I usually listen to sports talk radio in the car on the way to work. The hosts don't always limit their topics to sports, though. Today, they all brought in stacks of their old 45 rpm records and they got to talking about music and playing some of their old records. It was pretty cool. One of them had a lot of '70's stuff--disco, Andy Gibb, stuff like that. The older one was into the '60's--Beatles, some psychedelic stuff, some folk; a pretty eclectic mix. It got me to thinking about the music I listened to when I was a kid.
I got my first real stereo for Christmas when I was 12, I think. That would have been Christmas of 1981. It had one of those turntables with the long spindle that would hold six records at once, a radio, and a tape deck. For the first year or so I bought vinyl instead of tapes, because the albums were a couple of dollars cheaper and my allowance wasn't high enough to get me into tapes. When I got a little older and my allowance went up, I upgraded. I didn't get a CD player until I was in college.
I remember the first albums that I got for myself after I got the stereo. Actually, I think they were bought for me as presents the same Christmas, but I got to pick them out and they were mine, not just my parents' stuff that I was borrowing. I got three albums the first time I went to Turtles Records & Tapes (remember the stamp books and gift coins?): Hi Infidelity by REO Speedwagon ("Take It On The Run", "Keep On Lovin' You"), Mistaken Identity by Kim Carnes ("Bette Davis Eyes"), and Bella Donna by Stevie Nicks ("Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", "Edge Of Seventeen"). As it turned out, the Stevie album was scratched or cracked or something, so I took it back and got Stars On 45 instead. Remember that one, with the long Beatles medley thing? I eventually got the Stevie again, years later, on tape. I still have all three of those albums today, along with most of the other albums I got back then. I have a turntable, too, but I don't use it much any more. Every now and then I'll give them a listen. For what it's worth, my first tapes were Built For Speed by the Stray Cats, and Chicago 16. My first CD was the Broadway cast recording of Phantom Of The Opera.
How about you, Faithful Readers? Leave a comment, tell us about your early music listening experiences. What was the first album/tape/CD that was ever really yours?
Before I go, I want to take the chance to officially welcome Amy Heather McCoubrey Buser to the blogosphere. She's been writing a blog in her son's name for a while now, but she just recently started a blog of her own at Blogger, m00kie's world. Check her out and tell her Sam sent you!
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3 comments:
Aww, see you put me to shame. Thank you for the shout out! :)
We just recently threw out a veritable shitload of cassettes (it was funny, the trash guys started to throw them in the back with the rest of the garbage, then realized what they had, and put them in the cab instead - I assume to go through later)... Wanda took a picture of some of them. It's a snapshot of life from the 80's. We'll post it over on the Chronicles soon!
Devo late 70's.
I loved those hats!
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