Ben (DJ Scribe) Goldfarb

No one digs like a New Yorker, so, nobody digs like Ben Goldfarb, also known as DJ Scribe and the man behind I Love Vinyl, NYC’s premier vinyl-only party back in the day, headed by some of NYC’s top collectors and DJs. We all know the collector who buys any record that catches their eye, but Scribe is not that type of vinyl-obsessive; he has a set of rules and will not buy anything unless he has to have it. 

Scribe’s thoughtful selections produce nostalgic parties with a contemporary flair; when digging, he finds records that will never lose the audience’s attention. This digging structure helped Scribe construct a diverse but curated collection; he has bounds he will not break: “You can carry too much music. Even if you have it very well organized, it can be overwhelming.”

I met Scribe in his Upper West Side apartment to discuss the appeal of 12-inches, how hip-hop shaped his collecting, and throwing vinyl-only parties with I Love Vinyl. 

After the photo shoot, I put this mix together, with all the records that somewhat haphazardly wound up getting into the photos. It was fun to incorporate the children’s music and skits, which are not, surprisingly, a typical element of my repertoire.

“The one philosophy I have these days is that no matter how cheap or how expensive a record is, I don’t buy anything unless I have to have it.”

What is your full name? Where are you from, and where do you currently live?

Ben Goldfarb aka DJ Scribe. Born and raised in New York City, where I currently reside.

What was your first album? How did you get it, and at what age? Can you describe that feeling?

My first record was probably Free To Be… You And Me, which came out the year after I was born. My parents got it for me. I’m not sure how old I was, but I loved that record. Everyone was on that record. From Mel Brooks and Alan Alda to Harry Belafonte and Diana Ross. The subject matter was pretty radical. Cool stuff about gender equality. That record raised me (along with my parents, of course). I still have it. It’s one of the best records for children.

Marlo Thomas and Friends – Free to Be… You And Me. “This is the life-altering Marlo Thomas record. It’s a mixture of songs, skits, and stories. The band is funky, and this record made me a feminist.”

Bob – Bob Sings!. This came out when I was six. My grandmother took me to see him live at the Felt Forum at MSG. Afterward, he signed my record, “Hi Benjy. Love, Bob.” It would appear that I was less excited about the record at some later date and blacked out a few of Bob

“Like many college radio DJs, I stole my share of records from the station. You can still find records in my collection with “WOBC” written nice and big on them.”

What prompted you to start collecting? Was there a specific event in your life, an era, that signified your transition from music lover to collector?

Hip-hop made me a DJ and a collector. I started playing college radio in the winter of 1990. WOBC, 91.5 FM in Oberlin, Ohio. The show was called (take a deep breath) The One-World Funkatronic Super-Soul Express. I did it with my friend Nathan. I taught myself to mix on air. 

There was a pretty good record store in Oberlin, a small college town, called Sarge’s Records. I would go see Sarge every week and buy two copies of just about every new hip-hop 12-inch and LP that came out. X Clan, Brand Nubian, Black Sheep, Ice Cube, BDP, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest… plus some house and dancier stuff like Deee-Lite and Monie Love. 

Like many college radio DJs, I stole my share of records from the station. You can still find records in my collection with “WOBC” written nice and big on them. But hip-hop didn’t only turn me into an avid consumer and a thief, it also got me interested in the soul, funk, and jazz being sampled on the records. So I started digging for that stuff too and that ever-expanding ripple effect continues to this day.

What was your Initial interest in music? Did you have any influence from your family? Or perhaps your best friend?

I have loved music for as long as I can remember. My mother sang to me and played guitar and piano. She was into folk and classical, mostly. The Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez. We had a piano at home, and I used to learn songs by ear. My father didn’t sing or play music, but he taught me to play stuff like “Chopsticks“ and “Heart and Soul” on the piano. And they played records at home. The Beatles, Otis Redding, and Bob Dylan. 

When I was in nursery school, the class was outside in a plaza where a couple of violinists played one day. The teacher told my parents I sat down in front of them and wouldn’t get up when it was time to go back inside. I was mesmerized. My parents enrolled me in basic music classes at Third Street Music School, and I started violin lessons shortly after that.

