“Before the vinyl shortage is over, kid, they may have to make your Jethro Tull albums out of earwax.”

Shortages of vinyl, paper, gasoline and a variety of other substances already have hit the record industry hard, and the impact will be much greater in 1974, according to a variety of industry sources. However, the shortage is probably not severe enough to prevent the availability of hit records, though older records, and particularly classical and budget discs, will be harder to obtain.

Most significantly, the rising cost of Vinyl/ coupled with increased shipping and other production costs, means that the records you do buy in 1974 will cost about $1 more — an increase of the “suggested list price” from $5.9,8 to ''.98.

Like" the oil shortage, the lack of poiy-vinyl chloride (PVC), the petroleum-based chemical from which records are made, is world-wide. It is further complicated in Japan, where an explosion recently destroyed a major production facility, and in Canada, where a strike at Dow Chemical’s Sarnia, Ont., plant has been a major factor.