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Vinyl Cafe #7
Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe
The world can be a perilous place. And the seemingly friendly world of Canada’s favourite fictional family is no different. Everyone is afraid of something: Dave, for example, is afraid of dolls, germs and Mary Turlington. Sam, on the other hand, is afraid of bees, UFOs, and “mewpilated” cows. Morley’s fears—public nudity and drop-in visits—are slightly less peculiar. It’s hard to be brave in the face of sewer monsters, deformed fish heads, abandoned car wrecks and ravenous bears, but in this brand new collection of Vinyl Cafe stories, Dave and the gang pluck up the courage to deal with all kinds of danger, both real and imagined.
In Stuart McLean’s hilarious new book of cautionary tales, rediscover the deep, delicious thrill of fear that looms so large in childhood and spills over into adult life with startling, often delightful effect.
In Stuart McLean’s hilarious new book of cautionary tales, rediscover the deep, delicious thrill of fear that looms so large in childhood and spills over into adult life with startling, often delightful effect.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2012
22 people are currently reading
440 people want to read
About the author
Stuart McLean
106 books268 followersLibrarian Note: There was more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
From the Vinyl Cafe web site: Stuart McLean was a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humorist, and host of CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.
Stuart began his broadcasting career making radio documentaries for CBC Radio's Sunday Morning. In 1979 he won an ACTRA award for Best Radio Documentary for his contribution to the program's coverage of the Jonestown massacre.
Following Sunday Morning, Stuart spent seven years as a regular columnist and guest host on CBC's Morningside. His book, The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist in the 1990 City of Toronto Book Awards.
Stuart has also written Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada, and edited the collection When We Were Young. Welcome Home was chosen by the Canadian Authors' Association as the best non-fiction book of 1993.
Stuart's books Stories from the Vinyl Cafe, Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, Vinyl Cafe Diaries, Dave Cooks the Turkey, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe and Extreme Vinyl Cafe have all been Canadian bestsellers. Vinyl Cafe Diaries was awarded the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Award in 2004. Stuart was also a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged and, most recently, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe.
Vinyl Cafe books have also been published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Stuart was a professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism. In 1993 Trent University named him the first Rooke Fellow for Teaching, Writing and Research. He has also been honored by: Nipissing University (EdD(H)); University of Windsor (Lld) and Trent University (DLH). Stuart served as Honorary Colonel of the 8th Air Maintenance Squadron at 8 Wing, Trenton from 2005 to 2008.
Since 1998 Stuart has taken The Vinyl Cafe to theatres across Canada, playing in both large and small towns from St. John's, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon.
Close to one million people listen to The Vinyl Cafe every weekend on CBC Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and on a growing number of Public Radio stations in the United States. The program is also broadcast on an occasional basis on the BBC.
From the Vinyl Cafe web site: Stuart McLean was a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humorist, and host of CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.
Stuart began his broadcasting career making radio documentaries for CBC Radio's Sunday Morning. In 1979 he won an ACTRA award for Best Radio Documentary for his contribution to the program's coverage of the Jonestown massacre.
Following Sunday Morning, Stuart spent seven years as a regular columnist and guest host on CBC's Morningside. His book, The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, was a Canadian bestseller and a finalist in the 1990 City of Toronto Book Awards.
Stuart has also written Welcome Home: Travels in Small Town Canada, and edited the collection When We Were Young. Welcome Home was chosen by the Canadian Authors' Association as the best non-fiction book of 1993.
Stuart's books Stories from the Vinyl Cafe, Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged, Vinyl Cafe Diaries, Dave Cooks the Turkey, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe and Extreme Vinyl Cafe have all been Canadian bestsellers. Vinyl Cafe Diaries was awarded the Canadian Authors' Association Jubilee Award in 2004. Stuart was also a three-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour for Home from the Vinyl Cafe, Vinyl Cafe Unplugged and, most recently, Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe.
Vinyl Cafe books have also been published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and New Zealand.
Stuart was a professor emeritus at Ryerson University in Toronto and former director of the broadcast division of the School of Journalism. In 1993 Trent University named him the first Rooke Fellow for Teaching, Writing and Research. He has also been honored by: Nipissing University (EdD(H)); University of Windsor (Lld) and Trent University (DLH). Stuart served as Honorary Colonel of the 8th Air Maintenance Squadron at 8 Wing, Trenton from 2005 to 2008.
Since 1998 Stuart has taken The Vinyl Cafe to theatres across Canada, playing in both large and small towns from St. John's, Newfoundland to Whitehorse in the Yukon.