Alive! – Call It Jazz. “I found this record in a dusty pile outside a junk shop on my way to a concert at Wingate Field in Brooklyn last summer. I think it was Public Enemy. I knew Alive! from their version of ‘Skindo Le Le,’ which A Bossa Elétrica covered on Raw Fusion Records when I was US Label Manager. They do a great cover of Gil Scott-Heron’s “Willing.” I had never heard it before, but it’s a gem. Lots of percussion breaks and very danceable–for those who dance to jazz.”

“The days of carrying six milkcrates up and down four flights of stairs felt like something I couldn’t go back to. I figured that if enough DJs played together, we wouldn’t have to bring more than a small bag of records each. And the idea for I Love Vinyl was born.”

Tell me more about how your passion for vinyl has affected your life.

Collecting records has been the cause of many things in my life. Fights with girlfriends about spending too much time in record stores or my records taking up space in the apartment, the ability to ignore hunger or a full bladder for hours while I look through thousands of records, unwilling to heed my body’s signals and pull away, back pain from lifting crates out of the deep trunks of NYC cabs, freezing cold fingers and stiff knees from winter sidewalk sales, a dread of moving… But mostly, vinyl has given me the limitless joy of the music I discover and play. Vinyl is an encyclopedia of vast amounts of information, contained in its liner notes and credits. 

Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express – Closer To It!. “An incredible psychedelic soul jazz rock record. My joint on here is ‘Voices Of Other Times.’”

In 2009, you started the I Love Vinyl parties. Tell me about the decision to start this party line.

I have always created my own concepts and events in order to make opportunities for me to spin. Some particularly memorable ones for me were the Love Revolution parties at Joe’s Pub, Tag at the original Halcyon on Smith Street, and Raw Fusion (the NYC edition of ‘Mad’ Mats Karlsson’s party and record label from Stockholm) at APT. There was a period of time where I strayed from the vinyl path altogether and played all of my gigs with CDs and later Serato. During those years, I wasn’t totally aware of what I was missing but I felt that something was different. 

One time, I was invited to play a short guest set at a friend’s party in New York. Because I didn’t need to bring much music with me, I decided to pull out some records. Even before I played them, it was a sweet reunion. Just taking my records from the shelf, holding them in my hands, and looking at them brought back so many good memories. Playing them that night reminded me how much better they sounded to me and how my creativity as a DJ was more alive with them. I decided then that I needed to find a way to experience that more often. But I, and all my DJ friends, had gotten spoiled by being able to go to the club with one small, relatively light bag. The days of carrying six milkcrates up and down four flights of stairs felt like something I couldn’t go back to. I figured that if enough DJs played together, we wouldn’t have to bring more than a small bag of records each. And the idea for I Love Vinyl was born. It took a couple years of finding the right DJs and the right venue before the party actually got off the ground in May of 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge, with an incredible team. Amir (of Kon & Amir), Ge-ology, The Twilite Tone, OP!, Jon Oliver, and myself. 

George Duke – The Aura Will Prevail. “This record contains the amazing ‘For Love (I Come Your Friend)’ which MF DOOM sampled for ‘I Hear Voices’ on Operation: Doomsday, and which was recently covered by Thundercat. Duke and the band were clearly tripping their asses off when they made (and named) this tune.”

Why was it important for you to raise the vinyl flag here?

For me, it was more about getting back to basics, back to my roots, and the idea that if that was important to me, it would also be important to some other people. Sort of the idea that we all can’t live without the convenience of texting and Facebooking each other all day, but there’s something infinitely more real and rich about having some people over to your house for dinner.

PQ: “You can carry too much music. Even if you have it very well organized, it can be overwhelming. Imagine being a painter and mixing ten thousand colors on your palette before you begin to paint. It’s an impediment to the painting, to the creative process.”

So, vinyl is the only format allowed? Not even Serato?

