I was wide-eyed to find a CD copy of the dBs' power pop album Like This (1984) in the bins at my favorite Olympia record store--and for 98 cents! That's exciting, though collectors are always a bit leery of that kind of deal. Was the disc scratched and how badly? The answer: No scuffs...just a sort of mark near the shiny side's center. I decided it was worth the risk of purchase because I have burned a defective CD before and the copy often comes out sans imperfections. That's Plan B--to have a burned copy--but I hoped to have a legit album to add to my insane music collection. I simply cleaned the blemish with the mild soap we use on veggies. No visible scar now and it sounds great!
Then there's the Last Word's single "Can't Stop Loving You" (1967), which had a very brief chart run but made quite an impression on me; it's soulful rock'n'roll with a strong singer and superb guitarist, clocking in at 2:18. I found it in the early '80s at a record store near Groesbeck and Van Dyke in Michigan (the "Van" was inspiration for half of the group name of Martha & the Vandellas) that was going out of business. Deceitfully, the store was repackaging used albums with sealed shrinkwrap, and worst of all, sold me a Smokey Robinson & the Miracles double live LP with only one record in it.
"Can't Stop Loving You" was worn out and sounded noisy so I put it away for posterity, and I've heard it on the radio only once or twice in fifty years. But as my all-'60s show approached recently, I was dying to see if I could get it on the air. (The B-side, by the way, is a tedious remake of Wilson Pickett's "Don't Fight It.")
I thought this trashed 45 on the Atco label was beyond repair but once again, I used vegetable wash and cleaned it in a circular motion (CDs, by contrast, are supposed to be wiped a different way, from center to the edge).
Yow! The cleanup took out most of the noise on the "Can't Stop Loving You" single and it sounded fabulous on the air Saturday...or at least, I thought so. There you have it: two items with new life via just a bit of maintenance.
Don't worry about growing older, people. The tiniest triumphs can be delightful.