Close to one million people listen to The Vinyl Cafe every weekend on CBC Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio and on a growing number of Public Radio stations in the United States. The program is also broadcast on an occasional basis on the BBC.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
July 22, 2025
The final reading of Mr. McLean's short stories. It's tough to pick a favourite of this book as the vast majority brought back memories of family and neighbourhood "adventures".
Mr. McLean is a great story teller and it was easy to read and get into his various characters in this book and all the others I read over the past while. I liked that he had his two main characters, Dave (the record store owner) and his wife Morley and their two children and how over the years the four of them grew up before our eyes. Mr. McLean introduced a number of friends of D&M and it was nice to see that they were not written out of any of the books through out the number of "Vinyl Cafe" books along the way.
Those who have read other books or listened to his radio program will enjoy this one.
Mr. McLean is a great story teller and it was easy to read and get into his various characters in this book and all the others I read over the past while. I liked that he had his two main characters, Dave (the record store owner) and his wife Morley and their two children and how over the years the four of them grew up before our eyes. Mr. McLean introduced a number of friends of D&M and it was nice to see that they were not written out of any of the books through out the number of "Vinyl Cafe" books along the way.
Those who have read other books or listened to his radio program will enjoy this one.
December 8, 2015
I didn’t go to the Vinyl Cafe Christmas Concert this year, because I was feeling burnt out and wasn’t interested in going out that weekend. It turned out to be the last concert of the year, because Stuart McLean announced a melanoma diagnosis and cancelled the other shows. He seems positive and upbeat so far. I thought I’d dig into this, one of the more recent Vinyl Cafe collections of Dave and Morley stories, and share some thoughts on why McLean is a celebrated Canadian author.
I love the Vinyl Cafe and listen to it regularly, in podcast form. It was particularly important to me during the two years I lived in the UK, because it was like a link to Canada. I would walk through the Bury St Edmunds market every Saturday morning, listening to the show and enjoying that sense of connection. McLean introduced me to a lot of Canadian musicians I wouldn’t necessarily know about, particularly the more folksy ones who don’t get a lot of airplay. But, of course, the Dave and Morley stories are the highlight of every episode.
It would be easy to claim to identify with Dave, who is always getting into incredible scrapes and situations based on a combination of hapless bad luck and awkward enthusiasm. That would be reductive, though. It’s more accurate to say that I identify with elements of Dave, Morley, Stephanie, Sam, and all the other characters in McLean’s world. That’s why these stories are so powerful and compelling: these characters are archetypes for a type of modern mythology.
Sorry, was I getting too literary and CanLitty there? I’ll rein myself in. Let’s try that again.
I had heard pretty much every story in this collection, some of them rather recently, and enjoyed them to varying degrees. Like any short story collection, this one has some favourites and some ones I’m not likely to revisit quite as much. If you don’t enjoy “Attack of the Treadmill” then you are weird, and if you don’t get a little teary-eyed at “Rosemary Honey” or “Annie’s Turn”—stories about boyhood and growing up—then I’ll shake my head in wonder. But some of the stories, like “The House Next Door” or “Curse of the Crayfish” are funny in their own way but can’t really compete on an emotional level with the other players.
Then, of course, there are the really big guns, like “Le Morte d’Arthur,” probably one of the seminal Dave and Morley stories, for all that the title implies.
I get more emotional with Vinyl Cafe stories than I do for many other, perhaps even objectively “better” stories. It’s easy to parody McLean’s laconic, expansive performance style, but when you get right down to it, his actual writing is simple, clear. It’s in the twists and turns, the way the characters act and react to each other, that he manages to grab hold of you and wring from you both smiles and tears.
One sentence jumps out at me now as I’m writing this. It’s from “Rhoda’s Revenge,” a story that’s kind of middle-of-the-road for this collection: it’s a good story, and I totally get if you like it, but it’s not one of my favourites. Anyway, the sentence is this: “Ten years went by.”
When I read that sentence, I was reminded of the power that a storyteller has. Mere moments can last pages; or, as McLean does here, entire decades can go by with the stroke of the pen. This kind of economy of storytelling is immensely important. I remember when Battlestar Galactica jumped ahead three years at the end of a season. My initial reaction was one of shock and betrayal—how could they do that to me? Then I realized it was crucial, because the writers wanted to advance the plot to a point where they were interested in telling the story again—and in order to do that, they needed to skip a bunch of things that were important but not necessarily relevant to their point.
So it was here with “Rhoda’s Revenge.” After the set-up, McLean needed to jump ahead ten years. So he did. With a single sentence. That is power.
You learn a lot about writing by reading—and by reading anything. But if you wanted to learn how to write, you could do a lot worse than reading a whole bunch of Dave and Morley stories. McLean has his formulas and his themes down pat, and he continually applies them in new and fun and touching ways.