It’s a vinyl party. We play vinyl. That’s it. But we’re not haters or luddites. I have a huge CD collection (which probably makes me a luddite, at this point), and I also download music. It depends on the purpose. I prefer vinyl for the sound and especially for the creative process of putting together an improvised DJ set. But I am not a purist. I Love Vinyl is pure, though. 

Imagination – “Burning Up (Dub).” “This is one of my most treasured 12-inches, a proto-house record if I’ve ever heard one. It’s a record I play often. Always slays the dancefloor.”

Detroit Emeralds – I’m In Love With You. “It has ‘You’re Getting A Little Too Smart’ on it, which opens with the famous drum break, perhaps most famously sampled in ‘Looking at the Front Door’ by Main Source.

When the I Love Vinyl DJs come to a gig, they can only carry a limited amount of music. Do you think the physical limitations of it promote creativity?

Absolutely, I do. That was one of my main difficulties when playing Serato or even CDs. You can carry too much music. Even if you have it very well organized, it can be overwhelming. Imagine being a painter and mixing ten thousand colors on your palette before you begin to paint. It’s an impediment to the painting, to the creative process. I am a firm believer that limitations, by definition, inspire creativity. The less you have to make something, the more you have to use your imagination to figure out how to make it.

Bobby Caldwell – “What You Won’t Do For Love.” A heart-shaped 7-inch of a great Bobby Caldwell tune. As it says on the cover, it’s the single that gets to the heart of the matter.”

Do you think the I Love Vinyl fans are into vinyl, or does vinyl act as a status symbol for quality music that draws quality fans?

I think our crowd is there for a wide variety of reasons, but I think the quality and variety of the music and the passion and ability of the DJs are the most important. Some people who come are vinyl heads. But for others, it is just a signifier telling them this is not mainstream. Some people think that because it’s all vinyl, we will only play funk and soul breaks from the 70s, or that it’s a retro movement. But we play current music and make it all cohesive and relevant.

Change – Stop For Love. This has ‘Heaven Of My Life’ on the B-side. Monster bassline. I’ve never heard anyone else play it, and it’s definitely lesser known than their classics like ‘Searching,’ ‘Hold Tight,’ or ‘The Glow of Love.’ But people always come up and ask about this one when I play it. I think I was holding my nose because we talked about how bad the jacket design is.

“If the store has a listening station or I have my portable with me, I will listen to many things and buy only a few things. I am so picky with this that I actually have a reputation for it in some stores.”

Lately, it seems like vinyl has become a strong commercial symbol for the younger generation. Its ‘cool factor’ is being used, sometimes in a really awful and cynical way, by ad agencies and corporations to sell products that have nothing to do with music. What are your thoughts about that?

I have strong feelings about how corporations co-opt cultural and social movements and symbols in general. I think it has become a huge force in our society that is ultimately destructive and degrading. The fact that vinyl, specifically, has become a way to ‘cool-ify’ everything from sodas to men’s shoes is no different to me than any other cultural symbol that gets used. It all makes me angry and sad. But I am also immersed in it, so I can be desensitized too. 

Some people think it promotes vinyl culture, hip-hop, skaters, multiculturalism, anti-establishmentism, or whatever the flavor of the month is. I think it threatens to suck the life out of it, reducing it from something connected with art or culture to something embraced by, or on par with, the establishment. That can rob it of its revolutionary power. And that’s exactly what the establishment wants it to do to stay established, of course. I’m not saying that ad agencies are conspiring to destroy art. Most creatives in the ad industry are artists themselves. And they know how to make shit cool and sell their clients’ products. But when something threatens the status quo, it provokes fear, and power will be brought to bear to repress it.

It was only when corporations realized that they could use Black Power or hippies or hip-hop to empower their system with diametrically opposite values that they stopped being afraid of it as much (here I have to recommend the BBC documentary The Century of the Self  by Adam Curtis). The only reason they are still afraid of it is that even after years of commercialization, these movements still have the potential to be much more powerful and influential to masses of people than corporations or governments ever will. Keeping your enemies close doesn’t make them your friends.

Various – Calypsos From Jamaica. Scribe flipping through a stack of LPs with an iconic reggae compilation sticking out.

Do you have a record-collecting philosophy or routine when you enter a store?

