First Album
The passing of MCA is truly sad news. I was a big fan.
Licensed To Ill was the first cassette tape I ever bought with my own money. I carried it to school with me every day and delighted my friends with the mild cuss words printed on the cassette insert. I haven't listened to it in years but I bet I still know every word. I can certainly make it through Paul Revere without a hitch.
It's almost a shame that my children will never experience the thrill of holding an album or cassette or CD. (Or, I suppose, the thrill of thrusting an 8-track into the stereo and listening to two songs simultaneously.) They weren't just tapes. They were my tapes.
And Licensed To Ill was my first tape. Born in the U.S.A. was my first album. Cooleyhighharmony was my first CD.
I have no idea what my first MP3 download was.
What was your first album? What does it mean to you? Describe your experience.
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Comments:
Dec '11
Re: First Album
It is a tie between Green Day - Dookie and Smashing Pumpkins, melon collie and the infinite status.
They marked a tectonic shift in my personal self-identification.
Think of all the coming of age uncomfortableness that the movie 13 represents for the young ladies life, they are kind of the tangible representation of a similiar shift in my life.
Edited on May 4, 2012 at 9:57pmNov '11
Re: First Album
Weird Al Yankovic's Dare to Be Stupid was my first album. You could enscapsulate my entire personality in that fact, and you still can.
Sep '10
Re: First Album
First Cassette was Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet.
My first CD was an MC Hammer Single of Can't Touch This, which also included Pray.
I personally don't miss the days of having to fork over $20 for a stinking Cassette at the local mall just to get an album when all I wanted was 3 or 4 of the tracks. Itunes is a huuuuuuge improvement from the standpoint of a music consumer.
And rewinding? Uh, no thanks.
May '11
Re: First Album
B.B King live album. I sort of stole it from my older brother. For the life of me I forgot the name of the album but I do remember it started out with the announcer screaming "Great cassa vu!! Do we have somethin' for you!" Pure poetry man. I totally wore that album out. As a lily-white mormon from the upmost lily-white community of Salt Lake City. B.B King introduced me to a whole new world.
Apr '11
Re: First Album
Me too, Casey, if you can believe it. :-)
I remember the first time I saw CDs at a record store--so shiny and mysterious! For a time I honestly thought that they were miniature "souvenir" versions of gold or platinum records won by the artists.
Aug '10
Re: First Album
The first LP I ever bought with my own allowance money was the Original Cast Recording of Snoopy! The Musical.
I bought it at the old, iconic Sam The Record Man store on Yonge Street in Toronto.
Re: First Album
One of the first albums I remember buying was also a Weird Al album! If it weren't for your post I'd be too embarrassed to admit it.
Glad I'm not the only one on Ricochet who likes hip-hop, by the way.
Aug '11
Re: First Album
Sweet Baby James by James Taylor and Tapestry by Carole King. Bought them both on the same day. Both are classics and are still in my collection.
Mar '11
Re: First Album
Ethan Safron
Glad I'm not the only one on Ricochet who likes hip-hop, by the way. · 22 minutes ago
I like it but my hip don't hop like it used to.
Edited on May 4, 2012 at 11:25pmAug '10
Re: First Album
My first three albums (vinyl LPs) were gifts:
1) Batman--the "soundtrack" to the 1960s TV show. The awesome theme song plus a ton of crappy filler. I would dance to the instrumental quasi-surf-music in my Batman costume, to much hilarity from my family.
2) Years later, in the 1970s, my brother gave me Tom Rush's Ladies Love Outlaws. It made me aware that there was a world of rootsier American country and folk music that had escaped my notice due to the dominance of the British invasion and their U.S. imitators. I still have the album and listen to it occasionally.
3) Also, in the 1970s, a friend gave me Endless Boogie by John Lee Hooker with Steve Miller. My friend's father had starred in the film Song of Norway, and the record company had sent him a box of Boogies by mistake. I think I listened to the album once. I wish I still had it. In those days, I didn't truly appreciate the blues. Didn't mean much to me as a teen, but when I get older, my tastes changed.
Indeed, no one will remember his first download.
Mar '11
Re: First Album
Charlotte
Me too, Casey, if you can believe it. :-)
I remember the first time I saw CDs at a record store--so shiny and mysterious! For a time I honestly thought that they were miniature "souvenir" versions of gold or platinum records won by the artists. · 1 hour ago
I'm still trying to open my first CD
Dec '10
Re: First Album
My first album was T Rex - Bang A Gong. My sister gave it to me for my birthday. I had never heard of T Rex, didn't much care for the music, but she was a big fan.
Outside of that my memory gets fuzzy. I think the first one I bought was Paul McCartney - Band On The Run. I know that I snapped up every Queen album as soon it hit the music store.
Aug '10
Re: First Album
Oh, I didn't realize "first hand-me-down LPs" counted. In that case:
Weep for my childhood.
Aug '11
Re: First Album
Misthiocracy: Oh, I didn't realize "first hand-me-down LPs" counted. In that case:
Weep for my childhood. · 58 minutes ago
I can overlook the BeeGee's and maybe even Sean Cassidy but... Heavens to Murgatroyd...Marlo Thomas?
Edited on May 5, 2012 at 2:48amJul '10
Re: First Album
I'll never forget..... (image starts waving and blurring with harp music to times past...)
French I and I finally got to sit next to Becky M.
Beastie Boys are hot on the charts when We learn a certain word.
I turn and look across the aisle at Her and say,"We gotta fight for Our Right to la fete?"
She laughed and laughed and I thought,"Oh, yeah.... I got this..."
Edited on May 5, 2012 at 3:04amMay '10
Re: First Album
I just listened to my older brother's albums for a long time. His first tapes were Def Leopard's Hysteria, Skid Row's first album, Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet, and Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood. Mom threw away his Dr. Feelgood poster.
The first CD / album I bought was probably either Ozzy's No More Tears or Circus of Power's Magic & Madness.
"Swing your tail just like an alligator."
Jul '11
Re: First Album
Beatles, red and blue compilations. But my taste lies more in guruforhire's first post. I suppose it meant satisfaction that I bought it with money I earned at my job mowing lawns. I was in fourth grade 1976.
Nov '11
Re: First Album
First tape: Birdy soundtrack? No, that wasn't mine.
First CD that I purchased myself: Jude - No One Is Really Beautiful?
"She was a professional teller machine user
He was your basic beautiful loser
They had no worries, all they ever had was cool"
It's no TS Eliot, but it doesn't take much to impress teenagers.
Aug '10
Re: First Album
Casey wrote: "I have no idea what my first MP3 download was."
And there is the real story. The purchase of music was once a special thing. You bought a disc, or tape, with artwork and liner notes. Something you could hold in your hand. You played it over and over, reading everything printed on the dust jacket or insert. It became part of your daily life, if only for a few days. (But often for months or years.)
It was possible to play a record so much you might actually wear it out.
MP3s are disposable. They are ether. We definitely lost something significant in the analog/digital trade-off.
Jul '10
Re: First Album
First cassette: Thriller. Yeah, I'm that guy. My best friend from 3rd-4th grade had tastes that were more interesting, including Men At Work, and Weird Al as I recall.
First CD: G'n'R Appetite for Destruction. Though it could have easily been any of those that Aaron Miller's older brother had.
Edit for vinyl:
Oh, I totally forgot. My first Album was a Marvel Comics thing with Spidey (dealing with J. Jonah Jameson's astronaut kid who became a werewolf after a moon landing) and The Fantastic Four. I must have listened to that 1,000 times between the ages of 5-7.
Edited on May 6, 2012 at 4:26am