Ultimately, these stories are about close human connections, the connections between individuals. It doesn’t matter if they are separated by age or space or time; somehow, some way, we can form these connections—or re-form them if they have been broken. We have an incredible capacity, as a species, for making connections on a personal level. McLean reminds us that when we make these connections, we should do so with compassion, with a sense of levity, and with a smile.
I love the Vinyl Cafe and listen to it regularly, in podcast form. It was particularly important to me during the two years I lived in the UK, because it was like a link to Canada. I would walk through the Bury St Edmunds market every Saturday morning, listening to the show and enjoying that sense of connection. McLean introduced me to a lot of Canadian musicians I wouldn’t necessarily know about, particularly the more folksy ones who don’t get a lot of airplay. But, of course, the Dave and Morley stories are the highlight of every episode.
It would be easy to claim to identify with Dave, who is always getting into incredible scrapes and situations based on a combination of hapless bad luck and awkward enthusiasm. That would be reductive, though. It’s more accurate to say that I identify with elements of Dave, Morley, Stephanie, Sam, and all the other characters in McLean’s world. That’s why these stories are so powerful and compelling: these characters are archetypes for a type of modern mythology.
Sorry, was I getting too literary and CanLitty there? I’ll rein myself in. Let’s try that again.
I had heard pretty much every story in this collection, some of them rather recently, and enjoyed them to varying degrees. Like any short story collection, this one has some favourites and some ones I’m not likely to revisit quite as much. If you don’t enjoy “Attack of the Treadmill” then you are weird, and if you don’t get a little teary-eyed at “Rosemary Honey” or “Annie’s Turn”—stories about boyhood and growing up—then I’ll shake my head in wonder. But some of the stories, like “The House Next Door” or “Curse of the Crayfish” are funny in their own way but can’t really compete on an emotional level with the other players.
Then, of course, there are the really big guns, like “Le Morte d’Arthur,” probably one of the seminal Dave and Morley stories, for all that the title implies.
I get more emotional with Vinyl Cafe stories than I do for many other, perhaps even objectively “better” stories. It’s easy to parody McLean’s laconic, expansive performance style, but when you get right down to it, his actual writing is simple, clear. It’s in the twists and turns, the way the characters act and react to each other, that he manages to grab hold of you and wring from you both smiles and tears.
One sentence jumps out at me now as I’m writing this. It’s from “Rhoda’s Revenge,” a story that’s kind of middle-of-the-road for this collection: it’s a good story, and I totally get if you like it, but it’s not one of my favourites. Anyway, the sentence is this: “Ten years went by.”
When I read that sentence, I was reminded of the power that a storyteller has. Mere moments can last pages; or, as McLean does here, entire decades can go by with the stroke of the pen. This kind of economy of storytelling is immensely important. I remember when Battlestar Galactica jumped ahead three years at the end of a season. My initial reaction was one of shock and betrayal—how could they do that to me? Then I realized it was crucial, because the writers wanted to advance the plot to a point where they were interested in telling the story again—and in order to do that, they needed to skip a bunch of things that were important but not necessarily relevant to their point.
So it was here with “Rhoda’s Revenge.” After the set-up, McLean needed to jump ahead ten years. So he did. With a single sentence. That is power.
You learn a lot about writing by reading—and by reading anything. But if you wanted to learn how to write, you could do a lot worse than reading a whole bunch of Dave and Morley stories. McLean has his formulas and his themes down pat, and he continually applies them in new and fun and touching ways.
Ultimately, these stories are about close human connections, the connections between individuals. It doesn’t matter if they are separated by age or space or time; somehow, some way, we can form these connections—or re-form them if they have been broken. We have an incredible capacity, as a species, for making connections on a personal level. McLean reminds us that when we make these connections, we should do so with compassion, with a sense of levity, and with a smile.
December 2, 2017
I'm so late to the Stuart McLean party that it makes me a bit ashamed, as a Canadian. But better late than never. How fitting, and slightly eerie, that my introduction should be through this book, which ends with "Le Morte D'Arthur" ...
"We do this thing. We open our hearts to the world around us. And the more we do that, the more we allow ourselves to love, the more we are bound to find ourselves one day standing in the kitchen of our life, surrounded by the ones we love, and feeling empty, and alone, and sad, and lost for words, because one of our loved ones, who should be there, is missing. After a while, each death feels like all the deaths, and you stand there like everyone else has stood there before you, while the big wind of sadness blows around and through you."
Fortunately for Mr. McLean, and for me, "You have to tell stories over and over. It is the creation of myth. The only road to immortality."