Not exactly, but I have some habits. I usually look at the cheap stuff first. If the records are organized into categories, I usually look at 12-inches first. For me, 12-inches are like candy. They’re quick to look through, quick to listen to, and they usually sound loud and great. A special pleasure is finding unexpected goodies on the B-side of otherwise uninteresting and overlooked 12-inches. If the store has a listening station or I have my portable with me, I will listen to many things and buy only a few things. I am so picky with this that I actually have a reputation for it in some stores. Rickard Masip, of Record Mania in Stockholm, loves to tease me about this. The one philosophy I have these days is that no matter how cheap or how expensive a record is, I don’t buy anything unless I have to have it.

Where do you look for records now that many record stores have closed?

It’s true that many of the stores I used to go to have closed. Downtown, St. Marks Sounds, Dancetracks, Vinylmania, Barry’s Stereo on 23rd Street, The Sound Library, and countless others. But a lot is still around, and new ones are opening up. I researched this not long ago, and there are still a couple of hundred places to buy vinyl in NYC. I don’t have a go-to place, really. For newer stuff, I am partial to Turntable Lab. But a lot of my record buying is somewhat accidental. Someone selling records on the street that I happened to stumble upon. Or thrift stores. Of course, there is online, and Discogs is an amazing resource when you know what you are looking for.

The Rolling Stones – “Miss You.” “The only version of this 12-inch I have ever seen that isn’t in a plain white jacket with text and the Stones’ logo on it. Also, my best attempt at making Mick Jagger’s lips mustachioed as they may be.

 What’s your comfort album, the one you can always return to?

Too many to list. But the first one to mind was Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder. It’s the Mona Lisa of albums for me. I don’t want to listen to it all the time. But when I do, I am always moved and amazed.

You have quite an eclectic music taste here. Anything goes?

Of course not. An anything-goes attitude means you have no taste at all. I have very discriminating tastes. I don’t like most things, but what I like does not fall into one easy category. I like all kinds of music. There are plenty of styles or genres I have not even dipped my toes in. In the big picture, I know next to nothing about the music of most of the world, outside anglophone soul, rock, pop, hip-hop, house, jazz, etc. I dabble in Latin and Brazilian stuff, reggae, Afrobeat, and some other things here and there. I’ll play or listen to anything I like.

Genesis – “Mama.” “I was a big fan in the 80s. One of my first live concerts. I play this now because I love the B-side, “It’s Gonna Get Better.” It’s an end-of-the-night tune for me. Fat synth bassline (in 6/8 time, of course) and heavy drums at a nice 82 beats per minute, plus more synths. To me, there’s something very contemporary about it. But the cover is pretty rad too, with its die-cut triangular typography.”

20th Century Steel Band – Warm Heart Cold Steel. This contains the Ultimate Breaks & Beats classic, “Heaven & Hell is On Earth,” as sampled in countless hip-hop records. $1.00 sticker from St. Mark’s Sounds!

Syreeta – Self-titled. “Produced by Stevie Wonder, who was married to her at the time, she had the voice of an angel. It’s so sad she’s not with us anymore.”

Sheba – Plays Jungle Fever and Other Latin Soul Hits, The Chakachas – “Jungle Fever.” “Judging by the cover photo, Sheba appears to be a Gypsy prostitute in Istanbul in the ‘20s.”

Steve Reich – “New Sounds In Electronic Music.” I’m a big fan of Steve Reich. This has one of his earliest tape loop pieces, “Come Out,” from 1966. It’s a deep piece of music to me. The whole thing is made from layered loops of speech. The speech is from a recording of a kid who was falsely convicted of murder in the 1964 Harlem riots. He’s talking about how he had to open the bruises he received at the hands of the police and make them bleed so he could get medical attention. You can hear the words clearly at the beginning of the piece, but by the middle, it has transformed into an abstract sonic tempest of echoing sounds and syllables, only to re-form itself back into the original by the end. My first electronic music teacher at Oberlin, Conrad Cummings, played this for our class. It moved me then and still does.”

