Mike Morsch has written a new book that was published this past Spring by Biblio Publishing out of Columbus, Ohio. The book is entitled “The Vinyl Dialogues” and features a whole slew of stories behind some memorable LP record albums from the 1970s as told by the artists who recorded them. Artists like Doug Clifford, the drummer for Creedence Clearwater Revival (and now of Creedence Clearwater Revisted) talking about the band’s “Cosmo’s Factory” album, or Dino Danelli of The Rascals (formerly Young Rascals) talking about the very last album the band produced… “Search and Nearness” and even Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong (Cheech & Chong) talking about their album “Los Cochinos” which featured the hit song “Basketball Jones”, among many others. But the part of the book that especially interested me was the chapter on Daryl Hall & John Oates “Abandoned Luncheonette” album from 1973. Mike ended up using 2 of my circa 1982 photos as well as a scan of the postcard of the Rosedale Diner, the diner that became the Abandoned Luncheonette!
Mike Morsch at an author’s event held at Burlington By The Book
on a recent trip to Burlington, Iowa (photo courtesy of Mike Morsch)
An experienced journalist, for over 36 years – humor columnist and writer, currently residing in Montgomeryville, PA, Mike Morsch is also the author of the book, “Dancing in My Underwear: The Soundtrack of My Life”. He was the executive editor of Montgomery Newspapers (2003-2013) where his award-winning humor column “Outta Leftfield” has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the Suburban Newspapers of America and the Philadelphia Press Association. I first heard of Mike Morsch back in February of 2013 thru a piece he wrote about the 40th Anniversary of the release of Daryl Hall & John Oates LP record album “Abandoned Luncheonette”. He actually told the story of the creation of the album as well as Hall & Oates association with the former Rosedale Diner that was depicted on the album cover. The link to that article is here… http://montgomerynews.com/articles/2013/02/13/entertainment/doc511a77017c794300082354.txt?viewmode=fullstory. I found out in researching for that piece, Mike found my blog post from August 2010 (co-written with Matt Simmons) that told about the album cover from the Rosedale Diner’s point of reference, find it here at… https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/the-story-of-the-the-abandoned-luncheonette-aka-the-rosedale-diner/.
When I contacted Mike back then about his piece he said that our blog post “was very useful in helping him track down dates so that he had an idea when he went to the local newspaper in Pottstown to research its archives”. He went on to say “It was a thorough piece and that we had done a lot of good legwork on it” (mostly Matt IMHO). I subsequently wrote about his piece here at Diner Hotline… https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/finally-the-abandoned-luncheonette-from-hall-oates-point-of-view/. Morsch also wrote a companion piece that appeared in a prominent music magazine around the same time. He sent me this message with a link… “Larry: Here is the second H&O story, which was just put online by American Songwriter magazine: http://www.americansongwriter.com/2013/02/hall-oates/ “. These 2 articles basically became the catalyst for Mike writing his book, The Vinyl Dialogues!
What lead Mike in this direction was his love of popular music. Like a lot of us, he grew up listening to music, originally through exposure to his parent’s record collection and/or radio listening preferences. Usually by the time you are into your early “teens” you develop your own likes and preferences apart from your parents and more in tune with what your generation is currently listening to, and Mike was no exception to this. As he goes on to say in his introduction… “When I was a kid growing up in Central Illinois, my folks had a record collection that consisted of popular music from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. I played those vinyl albums – Elvis, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Association and many more – so much so I wore them out. By the time the 1970s rolled around and I was in high school, I was more into eight-track tapes, cassettes, big bushy sideburns and bell-bottomed pants”. (“Seventies suave” indeed.) He goes on to say that he “still did not have his own record collection!”
35 years later he decided to change all that when for Christmas of 2012, his wife bought him a turntable, thus facilitating the beginning in earnest of a vinyl record buying spree that continues unabated to the present! He approached this as a personal odyssey to listen to some of his favorite artist’s early work via their purest form of analog recording on vinyl records. Living in the greater Philadelphia area, Morsch had quite a few record stores to choose from to help feed his hunger for vintage LP’s. He goes on to explain that the first album he coveted was the Atlantic Records 1973 release of Daryl Hall & John Oates “Abandoned Luncheonette”! He found a pristine example early on in his search and this ultimately lead to the writing of his new book. He had so much fun writing this book that he is already lining up interviews for a second volume of The Vinyl Dialogues! The story continues…
The Postcard image (from my collection) of the Rosedale Diner appears on
Page 105 of Mike Morsch’s “The Vinyl Dialogues”
My 1982 exterior photo of the Abandoned Luncheonette appears on
Page 110 of Mike Morsch’s “The Vinyl Dialogues”
My 1982 interior photo of the Abandoned Luncheonette appears on
Page 112 of Mike Morsch’s “The Vinyl Dialogues”
I highly recommend this book if your interests include 1970s popular music and how or why some of this came to fruition. It certainly is an enjoyable read! I am always happy to see my photos get published in something other than this blog or my own books, as the acknowledgement is a validation of my passion for doing a small part in helping to document the American Roadside with my photographs.
Check out Mike’s Facebook page for the book… https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vinyl-Dialogues/300977096732836 as well as the book’s website… http://www.vinyldialogues.com/ and even the blog… http://vinyldialogues.com/VinylDialoguesBlog/
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