"We do this thing. We open our hearts to the world around us. And the more we do that, the more we allow ourselves to love, the more we are bound to find ourselves one day standing in the kitchen of our life, surrounded by the ones we love, and feeling empty, and alone, and sad, and lost for words, because one of our loved ones, who should be there, is missing. After a while, each death feels like all the deaths, and you stand there like everyone else has stood there before you, while the big wind of sadness blows around and through you."
Fortunately for Mr. McLean, and for me, "You have to tell stories over and over. It is the creation of myth. The only road to immortality."
January 14, 2018
Another fun read.
June 14, 2019
These stories are funnier when told on the radio, but lose little of their charm in print.
February 16, 2020
Some more enjoyable time spent with Stuart
April 22, 2019
McLean's stories about record store owner Dave and his family are hilarious, poignant and skillfully plotted.
October 16, 2017
There were quite a few stories in this arrangement of Vinyl Cafe from Dave's childhood. I enjoyed those stories the most out of this collection. I listened to the radio program on a somewhat regular basis but I don't remember hearing many stories from Dave's youth so it was nice to read this because I felt like I was experiencing them for the first time.
I still hear Stuart McLean's voice in my head as I read them and I can almost hear the parts where the audience would laugh at Dave's antics. Feeling those sensations as I read the stories brings me so much joy.
I still hear Stuart McLean's voice in my head as I read them and I can almost hear the parts where the audience would laugh at Dave's antics. Feeling those sensations as I read the stories brings me so much joy.
October 26, 2017
I could hear his voice as I read this book. In fact, I had heard a couple of the stories on CBC Radio a couple of years ago. There was one that I was cringing as I read, predicting an incredibly embarrassing climax and conclusion... only to be in tears at the finish. MCLean is able to pack so much meaning into his folksy stories, but it generally comes down to - just treat people kindly. They remember and so will you. May he R.I.P.
November 22, 2012
Stuart McLean portrays Dave, Morley, their children and friends with such charm and familiarity that reading one of his Vinyl Cafe books is like slipping on a favourite pair of slippers. This latest addition to the collection was as delightful as ever, inducing many chortles of laughter and the odd nostalgic sigh.
September 30, 2013
Love his stories - I always start off reading his books thinking they are going to be too simplistic and he just ropes me in every time. Charming and old school and i treasure the idea of passing down stories through the ages. A Canadian gem!
September 11, 2024
I love Stuart McLean.
January 7, 2021
I don't know when I first heard Stuart Mclean tell a story, or which one it was. I'm sure it was as an audio clip downloaded from a comedy list back when UseNet was a thing. Either way, I enjoyed it and sought him out. CBC radio was always hard to get on the radio, but I found that they streamed live in three different time zones so it got easier to hear his show on Saturday mornings. Later CBC started posting podcasts of the live shows and I would download them all, whether I was going to listen right then or sometime in the future.
I've had the good fortune to take my wife and kids to see his live Christmas show twice (the second time with my mother along as well). In spite of having heard more of his podcasts than I have, my wife has started buying his books. This past Christmas I started feeling the need to re-listen to the Christmas shows but it just didn't happen. I resolved to read the books instead, but quickly realized that the books for the most part are collections of "Dave and Morley" stories. I tried reading them, but my brain isn't nearly as funny as Stuart Mclean was.
I collected the podcasts for "Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe" and created my own audio book.
There are difference that make me think the books were written before the broadcasts were made. In this book, there were small changes in wording, and often the ending was different. Not the way the story ends, but the denouement... the fade-to-black if you prefer. In most cases, I'd say the podcast was better, more natural, and emotionally impactful. Either way, I ended up listening to a chapter and then going over the text of the same story.
As far as the content goes. They're all pretty great stories. I thought that the Treadmill story was uncharacteristically created for cheap laughs, so probably the worst in the collection. Coming two years after losing my dog and four years since losing Stuart, "Le Morte d'Arthur" had a gut-wrenching effect on me. Easily the most emotionally charges story in the book, I had tears running down my cheeks. I've been sharing some of these stories selectively with my daughter, but I think I'll have to pass on listening to this with her since we were both there when our dog passed. I don't think she can go through that again so soon.
I've had the good fortune to take my wife and kids to see his live Christmas show twice (the second time with my mother along as well). In spite of having heard more of his podcasts than I have, my wife has started buying his books. This past Christmas I started feeling the need to re-listen to the Christmas shows but it just didn't happen. I resolved to read the books instead, but quickly realized that the books for the most part are collections of "Dave and Morley" stories. I tried reading them, but my brain isn't nearly as funny as Stuart Mclean was.