Kurtis Blow – “If I Ruled The World.” “Great cover. Great mustache. Great Jheri curl mullet.”

What about some favorite cheesy album covers?

Well, that Dilly O’Dilly record you shot is one of my favorites. The front and back covers are both super cheesy. The illustration on the cover is terrible, and if you look closely, you can see the squares where the ‘artist’ (a term I use hesitantly) divided up the photo to copy it as a drawing. On the back, he is shirtless and combing his hair. You add the album’s title, Soft in the Middle, and it’s a wrap.

Dilly O’Dilly – Soft In The Middle. “This is my beloved Dilly O’Dilly record. I have a periwinkle Members Only-style jacket like the one he is wearing on the cover, too.”

Is there a specific musical instrument that attracts you when listening to music?

I couldn’t pick one, but bass, drums, voice, and synths, I would say. Of course, there are good and bad versions of all of those.

Tell me about the most unlikely place/occasion where/when you found records.

Well, it wasn’t an unlikely place because it was a record store. But the circumstances were beyond unlikely. Years ago, I was in Philadelphia for the day and went to a couple of record stores that someone recommended. For some reason, in the back of my mind, I was hoping to find a copy of Toto’s first album with “Georgy Porgy” on it, but I didn’t. I left the store and walked to another neighborhood to get the subway to the train station and catch my train back to NYC. 

The subway had a sign saying that the train wasn’t coming for 10 minutes, so I followed an irrational urge and ran back out of the station, hoping there was another record store nearby that I could check before my subway came. As luck would have it, there was one, and I ran across the street and into the store. The store sold mostly CDs, but there were records in little bunches covering one wall of the store. As I turned to scan the records on the wall, dead in front of me was not only a Toto record, but an octagonal picture disc double a-side single of “Georgy Porgy” in perfect condition (a record I didn’t even know existed and have never seen since). I bought it, of course, caught my subway and my train, and spent the trip home happy and wondering (possibly more seriously than at any other moment in my life) about higher powers.

Toto – “Georgy Porgy.” “The octagonal picture disc of Toto’s ‘Georgy Porgy,’ it’s a beaut, ain’t it?”

Tell me a particularly sad record story!

The only time a record made me cry from something other than the beauty of the music was when I was nine and dropped my beloved copy of The Jazz Singer soundtrack by Neil Diamond! It fell out of the jacket and cracked, and I was crushed. That was one of my first “pop” records, and maybe the first one I picked out myself or asked for. I had seen the movie and really liked it. Neil Diamond is actually a pretty good actor. A few years ago, I came across a copy of it and had to comfort my inner child. Can’t say I’ve been listening to it much, though.

Blue Rhythm Combo – Magumba. “It is one of the few really rare/valuable records I own. Nasty drum breaks on here.”

Tell me about a record that has healed heartbreaks!

I would have to go with Roberta Flack’s incredible version of “Do What You Gotta Do,” a song about letting people go. That record itself breaks my heart. I could add “Joy Inside My Tears” by Stevie Wonder and “You’re the One” by Kate Bush. And, of course, the entire album Here, My Dear by Marvin Gaye. All bittersweet and heartbreaking, but transformative.

Marvin Gaye – “Here, My Dear.” “I never get tired of this record, and it never fails to move me. If you haven’t read the story about how this record came into being and what it’s about, you need to. The backstory makes the record that much better.”

Who has the toughest record collection that you have ever seen?

DJ Spinna has an incredible collection. Someone whose collection I have only heard about, but not seen, is Tomcat, one of the DJs on WBAI’s monthly Rare Record show. He’s an original Paradise Garage head. I think he said he has 100,000 records, and although they are not alphabetized or sorted in any particular way, he knows where each is.

Top-shelf digging!

Who would you like to see featured next on Dust & Grooves?

Well, Tomcat, for one. Bambaataa or Herc would be amazing if they still have their records. Danny Krivit is another one. Every time I see Danny, he is buying 200 records. He must have a million.

DJ Scribe is a New York City-based DJ and founder of the legendary I Love Vinyl parties. He plays vinyl-only sets in the city often.

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Edited by Sam Cohen

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