off and you're going to you know,
(08:07):
explore a new park, right,well, that is different, right,
It is unique. It is somethingyou haven't seen or done before.
So does that mean that it's goingto be bad for your memory. No,
it's going to be good for yourmemory because it's an enjoyable experience.
There's a novelty to it, right, That's why it's valuable. Now if
you show up to work on Mondayand your boss tells you that, you
(08:31):
know, you used to work nineto five, but now we're going to
work from noon to eight, andthat's effective starting immediately. And also you
no longer have a lunch break,or you have to take your lunch break
at the beginning of the day.You can't take it any other time.
And we're taking your parking pass awayand you have to walk to work or
we're going to fire you. That'sgoing to be one a lot of change.
(08:54):
It's going to totally disrupt your routine. And I think routine and drudgery
don't have to be the same thing, right. For example, if I
get up every day at seven andgo down to eat breakfast, if I
eat the same thing for breakfast,that may not be good for memory.
But to Lance's point, if Ichange up what I eat for breakfast,
but there's still some consistency to myschedule, my existence, that's I think
(09:18):
the defining point here that's important.They give us some things, some recommendations
for boosting your memory, and thebiggest thing is putting down your phone,
you know, because what you're doingthen is you're starting to multitask, and
it's tough to recall something or tocommit to something in the first place,
(09:39):
and especially if you're doing two thingsat once. This doctor says, so
put your phone away and that cutsback on information overload, and try doing
one thing at a time, andif you do that, y'all might be
able to remember a little bit whatyou were doing. What'd you do today?
I don't know. I was scrollit, scroll it, scroll.
(10:00):
So let's talk about the tips andalso get into why millennials want their parents'
vinyl records and how that might actuallyhelp with memory to find out. Keep
it here on the state of usand we'll be right back. Don't force
(10:26):
it, don't force it. Forcingyourself to try to remember something is counterproductive.
You'll become frustrated, and that frustrationallows the emotional part of your brain
to override the parts of your brainthat retrieve memories. Man, this one
may be the most difficult one,because what's the natural thing you want to
(10:48):
do the minute you can't remember somethinglike oh damn, what is that?
What about? You know? Butthen why but think about it? Why
do then when we change the discussionor go on right five to ten minutes
later, it's like, there isThat's what I wanted to say. You
know, you get it because exactlywhat they said. You don't try to
force it because you just you neverdo think of it, and when you
move on then it's like, oh, I got it. So the next
(11:11):
one is stop multitasking, which Lancekind of hinted at before. This was
the one that I called out asthe absolutely. We've talked about it a
lot of times. It's tough torecall something or to commit something to memory
in the first place when you're doingtwo things at once. We've also talked
about the vast majority of the populationand don't you dare believe you're the exception
(11:31):
out there, listener, as in, like, ninety eight percent of all
humans can not actually multitask. Andwhat do we mean by that, Well,
multitasking in the truest sense would bethe capacity to simultaneously engage fully in
two activities. Ninety eight percent ofus cannot do that. Okay, we
(11:56):
can't. So well, you say, well, but I got my I
got my monitors going and I gotmy phone out, or I'm listening to
music and I'm doing my phone.What do you mean I can't multitask.
You're not actually doing both of themat the same time. What your brain
is doing. And we did anepisode on this is task switching, okay,
which is the rapid switching between tasks, which is actually bad for you.
(12:20):
It's not good. It wears youout faster and you don't do any
task as well because it drains yourmental energy to have to flip back and
forth between those things so quickly.So that's actually what's happening, which is
why if you've ever tried to lookat your phone and watch TV at the
same time, you look up andyou don't know what just happened in the
(12:41):
last few seconds, because you cannotactually do both at the same time,
or you have some vague, youknow, kind of semblance of what took
place, like I got a fewwords, you know, here and there,
but I'm not exactly sure what happened. And so what's generally happening is
your brain is filling in those gapsfor you based on the previous context of
(13:03):
what you're watching and where you're atnow, and convinces you that in fact
you did know all along, whenin fact you did not. So it's
not good for you anyway, butit's also not great for memory. I
love this one. I almost underlinethe whole thing, But the actual psychological
thing here that works is this willstrengthen your frontal lobe, which is involved
(13:26):
in both memory and coding and retrieval, as well as stress regulation, daily
meditation, yoga, deep breathing,take a walk in nature. But this
is the one I like, rightconnect with the loved one, have a
chat, give a hug, havesex. Intimacy reduces stress by making you
feel loved and cared for me.That says it all right, I mean,
(13:50):
and get some sleep, more intimate, more well, you know what
do you do after you have intimacy? And this clears out the toxins in
your brain so that you your mentalprocessing can start to you know, unfold.
So there it is, folks,we're telling you right here from the
doctor himself. You know, talka little bit, have a hug,
(14:11):
have some intimacy, and makes youfeel safe and sound, and then you
go to sleep and all the badtoxins clear out and you can remember stuff
that's right. Probably remember that youhad intimacy I remember. Isn't it interesting?
Though? How that's something that wedo a better job of. Remember
(14:33):
it's probably on this novel bad goingback to that other thing? You know?
That's right? Connect it all together. But see, that's when when
your brain is calm, your abilityto make connections, remember things, all
of that is improved. Right.I think about the other thing that's not
not mentioned here though, that Ibelieve is a good one is reading,
(14:54):
right, Uh, listening to musicand that's, by the way, what
we're about away the connection, right, So the last thing and this actually
ties into our next thing as well. Be socially present. Give your full
attention to people when you talk tothem. Doing so will help you better
recall what you want to say inconversation because your brain won't be distracted or
(15:18):
overtaxed and remember what was said.It's like one of my favorite TV characters,
Old Sheriff Longmire, was walking throughthe woods and they were going towards
a crime scene and the people aroundhim were just talking, talking, talking,
and they looked at him and said, you're not saying anything he said,
because he goes, Nope, Theygo what are you doing? He
goes, I'm thinking you ought totry that before you speak, and I'm
(15:45):
like, bam, right there.It is too many people want to talk
and they don't stop to think beforethey speak. And if we do more
thinking and less talking, we mightsay some wonderful things. Let's talk about
why the sales of LPs have soaredduring the pandemic because millennials want their parents
(16:07):
vinyl records. This is again aWall Street Journal article linked at the State
offus dot org. Let us knowyour thoughts. By the way, on
the memory thing, email us apodcast at the stateofus dot org. If
you can't remember it, write itdown, that's right, right, yeah,
write it down. The vinyl revivalbegan more than a decade ago with
budget turntables and a limited selection ofalbums sold in trendy clothing stores, but
(16:33):
last year the format's popularity surged inthe United States, selling forty one point
seven million units, up from twentyone point five million. In twenty twenty,
LPs outsold CDs for the first timein three decades. For the first
time in thirty years, vinyl outsoldCDs as well as digital albums. Did
(16:57):
you catch that? No? Solddigital albums amazing. According to a report
from MRC Data Billboard, people arestarting to come around to my way of
life again, right mm hmm.What's old is new and what's new as
old. So the spike has beendriven in part by younger listeners nostalgic for
(17:17):
an era when music and maybe lifein general, seemed more hands on and
fun. Since the COVID nineteen pandemicbegan in the early twenty In early twenty
twenty, people, young people havebeen forced to postpone many of the things
they looked forward to, most campuslife parties, travel, weddings, even
having children. During this period,records became a nostalgic lifeline. In twenty
(17:41):
twenty one, eighty seven new albumssold more than fifty thousand vinyl copies,
up from fifty one new albums intwenty twenty. Adell, a millennial favorite,
topped the list, selling three hundredand eighteen thousand vinyl copies of her
album Third, despite a price tagof nearly forty dollars. Well, I
(18:04):
mean, let's face it, right, you're listening to music on your phone,
you make your playlist, you're hittingthe buttons, you're switching, Oh
I don't like that song, Youhit the next one, and there you
go. Right, You're not relaxing, you're not concentrated. You put on
a vinyl there's no skip button,and it's like you just put it on
and you go back and sit downand you just get lost in the music.
(18:26):
You're not jumping up and flipping it, you know. And I mean
I have known people if you're aconnoisseur of vinyl, you can get good
enough to actually lift the needle offthe record and go to the song that
you want in the middle of theLP. But the whole idea is you
put it on there and then youhave unless it's The Village People Macho Man,
(18:51):
you have thirty to forty minutes ofuninterrupted music to listen to. I
say that because as we have oneof these in the studio, got The
Village People Macho Man album, whichtakes another thing is and I thought this
was really funny. Okay. Imean that album has five songs, two
on the front and three on theback, like eleven minutes on the front
(19:14):
side, fifteen minutes on the back, so you know that most albums aren't
longer than that, But what thisone has is I thought this was really
funny. You know, one ofmy millennial friends here that I will make
fun of since they make fun ofme, he said, it's really kind
of cool. He goes. Theart is often arresting, and many use
the covers for wall art. Thethrill factor drives the vinyl frenzy. It's
(19:40):
like, wow, really he neverlooked at somebody's apartment in the sixties and
seventies it was covered with vinyl albumcovers, So I think that there's a
lot of things that go into this, right, I mean, as Lance
has identified, there's different reasons thatpeople collect and think of books too,
write people that collect books, Somepeople are after the true content of the
(20:03):
book, right, that's what they'reinterested in. Some people are after the
esthetic of the book. What doesthe book look like, what is the
cover art, when is it from? Some people collect books of different ages
or books on different topics. AndI think that that's part of the difference
here of in a digital landscape.Right. Having music, it's hard to
(20:25):
say that you're really collecting it becauseit doesn't have that same physical presence,
right, But if you're going tocollect, for example, vinyl, you
can collect it based on certain criteria. You could collect it based on what
you like to listen to, whatit looks like, what era it's from,
what genre it's from. There's alot of different options. So and
(20:47):
obviously a lot of people collect morethan one or for more than one reason.
But while why and how does itlink to memory? Well, we've
alluded to it a little bit andwe've talked about this on the State of
Us for years and I wrote anarticle a number of years ago specifically about
why we need physical forms of readingmaterial, and this is linked to the
(21:11):
same thing. Our ability to rememberthings is better when there is a tactile
component to what we're doing. Thefact that you have to pull the vinyl,
that you have to sort through,right, all of your records you
have to sort through them using yourhands and fingers, right. Then you
(21:32):
have to pull the record out,you have to place it on the turntable,
right, and you have to startplaying it. And then you have
to physically adjust the volume. Allof these things and it may sound silly,
but there's psychological research that proves timeand again this is true. All
of those things calm you, andthey also all help you better remember what
(21:56):
it is you're doing because you're yoursynapse is in your brain. And I
am not a neuroscientist, so ifI'm getting this totally off, you're welcome
to correct me out there if wehave any neuroscientists listening. But the basic
gist of it is, you know, the way that we remember things is
when connections in the brain are formed, and it's easier to form those connections
(22:17):
when there's multiple things that go intoit, like using your hands, involving
yourself physically rather than just tapping abutton and the music is there. All
of those things make a difference,which is the same reason why if you
read a physical book, the factthat you have to hold it, that
it has substantive weight to it,that you have to physically grab the page
(22:40):
to turn it. All of thosethings improve recall of information. And people
who read physical books over digital bookstend to better recall what they were reading
over the people that read the digitalversion. So what we're going to look
at next, We're going to havea little fun, I think, Lance
is we're going to go into thenext segment. Grabbed a somewhat random selection.
(23:02):
I tried to get a cross sectionof my current and I am a
millennial for those listeners that don't recallmy current vinyl collection, and I have
brought it into the studio and we'regoing to let the baby boomer kind of
pick through this here and uh andand give us his his real time thoughts.
So we'll have a little fun.Keep it here on a state of
us and we'll be right back.Stacks and stacks of red hot wax.
(23:40):
Lance, what do we got.We've got some real mensceral albums here.
Let me one that's very interesting tome. That just sticks out. This
is probably that nobody's heard of BookerT and the MG's do Christmas. I'm
like, okay, there we go. I mean, I like, I
like me some Booker T and theMG's, but I've never seen them,
(24:02):
never heard a Christmas song. Imean they did jingle Bells, Santa Claus
Is Coming to Town, White Christmassilver Bells. Yeah, Silent Night by
Booker T and the MG's. Ibet that was a that's a get down,
funky little album. It you know, usually Christmas music and funky don't
(24:22):
go in the same sentence, butin this case they do. So I
had never heard them before, andthis was early in the days of collecting,
and I was just looking for Christmaswas coming up, and I was
like, I need, you know, I need something. And I don't
even remember. I think it wasI was in a store that had,
you know, some vinyl, andI was like, Christmas music and it
(24:44):
was the only thing I could find. It was Christmas and I you know,
I'm like, oh, I lookedat the song list and I thought,
oh, this would be great,and I remember putting it on and
be going, what the hell isthis? So that would probably be Christmas
music that I would enjoy. Yeah, I'm not a Christmas music officionado.
No, when they start playing.And my wife loves Christmas music now,
she does wait until after Thanksgiving tostart playing it. She doesn't play it
(25:07):
at Halloween, so I give hercredit for that. But it's like,
yeah, Christmas music great, whatever, But Booker T and the MG's doing
Christmas music. I could probably getinto that. Yeah, you'll have to
listen to it. I've already mentionedthe Village People album Macho Man great Art
on the cover. I probably wouldnot have bought this because it's a it's
a five song album. Oh soyou're getting ripped off. I'm getting ripped
(25:30):
off if I paid full price forthis. I only got twenty five minutes
of music. That's both sides people, that's both sides. Okay, well
now wait a minute, lance bothsides for our uneducated listeners. What does
that? What do you mean bothsides? What does that mean? On
vinyl? There's a side one anda side too. Oh so, like
it's not like a CD where there'sonly one side that works. No,
(25:51):
no, no, when you ifyou want to listen to side two,
you actually have to get up,take the and flip the vinyl over,
flip the record over, and thenput the needleback on to listen to side
too right to your you know,kinnestic learning styles. There, there's one.
Here's a classic that I love.I'm surprised that you have, not
(26:12):
really because you know Johnny Cash isbut Johnny Cash singing at San Quentin.
I this is a boy named Sue. I walked the line the wreck of
the old ninety seven fulsome prison blues. I mean, this is some classic
Johnny Cash performing at at the prison. Now, for some of you a
(26:32):
little bit old, younger people thanme, but not as young as justin
you might remember the Blues Brothers singingin Prison, and that was a take
on what Johnny Cash had done.So this is the original. This is
the original singing in prison right Juneof nineteen sixty nine. Johnny Cash went
to please that I have that.Yeah, that's that's impressive that you did
(26:55):
that. It's in pretty good shape, I think, yeah, I mean
its age. This one is justlike wow, but I mean it's you
know, you've got a couple ofthese. You were going to a newer
one here now, Yeah, Imean, unless you have anything to say
about Johnny Cash. No, no, I mean I like Johnny Cash as
much as the next person. AndI actually have a couple of the original
(27:17):
you know, the original vinyl thatwas released when it came out, which
which is great, and most ofthem are in decent shape. And then
you've got your soundtrack albums. I'vegrouped them here, okay, The Guardians
of the Galaxy Deluxe Vinyl Edition,John Williams, Star Wars Trilogy, The
(27:37):
Return of the Jedi Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, and The Greatest Showman
the original motion Picture Soundtrack. Soso somebody in your household is into soundtracks
of movies. But in the vinylversion, Yes, in the vinyl version.
I think one thing that's worth mentioningbecause you know, there's this there's
(28:00):
this debate right about is vinyl actuallythe best way to listen to music.
It's a mixed bag if you getinto the technicality of it. The reality
is that music, right, mostmusic, And what I mean by that
is if you're singing or if you'replaying a real instrument, that type of
(28:21):
music is analog. Because what isanalog, Well, it's a physical medium,
right, And digital is not it'sdigital. So vinyl is also an
analog medium. And so the wayto think about that is, I mean,
in simple terms, without getting twointo the weeds, you get a
(28:41):
more accurate waveform representation if you keepanalog on analog rather than what happens when
you take analog and put it intodigital. Is digital will do now anymore
a highly accurate job of re creatingthat by converting it into bits and bites.
(29:03):
And the more bits and bites youhave, right, the better the
fidelity of the sound. So anymoreone would contend that the highest quality digital
is going to the standard human earbe indistinguishable to the analog format. However,
there are people that would claim thatit is in fact distinguishable, and
that vinyl has a certain warmth toit that you don't get with digital music.
(29:27):
You're talking about reading here, itis. I can hold the album
cover in my hand and I flipit over and on the back there are
all these things I can read aboutthese songs and about John Williams as I'm
listening to the music. So Idon't I don't think that's multitasking, is
(29:48):
it. I mean, I'm relaxingand I'm reading, and I mean you're
perusing. But again, the musicmeans something because I'm touching the album cover,
I'm holding it as I'm listening toit, and I mean that's kind
of a cool thing that you don'tget on a CD. So what else
we got? You've got the classichere that you and I like to listen
(30:08):
to all the time. Ah.And you have Bohemian Rhapsody. Ah.
Yes, I mean, and it'sa double album set, so we're getting
the value here. Yes, Imean you got four sides, you know,
I mean, and everyone's a hit. I just I mean Fat Bottom
Girls, Killer Queen, Crazy,little thing called love, another one bites
(30:32):
the dust, Radio Gaga. Weare the champion. I mean, come
on, you just you can't gowrong. You put that on. I
don't care what side you put downand where they're gonna be happy. You're
gonna be singing along with that one. I mean that's just. But you
got me on one here. Imean this one, and I had to
It just says T period s periodnineteen eighty nine now, and it's got
(30:57):
this half pick sure from looks kindof feminine, but it's from the nose
to the waist and I'm like,I wonder if our listeners have picked out
yet TS nineteen eighty nine. I'mlike, I don't know. So I
open it up and I'm looking insideand I still don't know, right,
(31:19):
And I'm looking at these pigs andI'm like, I still don't know what
this is. Got Pictures January twentyfourteen, February nineteenth, twenty fourteen.
But then I notice up here sayslove Taylor, and I'm like, oh.
Then I turned to the back andit says executive producers Max Martin and
Taylor Swift, and I'm like,I got me some Taylor Swift in my
(31:44):
hands. That's what you have?Yes, I was like, you have
herd. The album is the nightit's called nineteen eighty nine even released then
that's the name of the album,gotcha, which you'd be forgiven if you
had no idea that that was thecase. I mean, I know who
Taylor Swift. I like some TaylorSwift, but I would did not get
(32:04):
that one at all. So didanything else stick out to you? He's
physically sorting them right now, he'smoving them around. I mean, I
kind of like the the Pete Fountainalbums along with seded Atkins kind of intrigued
me. You know, you wereintrigued. I was intrigued the best of
Pete Fountain two records set and SomethingMisty by Pete Fountain, and then sed
(32:31):
Atkins' album alone, and I'm like, well, that's a kind of interesting
dichotomy. Yes, you know,people might nothing wrong with that, you
know, it's just I was justlike, I don't know, and then
I got excited, you know,And then well, you have this entire
collection of Glenn Miller song so seventyof his greatest original recordings, so that
(32:55):
is that could be a whole eveningslistening there, and it was for me
actually many times. That's that's thestory that begins at all when I was
about twelve or thirteen years old andmy grandma pulled that out and put it
on her record player, and thatwas the beginning of vinyl for me.
(33:16):
There you go. And then ofcourse I still have it. But that
was a big deal, you know, when grandma and Grandpa got that back
in the day, because it wasthey loved Glenn Miller, you know,
they grew up with Glenn Miller,sure, and they got this collector's edition
from Reader's digest. You know thisthis lovely set of as you pointed out,
a vast collection of songs, andyou could you could truly that could
(33:38):
that be your whole evening? Right? I mean you don't even need to
get out of it. After dinner, you doing dishes together or whatever.
You put on some Glenn Miller andyou're dancing around in the kitchen and then
into the living room and then youhave that evening of intimacy and you remember
it. Right. Yep, there'sthe connection of the show to wrap it
all up there. But I justgot to mention this last one, but
(33:59):
Bobbly the Obscure of Me. Igot so excited because it's from nineteen seventy
five and it says the Sunshine Bandthe Sound of Sunshine, and I'm like,
oh, Casey in the Sunshine Band. That's the way a log.
