Echo and one Funny Man

It's a sad fact that many of us were forced to buy a record at a record store, go home, listen to the one song you liked, and then hate the rest of the album. But, tough luck. That was how the world worked pre-digital music downloads. Horrible. Today, I can create my own playlist, ignore the crap songs on the rest of an album, and even take a walk while listening.

In 1960, however, true interactive music media was invented. Echo magazine was a "magazine you play on your phonograph." Pretty cool. You could read an article, and play a record bound into the publication. This made magazines seem stupid because they didn't have sound, and records equally dumb, because they only had liner notes. Boring.

Unfortunately, a magazine/record didn't catch on in 1960. In reality, the issue could have been manufacturing related. I have this issue, and I'll be damned if I can figure out how to separate the record from the pages. I don't want to put the whole magazine on the turntable and flip around. The cover may also have added to the confusion. Only today, did I realize that it's a representation of a phonograph player. For years, I thought it was someone's arm and hand who was very shaky.