V is for Vinyl. Why I love to put ‘The Needle on The Black’ (song)

One of the records from my small vinyl collection

This song was written as a love letter to vinyl – you know, good old fashioned records that you have to play on a turntable? I love them for many reasons, like the fact they don’t really lend themselves to skipping from track to track, which means you are more inclined to listen to the whole album. There’s just something magical about the simple act of a needle scraping it’s way across a piece of plastic to create music.

And what music it is.

You can listen to the song here. Here are the lyrics:


Needle On The Black

Life is like a record, I believe

You can’t leave it in its sleeve.

Blow off the dust and you will see

Revolutions set you free.

Put the needle on the black

And let it take you back.


I hear the voices of yesterday,

And the music that they play.

Touching me inside my heart

Tearing memories apart

Put the needle on the black

And let it take you back.

Put the needle on the black.


Ray and Otis sing the blues,

Aretha lets it loose.

Marvin’s moving me to tears

Sam strips away my fears

Put the needle on the black

And let it take you back

Put the needle on the black.


I sit and watch that vinyl spinning and it stirs my soul.

I can see the faces of those legends and they’ve not grown old,

Not grown old.

Put the needle on the black.


Are you old enough to remember records? Do you still have an emotional attachment to them?

This was my 22nd post for the A-Z Blog Challenge. Follow the blog during April for more writing tips, inspirational life posts, short fiction, film-inspired articles and more songs with audio recordings. Next post – W is for WIP – My work in progress.

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Thankyou for the Music . . .

Potentially not a great start to the day: Awoken by my 7 year old daughter at 7.20am who calmly informs me that I seem to have overslept by about half an hour. She, however, has washed, dressed, tidied her room and now wants to borrow the laptop to prepare for the opening of the markets. She mutters something about there being an overnight surge in Equities and disappears downstairs. At least I think that was what she said – it was either that or “I’m going to check out the Nick Junior website.”

I spend the next 30 minutes stumbling around half asleep and trying to get myself ready for work, then pretend to be a responsible parent by double-checking Megan has brushed her teeth. She has – but reminds me that I’ve put my T-shirt on back to front.

After eventually successfully dropping Megan off at her Grandma’s, I realised I had to try to reverse the faltering start I had made to the day. The answer? Music, of course. I had a twenty minute car journey to reverse my fortunes:

Step 1 – Dig out the never failing Motown compilation. 

Step 2 -Find the desired track (today it was ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ – Stevie Wonder)

Step 3 – Crank up the volume.

Step 4 – Start slow – tap your fingers, maybe nod your head slightly.

Step 5 – Prepare to look silly – sing at the top of your voice and feel the endorphin rush.

Step 6 – DO NOT CRASH* Kelly’s Eye accepts no responsibility for personal injury.

18 minutes and 5 tracks later, I turned off the engine and virtually skipped to work. A couple of hours later and I still feel good – despite being ignored by a client and the fact that it’s Friday 13th.

Try it – you won’t be disappointed, I promise. Don’t just take my word for it either. Here’s the Scientific proof – http://bit.ly/kL8hE