Stephen Mejias

During a recent e-mail exchange with Music">http://www.musicdirect.com">Music Direct's Josh Bizar, the topic turned to record cleaning. Josh shared with me his "Secret Record Cleaning Method."

I have a little space heater that I keep in my kitchen because the kitchen is where it's coldest. The wind whips against our old apartment building and rattles the old windows and sets the sparrows and the starlings fluttering into my thin walls where they've made their nests. If there was ever any insulation in those thin walls, it must be long gone.

Though earlier in the day I had entertained ideas of soaring through the cold night, piercing hearts from here to Williamsburg and back, when it came time to make my move, I could only sit there, alone, still and quiet and entirely comfortable on my warm, orange couch.

Willie Nelson's Phases and Stages was released one year prior to Wainwright's Unrequited and takes a somewhat similar artistic approach. It is clearly a concept album with two distinct, but closely related, sides.

I also picked this one up at Boomerangs. At the time, I knew nothing about Melanie Safka. Looking at the front cover, I must have immediately thought, hmm… psychedelic hippie music, or something like that. I also noticed that it was released by Buddah Records who I was familiar with for their work with Captain Beefheart and Rodriguez. Turning to the back, I was intrigued by Melanie's liner notes, which pretty much told me that this chick is crazy.

I purchased this album, simply titled Elvis, at the ARChive of Contemporary Music's winter record fair. This album immediately followed his RCA Victor debut, Elvis Presley. Both were released in 1957 and both went gold. By the end of the year, I suppose he was so successful that a single name was enough. My copy is a 50th anniversary reissue special.

It's a very tough call, but Darkness may be my favorite Springsteen album. See him there, looking so damn ready to prove it all night.