The story there is that I walkedit was a small town store and we
were just walking around. We walkedinto, you know, like an antique
(34:21):
store, and the owner was playingthis record and we were just walking around
and looking at stuff and I waslistening. I'm like, yeah, this
is this is nice. I've neverheard this, you know, but I
don't know what this is, butit's very it's very Sunshine, you know,
it's very it's very kind of easyupbeat, easy listening, you know,
(34:43):
good shopping music was what I wasthinking, you know, nice to
kind of peruse and be at ease. And that's what he was wanting to
do, right, He's wanting tohave people walking into his store buy something.
And I just asked him if Icould buy it, and yeah,
so you bought it off the yes, you bought it off. They took
the record player put it in hissleep. I don't want anything, but
(35:05):
I would like that, but Iwant that one. You know. You
can't buy the music machine, that'sright. You know that most places have
going. So that's that's kind ofan interesting story that you actually bought the
record that the owner was playing totry to get you to buy some good
business, right, I mean,because most people, I'm sure have never
(35:25):
heard of the sun I mean Ihad never heard. I don't even know.
They're hard to look up and find, you know, much on But
the Sound of Sunshine is a thirdstudio album by the American funk and disco
group Casey and the Sunshine Band.The album was produced by Harry Wayne Casey.
The Sound of Sunshine is an instrumentalalbum and it was credited only to
(35:47):
the Sunshine Band because singer Harry WayneCasey did not perform as a vocalist,
but he did co produce it withhis partner. Wow, all right,
now I'm interest nah, I'm veryintrigued about. The album features an instrumental
version of rock Your Baby, whichhad been a hit for George McCrae in
(36:09):
nineteen seventy four. So there's yourthere's your backstory. But see, most
people would probably never buy it becauseof that. They wouldn't have known,
you know that that was the case. I may walk out of the studio
with that one. All right,good, good businessman, though, right?
I mean you put you put theyou put the record on and and
somebody's listening like, yeah, thisis nice if there's some menstreal music on
(36:30):
that one. So Lance, whydo we have this conversation today? We
haven't mission here at True Chat,and it's to educate people by providing honest,
open and respectful conversations. I dolove doing the show, and I
love that you listen. And ifyou're talking to your family and friends and
you enjoyed the show, tell themthey need to listen. And you can
find us anywhere you find good podcasts, you know, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
(36:52):
and all those other places you knowwhat they are. And Okay, come
on down to funky Town and spendsome viole with us and sit down and
relax and listen to us, andtell your friends about us. And we'd
love to add you to a listener. And I threw a shut out today.
I want two to nothing. Questionto our listeners is if the State
(37:12):
of Us put the first ever episodeback when we were the current issue show
on vinyl, how many of youwould buy it? Oh? I try
to buy four or five copies,so I give it to family and friends.
Here you go, free for everybody. Can we can we do it
Christmas? Christmas Christmas album, aChristmas album? Yeah? Oh boy.
(37:37):
We do think we should do aThanksgiving album Thanksgiving because we do a Thanksgiving
show. That is we do weYeah, we could do that's the best
of Thanksgiving with the State of Usand we could select from this music selection.
I put it underneath and oh yeah, people would love that. Uh.
So you can hear us Tuesdays andThursday days as a podcast, and
(38:00):
of course, on the weekends acrossthe United States on AMNFM radio stations.
Lance was successfully pitching that shut outtoday for the State of US on true
Chat. I'm justin t Welcome,I'm Lance Jackson, Special thanks to Bradley
Butch, and thank you all ouraudience for putting up with us. We'll
see you next time, be theChack. Be sure to check out our
(38:28):
website, the State Offus dot orgfor books, articles, and all the
ways to tune in the State ofUs dot org.
Today on the State of US,why we keep forgetting stuff and Vinyl spins
back. Welcome to the State ofUS. I'm your host, Justin T.
(00:27):
Weller, joined, of course,today by the one and only friendly
redneck liberal senior resident historian here atTrue Chat, and that educator of more
than thirty five years, mister LanceEl Jackson. Today we're going to look
at why we're all forgetting things rightnow, short term memory issues and temporary
moments of forgetfulness are happening to moreof us more often these days, according
(00:51):
to memory experts and an article inthe Wall Street Journal. We're also going
to talk about, and you mightsay, why are these paired together?
Why millennials want their parents vinyl records. Sales of LP's soared during the pandemic
as younger listeners discovered they're nostalgic andsensory appeal. See if you can figure
out the link. But before wedive in, Lance, what is the
(01:15):
word of the day, Well,the word of the day is what did
you ask me? I said,what is the word of the day?
That's bad? That's bad, isn'tit? I should I shouldn't joke about
not about forgetting things because I forgetenough for the day is yeah, no,
no, I was. I wasjust a little a little punny there
to start to show, but it'sreally not funny because I have sat here
just staring out into space, like, what's the word I want to use?
(01:38):
What's the word I want to Bradleyhas to, you know, edit
things. So this is this onehits a little close to home. But
it's nice to know that it's justnot us old people that are forgetting things,
as we'll talk about in the article. But the word of the day
is mensural. I've never heard ofthis before. M, E, N,
S U are all three syllables,and in music, it means designating
(02:05):
or or of polyphonic music in whicheach note is given a strictly determined value.
Oh, I've silenced him, folks, Oh well he's not. He's
not sure. I want what todo with this one. I may get
a win. I don't know ifI can figure out what to do with
it. I just say it's amusic term I've never heard, and it
(02:29):
is, yes, I have notheard it. I'm not sure how I
would, seeing as I don't understandwhat the definition means. It might be
complicated to attempt to use it.That's why I thought I would get you.
Well, I'll help you out.Polyphonic means having or making many sounds.
Does menstrual have any other definitions ofmeasure? This tricky one? Tricky,
(02:54):
So we'll see if I can rememberthat today? See lance can remember
it short temporary instances of forgetfulness.Easy for you to say, that's right.
Yeah, those senior moments are happeningto more of us more often these
days. Memory experts say, we'refinding it difficult to recall simple things that
(03:16):
should come easily, even how toperform routine acts that once seemed like second
nature. Are you Are you experiencingthis firsthand? Lance is that there are
moments, yes, when I havethat because here it says here somewhere.
Some studies show that memorability peaks inpeople's twenties and gradually declines from there.
(03:38):
Others suggest that the sharpest decline startsaround age sixty. Doctor Reeg says,
and for our listeners benefit, whattype of age category from that descriptor?
Do you follow? I'm in mymiddle twenties, okay, I am sicker
in the former, not the last. I am sixty, right, But
Grant Shields was teaching a college similarto twenty four students last week when his
(04:00):
mind went blake. He'd forgotten thename of his teaching assistant. I was
embarrassed, said doctor Shield, whothought he heard students laugh when he said
the wrong name, then struggled torecover. I wish my memory was as
good as it used to be.Okay, you read that, you're thinking,
oh, he's an older person who'steaching a college class. Doctor Shield
is thirty two years old. Heis a memory researcher, and he was
(04:24):
teaching a class on how stress affectscognition. Thirty two baby. Not just
as old people. It can happento all of us. One of the
neuroscientists and professors of cognitive science atthe University of California said, our brains
are like computers with so many tabsopen right now. This slows down our
(04:46):
processing power, and memory is oneof the areas that falters. A lot
of what they talk about. Lancetwo focuses on, you know, through
the pandemic and the way the worldis changing. With a lot of change
occurring in your life. Change requiresa lot more mental energy than most of
us understand. Because it's not allconscious, but there's a lot of unconscious
(05:10):
things happening. For you to dealwith things that are not routine, things
that are not standard, things thatare out of the ordinary, your brain
has to work harder. And ifyou think about it, it does make
sense. We rely heavily right onpatterns and past experience to form the ability
for us to make fast decisions andto proceed through life without having to work
(05:34):
too hard at certain things. Well, and another point they make too is
memory comes from novelty. If youget in the drudgery of doing the same
thing over and over every day,then you don't necessarily remember, you know,
like what do you have for breakfast? I don't know, you know,
But if you normally have a bowlof cereal for breakfast, but then
(05:56):
one day you decide to have scrambledeggs and bacon toast, and you remember
that because oh I had no different, you know, and it sticks out
in your memory and the aroma,and you know, there's all those other
sensory items that go into memory aswell that can be triggered. You know,
there's there are things when you know, certain smells or certain sites that
(06:18):
then trigger memory, and so noveltyhelps, and sometimes we get in that
rut right where we're just scrolling onour phones and just look. I don't
know. I don't do that.My phone doesn't scroll. But I see
people I've heard, I've I've heardof this thing of people taking their phone
(06:38):
and using their thumb and just scrolling, not paying attention to what else is
going on, and just time goesby, and then oh, they wonder
why they can't remember something. Whatdid you look at? I don't I
mean, I asked my wife thatall the time. What are you looking
at over there? I don't know, I'm just scrolling. The human existence
(06:59):
can be summed up in the twentyfirst century as I'm just scrolling, I'm
gonna get you know, what doyou get at? You? A T
shirt? Him? I'm just rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling on the
river. I'm just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling on the river. Do doop
deep duped doodoop. I'd be abackup singer performance by the friendly redneck liberal
(07:25):
in the In the back half oftoday's show, as we get into the
the music, I will say thatpersonally, I mean this memory thing I've
I've noticed some you know, thereis a lot going on, because you
might say, well, I listenedto what Justin said and then what Land
said, and it sounds like that. Lots of change is not always good
for memory. But then unique thingsare, and a lot of that deals
(07:47):
with it comes back to that lovelyword. Stress is the change stressful is
the adjustment to your schedule stressful.For example, if you're taking a Sunday
drive and Sunday's a day that youhave off and you're going to you know,
(08:07):
explore a new park, right,well, that is different, right,
It is unique. It is somethingyou haven't seen or done before.
So does that mean that it's goingto be bad for your memory. No,
it's going to be good for yourmemory because it's an enjoyable experience.
There's a novelty to it, right, That's why it's valuable. Now if
you show up to work on Mondayand your boss tells you that, you
(08:31):
know, you used to work nineto five, but now we're going to
work from noon to eight, andthat's effective starting immediately. And also you
no longer have a lunch break,or you have to take your lunch break
at the beginning of the day.You can't take it any other time.
And we're taking your parking pass awayand you have to walk to work or
we're going to fire you. That'sgoing to be one a lot of change.
(08:54):
It's going to totally disrupt your routine. And I think routine and drudgery
don't have to be the same thing, right. For example, if I
get up every day at seven andgo down to eat breakfast, if I
eat the same thing for breakfast,that may not be good for memory.
But to Lance's point, if Ichange up what I eat for breakfast,
but there's still some consistency to myschedule, my existence, that's I think
(09:18):
the defining point here that's important.They give us some things, some recommendations
for boosting your memory, and thebiggest thing is putting down your phone,
you know, because what you're doingthen is you're starting to multitask, and
it's tough to recall something or tocommit to something in the first place,
(09:39):
and especially if you're doing two thingsat once. This doctor says, so
put your phone away and that cutsback on information overload, and try doing
one thing at a time, andif you do that, y'all might be
able to remember a little bit whatyou were doing. What'd you do today?
I don't know. I was scrollit, scroll it, scroll.
(10:00):
So let's talk about the tips andalso get into why millennials want their parents'
vinyl records and how that might actuallyhelp with memory to find out. Keep
it here on the state of usand we'll be right back. Don't force
(10:26):
it, don't force it. Forcingyourself to try to remember something is counterproductive.
You'll become frustrated, and that frustrationallows the emotional part of your brain
to override the parts of your brainthat retrieve memories. Man, this one
may be the most difficult one,because what's the natural thing you want to
(10:48):
do the minute you can't remember somethinglike oh damn, what is that?
What about? You know? Butthen why but think about it? Why
do then when we change the discussionor go on right five to ten minutes
later, it's like, there isThat's what I wanted to say. You
know, you get it because exactlywhat they said. You don't try to
force it because you just you neverdo think of it, and when you
move on then it's like, oh, I got it. So the next
(11:11):
one is stop multitasking, which Lancekind of hinted at before. This was
the one that I called out asthe absolutely. We've talked about it a
lot of times. It's tough torecall something or to commit something to memory
in the first place when you're doingtwo things at once. We've also talked
about the vast majority of the populationand don't you dare believe you're the exception
(11:31):
out there, listener, as in, like, ninety eight percent of all
humans can not actually multitask. Andwhat do we mean by that, Well,
multitasking in the truest sense would bethe capacity to simultaneously engage fully in
two activities. Ninety eight percent ofus cannot do that. Okay, we
(11:56):
can't. So well, you say, well, but I got my I
got my monitors going and I gotmy phone out, or I'm listening to
music and I'm doing my phone.What do you mean I can't multitask.
You're not actually doing both of themat the same time. What your brain
is doing. And we did anepisode on this is task switching, okay,
which is the rapid switching between tasks, which is actually bad for you.
(12:20):
It's not good. It wears youout faster and you don't do any
task as well because it drains yourmental energy to have to flip back and
forth between those things so quickly.So that's actually what's happening, which is
why if you've ever tried to lookat your phone and watch TV at the
same time, you look up andyou don't know what just happened in the
(12:41):
last few seconds, because you cannotactually do both at the same time,
or you have some vague, youknow, kind of semblance of what took
place, like I got a fewwords, you know, here and there,
but I'm not exactly sure what happened. And so what's generally happening is
your brain is filling in those gapsfor you based on the previous context of
(13:03):
what you're watching and where you're atnow, and convinces you that in fact
you did know all along, whenin fact you did not. So it's
not good for you anyway, butit's also not great for memory. I
love this one. I almost underlinethe whole thing, But the actual psychological
thing here that works is this willstrengthen your frontal lobe, which is involved
(13:26):
in both memory and coding and retrieval, as well as stress regulation, daily
meditation, yoga, deep breathing,take a walk in nature. But this
is the one I like, rightconnect with the loved one, have a
chat, give a hug, havesex. Intimacy reduces stress by making you
feel loved and cared for me.That says it all right, I mean,
(13:50):
and get some sleep, more intimate, more well, you know what
do you do after you have intimacy? And this clears out the toxins in
your brain so that you your mentalprocessing can start to you know, unfold.
So there it is, folks,we're telling you right here from the
doctor himself. You know, talka little bit, have a hug,
(14:11):
have some intimacy, and makes youfeel safe and sound, and then you
go to sleep and all the badtoxins clear out and you can remember stuff
that's right. Probably remember that youhad intimacy I remember. Isn't it interesting?
Though? How that's something that wedo a better job of. Remember
(14:33):
it's probably on this novel bad goingback to that other thing? You know?
That's right? Connect it all together. But see, that's when when
your brain is calm, your abilityto make connections, remember things, all
of that is improved. Right.I think about the other thing that's not
not mentioned here though, that Ibelieve is a good one is reading,
(14:54):
right, Uh, listening to musicand that's, by the way, what
we're about away the connection, right, So the last thing and this actually
ties into our next thing as well. Be socially present. Give your full
attention to people when you talk tothem. Doing so will help you better
recall what you want to say inconversation because your brain won't be distracted or
(15:18):
overtaxed and remember what was said.It's like one of my favorite TV characters,
Old Sheriff Longmire, was walking throughthe woods and they were going towards
a crime scene and the people aroundhim were just talking, talking, talking,
and they looked at him and said, you're not saying anything he said,
because he goes, Nope, Theygo what are you doing? He
goes, I'm thinking you ought totry that before you speak, and I'm
(15:45):
like, bam, right there.It is too many people want to talk
and they don't stop to think beforethey speak. And if we do more
thinking and less talking, we mightsay some wonderful things. Let's talk about
why the sales of LPs have soaredduring the pandemic because millennials want their parents
(16:07):
vinyl records. This is again aWall Street Journal article linked at the State
offus dot org. Let us knowyour thoughts. By the way, on
the memory thing, email us apodcast at the stateofus dot org. If
you can't remember it, write itdown, that's right, right, yeah,
write it down. The vinyl revivalbegan more than a decade ago with
budget turntables and a limited selection ofalbums sold in trendy clothing stores, but
(16:33):
last year the format's popularity surged inthe United States, selling forty one point
seven million units, up from twentyone point five million. In twenty twenty,
LPs outsold CDs for the first timein three decades. For the first
time in thirty years, vinyl outsoldCDs as well as digital albums. Did
(16:57):
you catch that? No? Solddigital albums amazing. According to a report
from MRC Data Billboard, people arestarting to come around to my way of
life again, right mm hmm.What's old is new and what's new as
old. So the spike has beendriven in part by younger listeners nostalgic for
(17:17):
an era when music and maybe lifein general, seemed more hands on and
fun. Since the COVID nineteen pandemicbegan in the early twenty In early twenty
twenty, people, young people havebeen forced to postpone many of the things
they looked forward to, most campuslife parties, travel, weddings, even
having children. During this period,records became a nostalgic lifeline. In twenty
(17:41):
twenty one, eighty seven new albumssold more than fifty thousand vinyl copies,
up from fifty one new albums intwenty twenty. Adell, a millennial favorite,
topped the list, selling three hundredand eighteen thousand vinyl copies of her
album Third, despite a price tagof nearly forty dollars. Well, I
(18:04):
mean, let's face it, right, you're listening to music on your phone,
you make your playlist, you're hittingthe buttons, you're switching, Oh
I don't like that song, Youhit the next one, and there you
go. Right, You're not relaxing, you're not concentrated. You put on
a vinyl there's no skip button,and it's like you just put it on
and you go back and sit downand you just get lost in the music.
(18:26):
You're not jumping up and flipping it, you know. And I mean
I have known people if you're aconnoisseur of vinyl, you can get good
enough to actually lift the needle offthe record and go to the song that
you want in the middle of theLP. But the whole idea is you
put it on there and then youhave unless it's The Village People Macho Man,
(18:51):
you have thirty to forty minutes ofuninterrupted music to listen to. I
say that because as we have oneof these in the studio, got The
Village People Macho Man album, whichtakes another thing is and I thought this
was really funny. Okay. Imean that album has five songs, two
on the front and three on theback, like eleven minutes on the front
(19:14):
side, fifteen minutes on the back, so you know that most albums aren't
longer than that, But what thisone has is I thought this was really
funny. You know, one ofmy millennial friends here that I will make
fun of since they make fun ofme, he said, it's really kind
of cool. He goes. Theart is often arresting, and many use
the covers for wall art. Thethrill factor drives the vinyl frenzy. It's
(19:40):
like, wow, really he neverlooked at somebody's apartment in the sixties and
seventies it was covered with vinyl albumcovers, So I think that there's a
lot of things that go into this, right, I mean, as Lance
has identified, there's different reasons thatpeople collect and think of books too,
write people that collect books, Somepeople are after the true content of the
(20:03):
book, right, that's what they'reinterested in. Some people are after the
esthetic of the book. What doesthe book look like, what is the
cover art, when is it from? Some people collect books of different ages
or books on different topics. AndI think that that's part of the difference
here of in a digital landscape.Right. Having music, it's hard to
(20:25):
say that you're really collecting it becauseit doesn't have that same physical presence,
right, But if you're going tocollect, for example, vinyl, you
can collect it based on certain criteria. You could collect it based on what
you like to listen to, whatit looks like, what era it's from,
what genre it's from. There's alot of different options. So and
(20:47):
obviously a lot of people collect morethan one or for more than one reason.
But while why and how does itlink to memory? Well, we've
alluded to it a little bit andwe've talked about this on the State of
Us for years and I wrote anarticle a number of years ago specifically about
why we need physical forms of readingmaterial, and this is linked to the
(21:11):
same thing. Our ability to rememberthings is better when there is a tactile
component to what we're doing. Thefact that you have to pull the vinyl,
that you have to sort through,right, all of your records you
have to sort through them using yourhands and fingers, right. Then you
(21:32):
have to pull the record out,you have to place it on the turntable,
right, and you have to startplaying it. And then you have
to physically adjust the volume. Allof these things and it may sound silly,
but there's psychological research that proves timeand again this is true. All
of those things calm you, andthey also all help you better remember what
(21:56):
it is you're doing because you're yoursynapse is in your brain. And I
am not a neuroscientist, so ifI'm getting this totally off, you're welcome
to correct me out there if wehave any neuroscientists listening. But the basic
gist of it is, you know, the way that we remember things is
when connections in the brain are formed, and it's easier to form those connections
(22:17):
when there's multiple things that go intoit, like using your hands, involving
yourself physically rather than just tapping abutton and the music is there. All
of those things make a difference,which is the same reason why if you
read a physical book, the factthat you have to hold it, that
it has substantive weight to it,that you have to physically grab the page
(22:40):
to turn it. All of thosethings improve recall of information. And people
who read physical books over digital bookstend to better recall what they were reading
over the people that read the digitalversion. So what we're going to look
at next, We're going to havea little fun, I think, Lance
is we're going to go into thenext segment. Grabbed a somewhat random selection.
(23:02):
I tried to get a cross sectionof my current and I am a
millennial for those listeners that don't recallmy current vinyl collection, and I have
brought it into the studio and we'regoing to let the baby boomer kind of
pick through this here and uh andand give us his his real time thoughts.
So we'll have a little fun.Keep it here on a state of
us and we'll be right back.Stacks and stacks of red hot wax.
(23:40):
Lance, what do we got.We've got some real mensceral albums here.
Let me one that's very interesting tome. That just sticks out. This
is probably that nobody's heard of BookerT and the MG's do Christmas. I'm
like, okay, there we go. I mean, I like, I
like me some Booker T and theMG's, but I've never seen them,
(24:02):
never heard a Christmas song. Imean they did jingle Bells, Santa Claus
Is Coming to Town, White Christmassilver Bells. Yeah, Silent Night by
Booker T and the MG's. Ibet that was a that's a get down,
funky little album. It you know, usually Christmas music and funky don't
(24:22):
go in the same sentence, butin this case they do. So I
had never heard them before, andthis was early in the days of collecting,
and I was just looking for Christmaswas coming up, and I was
like, I need, you know, I need something. And I don't
even remember. I think it wasI was in a store that had,
you know, some vinyl, andI was like, Christmas music and it
(24:44):
was the only thing I could find. It was Christmas and I you know,
I'm like, oh, I lookedat the song list and I thought,
oh, this would be great,and I remember putting it on and
be going, what the hell isthis? So that would probably be Christmas
music that I would enjoy. Yeah, I'm not a Christmas music officionado.
No, when they start playing.And my wife loves Christmas music now,
she does wait until after Thanksgiving tostart playing it. She doesn't play it
(25:07):
at Halloween, so I give hercredit for that. But it's like,
yeah, Christmas music great, whatever, But Booker T and the MG's doing
Christmas music. I could probably getinto that. Yeah, you'll have to
listen to it. I've already mentionedthe Village People album Macho Man great Art
on the cover. I probably wouldnot have bought this because it's a it's
a five song album. Oh soyou're getting ripped off. I'm getting ripped
(25:30):
off if I paid full price forthis. I only got twenty five minutes
of music. That's both sides people, that's both sides. Okay, well
now wait a minute, lance bothsides for our uneducated listeners. What does
that? What do you mean bothsides? What does that mean? On
vinyl? There's a side one anda side too. Oh so, like
it's not like a CD where there'sonly one side that works. No,
(25:51):
no, no, when you ifyou want to listen to side two,
you actually have to get up,take the and flip the vinyl over,
flip the record over, and thenput the needleback on to listen to side
too right to your you know,kinnestic learning styles. There, there's one.
Here's a classic that I love.I'm surprised that you have, not
(26:12):
really because you know Johnny Cash isbut Johnny Cash singing at San Quentin.
I this is a boy named Sue. I walked the line the wreck of
the old ninety seven fulsome prison blues. I mean, this is some classic
Johnny Cash performing at at the prison. Now, for some of you a
(26:32):
little bit old, younger people thanme, but not as young as justin
you might remember the Blues Brothers singingin Prison, and that was a take
on what Johnny Cash had done.So this is the original. This is
the original singing in prison right Juneof nineteen sixty nine. Johnny Cash went
to please that I have that.Yeah, that's that's impressive that you did
(26:55):
that. It's in pretty good shape, I think, yeah, I mean
its age. This one is justlike wow, but I mean it's you
know, you've got a couple ofthese. You were going to a newer
one here now, Yeah, Imean, unless you have anything to say
about Johnny Cash. No, no, I mean I like Johnny Cash as
much as the next person. AndI actually have a couple of the original
(27:17):
you know, the original vinyl thatwas released when it came out, which
which is great, and most ofthem are in decent shape. And then
you've got your soundtrack albums. I'vegrouped them here, okay, The Guardians
of the Galaxy Deluxe Vinyl Edition,John Williams, Star Wars Trilogy, The
(27:37):
Return of the Jedi Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars, and The Greatest Showman
the original motion Picture Soundtrack. Soso somebody in your household is into soundtracks
of movies. But in the vinylversion, Yes, in the vinyl version.
I think one thing that's worth mentioningbecause you know, there's this there's
(28:00):
this debate right about is vinyl actuallythe best way to listen to music.
It's a mixed bag if you getinto the technicality of it. The reality
is that music, right, mostmusic, And what I mean by that
is if you're singing or if you'replaying a real instrument, that type of
(28:21):
music is analog. Because what isanalog, Well, it's a physical medium,
right, And digital is not it'sdigital. So vinyl is also an
analog medium. And so the wayto think about that is, I mean,
in simple terms, without getting twointo the weeds, you get a
(28:41):
more accurate waveform representation if you keepanalog on analog rather than what happens when
you take analog and put it intodigital. Is digital will do now anymore
a highly accurate job of re creatingthat by converting it into bits and bites.
(29:03):
And the more bits and bites youhave, right, the better the
fidelity of the sound. So anymoreone would contend that the highest quality digital
is going to the standard human earbe indistinguishable to the analog format. However,
there are people that would claim thatit is in fact distinguishable, and
that vinyl has a certain warmth toit that you don't get with digital music.
(29:27):
You're talking about reading here, itis. I can hold the album
cover in my hand and I flipit over and on the back there are
all these things I can read aboutthese songs and about John Williams as I'm
listening to the music. So Idon't I don't think that's multitasking, is
(29:48):
it. I mean, I'm relaxingand I'm reading, and I mean you're
perusing. But again, the musicmeans something because I'm touching the album cover,
I'm holding it as I'm listening toit, and I mean that's kind
of a cool thing that you don'tget on a CD. So what else
we got? You've got the classichere that you and I like to listen
(30:08):
to all the time. Ah.And you have Bohemian Rhapsody. Ah.
Yes, I mean, and it'sa double album set, so we're getting
the value here. Yes, Imean you got four sides, you know,
I mean, and everyone's a hit. I just I mean Fat Bottom
Girls, Killer Queen, Crazy,little thing called love, another one bites
(30:32):
the dust, Radio Gaga. Weare the champion. I mean, come
on, you just you can't gowrong. You put that on. I
don't care what side you put downand where they're gonna be happy. You're
gonna be singing along with that one. I mean that's just. But you
got me on one here. Imean this one, and I had to
It just says T period s periodnineteen eighty nine now, and it's got
(30:57):
this half pick sure from looks kindof feminine, but it's from the nose
to the waist and I'm like,I wonder if our listeners have picked out
yet TS nineteen eighty nine. I'mlike, I don't know. So I
open it up and I'm looking insideand I still don't know, right,
(31:19):
And I'm looking at these pigs andI'm like, I still don't know what
this is. Got Pictures January twentyfourteen, February nineteenth, twenty fourteen.
But then I notice up here sayslove Taylor, and I'm like, oh.
Then I turned to the back andit says executive producers Max Martin and
Taylor Swift, and I'm like,I got me some Taylor Swift in my
(31:44):
hands. That's what you have?Yes, I was like, you have
herd. The album is the nightit's called nineteen eighty nine even released then
that's the name of the album,gotcha, which you'd be forgiven if you
had no idea that that was thecase. I mean, I know who
Taylor Swift. I like some TaylorSwift, but I would did not get
(32:04):
that one at all. So didanything else stick out to you? He's
physically sorting them right now, he'smoving them around. I mean, I
kind of like the the Pete Fountainalbums along with seded Atkins kind of intrigued
me. You know, you wereintrigued. I was intrigued the best of
Pete Fountain two records set and SomethingMisty by Pete Fountain, and then sed
(32:31):
Atkins' album alone, and I'm like, well, that's a kind of interesting
dichotomy. Yes, you know,people might nothing wrong with that, you
know, it's just I was justlike, I don't know, and then
I got excited, you know,And then well, you have this entire
collection of Glenn Miller song so seventyof his greatest original recordings, so that
(32:55):
is that could be a whole eveningslistening there, and it was for me
actually many times. That's that's thestory that begins at all when I was
about twelve or thirteen years old andmy grandma pulled that out and put it
on her record player, and thatwas the beginning of vinyl for me.
(33:16):
There you go. And then ofcourse I still have it. But that
was a big deal, you know, when grandma and Grandpa got that back
in the day, because it wasthey loved Glenn Miller, you know,
they grew up with Glenn Miller,sure, and they got this collector's edition
from Reader's digest. You know thisthis lovely set of as you pointed out,
a vast collection of songs, andyou could you could truly that could
(33:38):
that be your whole evening? Right? I mean you don't even need to
get out of it. After dinner, you doing dishes together or whatever.
You put on some Glenn Miller andyou're dancing around in the kitchen and then
into the living room and then youhave that evening of intimacy and you remember
it. Right. Yep, there'sthe connection of the show to wrap it
all up there. But I justgot to mention this last one, but
(33:59):
Bobbly the Obscure of Me. Igot so excited because it's from nineteen seventy
five and it says the Sunshine Bandthe Sound of Sunshine, and I'm like,
oh, Casey in the Sunshine Band. That's the way a log.
The story there is that I walkedit was a small town store and we
were just walking around. We walkedinto, you know, like an antique
(34:21):
store, and the owner was playingthis record and we were just walking around
and looking at stuff and I waslistening. I'm like, yeah, this
is this is nice. I've neverheard this, you know, but I
don't know what this is, butit's very it's very Sunshine, you know,
it's very it's very kind of easyupbeat, easy listening, you know,
(34:43):
good shopping music was what I wasthinking, you know, nice to
kind of peruse and be at ease. And that's what he was wanting to
do, right, He's wanting tohave people walking into his store buy something.
And I just asked him if Icould buy it, and yeah,
so you bought it off the yes, you bought it off. They took
the record player put it in hissleep. I don't want anything, but
(35:05):
I would like that, but Iwant that one. You know. You
can't buy the music machine, that'sright. You know that most places have
going. So that's that's kind ofan interesting story that you actually bought the
record that the owner was playing totry to get you to buy some good
business, right, I mean,because most people, I'm sure have never
(35:25):
heard of the sun I mean Ihad never heard. I don't even know.
They're hard to look up and find, you know, much on But
the Sound of Sunshine is a thirdstudio album by the American funk and disco
group Casey and the Sunshine Band.The album was produced by Harry Wayne Casey.
The Sound of Sunshine is an instrumentalalbum and it was credited only to
(35:47):
the Sunshine Band because singer Harry WayneCasey did not perform as a vocalist,
but he did co produce it withhis partner. Wow, all right,
now I'm interest nah, I'm veryintrigued about. The album features an instrumental
version of rock Your Baby, whichhad been a hit for George McCrae in
(36:09):
nineteen seventy four. So there's yourthere's your backstory. But see, most
people would probably never buy it becauseof that. They wouldn't have known,
you know that that was the case. I may walk out of the studio
with that one. All right,good, good businessman, though, right?
I mean you put you put theyou put the record on and and
somebody's listening like, yeah, thisis nice if there's some menstreal music on
(36:30):
that one. So Lance, whydo we have this conversation today? We
haven't mission here at True Chat,and it's to educate people by providing honest,
open and respectful conversations. I dolove doing the show, and I
love that you listen. And ifyou're talking to your family and friends and
you enjoyed the show, tell themthey need to listen. And you can
find us anywhere you find good podcasts, you know, Spotify, Apple Podcasts
(36:52):
and all those other places you knowwhat they are. And Okay, come
on down to funky Town and spendsome viole with us and sit down and
relax and listen to us, andtell your friends about us. And we'd
love to add you to a listener. And I threw a shut out today.
I want two to nothing. Questionto our listeners is if the State
(37:12):
of Us put the first ever episodeback when we were the current issue show
on vinyl, how many of youwould buy it? Oh? I try
to buy four or five copies,so I give it to family and friends.
Here you go, free for everybody. Can we can we do it
Christmas? Christmas Christmas album, aChristmas album? Yeah? Oh boy.
(37:37):
We do think we should do aThanksgiving album Thanksgiving because we do a Thanksgiving
show. That is we do weYeah, we could do that's the best
of Thanksgiving with the State of Usand we could select from this music selection.
I put it underneath and oh yeah, people would love that. Uh.
So you can hear us Tuesdays andThursday days as a podcast, and
(38:00):
of course, on the weekends acrossthe United States on AMNFM radio stations.
Lance was successfully pitching that shut outtoday for the State of US on true
Chat. I'm justin t Welcome,I'm Lance Jackson, Special thanks to Bradley
Butch, and thank you all ouraudience for putting up with us. We'll
see you next time, be theChack. Be sure to check out our
(38:28):
website, the State Offus dot orgfor books, articles, and all the
ways to tune in the State ofUs dot org.
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