Praise Be the "Repeat" function!

You guys who've grown up in the era of CDs and mp3 players are so fortunate. You probably totally take for granted the "repeat" function on today's media players, but to someone who spent the first 30 years of his life in the era of vinyl records, being able to simply set a playback device to "repeat" a track or an album is nothing less than a godsend.

Think about it. In the old days, if you wanted to listen to an LP track again, you had to stop whatever you were doing, stand up, walk across the room to your stereo or turntable, pick up the tone arm, "aim" the needle at the 2mm wide band between the songs, and hopefully hit it dead on the first time. Then you could walk back and resume what you were doing. Then 3 or 4 minutes later, if you wanted to hear the song again, you had to interrupt what you were doing and repeat all of the above steps again.

Now imagine you've smoked a couple of joints and drunk a sixer of beer. A music track ends and you'd like to hear it again. Now you really have to think – is it really worth going to the trouble? Yes, goddammit, I do want to hear Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" again, and while I'm at it, I'll turn up the volume on the stereo a little higher, too (you couldn't do that remotely, either).

But because "Voodoo Child" is at the very end of Side D, you better get to your stereo before the song actually ends, otherwise the turntable will enter its automatic return and shutoff mode, in which case you'll have to stand there and wait until you're able to turn it back on. But you're pretty wasted now, and aiming the needle at that 2mm wide space is a lot trickier. Maybe you can't even actually focus your eyes on that tiny line anymore, so you just set the tone arm down close to the beginning. You miss, but you say fuck it, I'll just have to listen to the last 25 seconds of "All Along The Watchtower" again, even though I think it sucks.

Then "Voodoo Child" ends again. Can I even stand up now, I wonder? Shit. I'll crawl to my fucking stereo on my hands and knees if I have to. This time, though, I think I'll just sit by the stereo and put on my headphones. That way, if I want to hear it again after that, it'll be a lot less trouble.

But even if you're totally straight – how many times do you think you'd put up with the hassle of playing one track over and over? I'd guess on average I'd stop after about a half dozen listens. More than that and it's just not worth it. (And if you had a reel-to-reel or cassette tapedeck and wanted to hear a song multiple times? Just forget it. That really was too much of a hassle.)

So just imagine what a thrill it was for me when I got my first CD player, and I could simply press a button on a remote control and have it repeat a favorite song. Oh. My. God! *giddy insane laughter!* Oh my freaking GOD!! It was almost too good to be true. This "repeat" function was nothing less than a miracle to me. Even better, I could now program the player to repeat songs, or program a whole series of tracks. I could actually listen to "Electric Ladyland" and skip fucking "All Along The Watchtower" completely! *blissful happy sigh!*

This was the greatest invention in the entire history of mankind. ;-)

Even today, I don't take the "repeat" function entirely for granted. It's still a miracle to me. I can play the same song literally all day long now and not have to lift a finger! Which is exactly what I did yesterday. And what I'll probably do all day today, too! Oh yeah!! Technology totally rocks!!! :D