I collected the podcasts for "Revenge of the Vinyl Cafe" and created my own audio book.
There are difference that make me think the books were written before the broadcasts were made. In this book, there were small changes in wording, and often the ending was different. Not the way the story ends, but the denouement... the fade-to-black if you prefer. In most cases, I'd say the podcast was better, more natural, and emotionally impactful. Either way, I ended up listening to a chapter and then going over the text of the same story.
As far as the content goes. They're all pretty great stories. I thought that the Treadmill story was uncharacteristically created for cheap laughs, so probably the worst in the collection. Coming two years after losing my dog and four years since losing Stuart, "Le Morte d'Arthur" had a gut-wrenching effect on me. Easily the most emotionally charges story in the book, I had tears running down my cheeks. I've been sharing some of these stories selectively with my daughter, but I think I'll have to pass on listening to this with her since we were both there when our dog passed. I don't think she can go through that again so soon.
June 12, 2022
I had a really great times reading this collection of short stories that take place in the Vinyl Cafe series.
Even though this is a collection of short stories, they can be fun to read along with the series, if you have it.
My favorites were the monsterstory, where the little boy thought that Dave was a monster.
The last one in this book was a little sad, when the family had lost their dog.
A great collection of short stories if you need a pick-me-up. ( Also, read this while i had COVID)
Even though this is a collection of short stories, they can be fun to read along with the series, if you have it.
My favorites were the monsterstory, where the little boy thought that Dave was a monster.
The last one in this book was a little sad, when the family had lost their dog.
A great collection of short stories if you need a pick-me-up. ( Also, read this while i had COVID)
October 26, 2022
This is a very nice collection of Stuart McLean's stories, a mix of humorous and emotional stories that speak to the heart. They also contain stories of both the present-day-Dave and childhood-Dave variety. My two favorite stories from this collection are "Tour de Dave" (a predictable but funny tale of Dave jumping into a hobby with no regards for consequences) and "Le Morte d'Arthur" (where Dave and his family experience a great loss). If you haven't read or listened to his stories yet, please do so because he was an amazing storyteller and writer.
August 25, 2021
Want some light and occasionally thought provoking reading. Stuart McLean and any of the Vinyl Cafe books. You will laugh out loud - sometimes in public - on a bus, at a doctors office or just in the lunchroom at work. I haven't laughed so much in a long long time reading about the antics of the main character in all the stories - Dave. Get one of them, relax and enjoy!
June 23, 2017
Another wonderful Stuart McLean book - I just love the way this man writes. As Dave says in the story "Le Morte D'Arthur" - "You have to tell stories over and over. It is the creation of myth. The only road to immortality."
September 3, 2019
As someone who grew up listening to The Vinyl Cafe on the radio, I can't not love the books. The only weird thing is reading and trying to imagine Stuart McLean's voice - sometimes I found that helped me imagine a different pacing or meaning that I would normally assume just from reading.
August 20, 2020
Great book. I love vinyl cafe and these stories never get old. Heartwarming, funny, and very relatable. You start to feel like you know these characters and root for them, laugh with them and cry with them. Highly suggested!
May 3, 2024
Talk a bout a great cover! I had heard Mr McLean narrate some of the stories in this book on the radio. It was a quick read, but honestly, could someone really get himself into such crazy pickles over and over?
July 3, 2017
Better with Stuart's voice, but still good. RIP Stuart McLean - we have lost a treasure.
July 28, 2017
very nice read. wonderful change of pace.
September 1, 2017
For this type of story-telling, no one can touch Stuart McLean.
December 1, 2017
Loved every story
June 20, 2018
Goodreads Summer Reading Challenge, June: Father Knows Best (Read a book that features a father).
Stuart McLean has me giggling out loud one moment and biting back tears the next
Stuart McLean has me giggling out loud one moment and biting back tears the next
September 24, 2019
Another good one, I read it in the voice I heard for many years. Sadly no more.
November 26, 2019
One of the best collections of Vinyl Cafe stories.
February 25, 2020
Filled with stories from Dave's childhood and Cape Breton and summers visiting Cape Breton with Sam. Always graced with humor and appreciation for what really matters in life. RIP Stuart.
July 5, 2020
This is one of several Vinyl Cafe books I have read or listened to, and I can't get enough of them. Many of his stories are touching, poignant and remind us of what is important in life. Some are just plain hilarious......I actually caught myself laughing out loud at "Tour de Dave", "Attack of the Treadmill" and "Code Yellow". Stuart McLean was one of a kind.
April 10, 2021
Fantastic stories by a master storyteller. They made me laugh and they made me cry.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews