The thread on old bands you’d forgotten got me thinking about my CD collection, so here’s one for the longtime music listeners/collectors:
Do you remember the first piece of music you bought or owned? And on the different formats?
I got my first cassette player for Christmas 1981, and my folks included a couple of tapes with it: The Beatles “Blue” album (1967-1970), and Hooked on Classics.
Got a CD player in the summer of 1988. Went to one of the used music stores in town and picked up R.E.M.‘s Document to break it in. A month later I’d added Wire’s The Ideal Copy and The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy and the Lash to the collection.
No idea about vinyl. I became a collector later on, but as a kid I just listened to my parent’s records. I think I got Queen’s Flash Gordon soundtrack as a reward for finally jumping off the diving board at a neighbor’s pool.
1968-69, The Monkees, very first, a gift from my brother. Then he have me Sgt Pepper and Abby Road. I guess he wanted to make sure I had a proper musical upbringing.
First CD: A-Ha in 1985, when I bought by first CD player. Still plays fine.
Cassette: Not 100% sure. I used to say Led Zeppelin IV, but I don’t think that’s right. Forever Your Girl by Paula Abdul sounds more correct, although it could have been the Bangles’ Everything.
CD: I was gifted Southern Harmony and Musical Companion by the Black Crowes along with my first CD player, but the first album I bought was Cheap Beer Night by local band The Bad Examples.
‘Mickey’ by Toni Basil, whenever that song came out. That was my first vinyl. I sold it to a girl in my class (I was probably in first or second grade). When her mom heard the lyrics, my mom got a phone call and I got a stern talking to for listening to “inappropriate music.” (My argument was, “Mom, I’m 7. You were at the store with me and paid for it.” Her argument was, “I thought it was about Mickey Mouse.”)
Don’t remember my first cassette. It was probably a pile from Columbia House
First CD was Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1968-1973.
My very first record purchase was in 1971 when I bought a 45 of Rod Steward’s song Maggie May for 50 cents at a small department store whose name I cannot remember. The line about stealing my daddy’s cue and make a living out of playing pool appealed to me. Sadly, I wish I had found myself a rock and roll band that need a helping hand instead.
Lost in the Ozone by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. I loved Hot Rod Lincoln when it came out, so my parents bought me the LP. Still have it from when I was four or five years old!
It was a record by Spike Jones and his City Slickers containing the song “Beetlebaum”. My family owned it, not me. I didn’t get my own record player till much later. The song was called “Beetlebaum” (or “Beetle Bomb” or “Feetlebaum” or whatever, depending on what source I check). It was released in 1960, I think, and our family acquired the record in the 1960s.
Any records I have I took from my parents/aunts and I have no idea what the first cassette I bought was, but as for CDs it was a single, John Mellencamp’s Wild Night (with Me’shell Ndege Ocello).
The first record I can remember was “Meet the Beatles” sometime in early 1964, not long after their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. I would have been 9 years old at the time. I played it so many times that I wore it out.
First 8-track: Blondie, Parallel Lines
First record: AC/DC, Back in Black
First Cassette: I don’t remember for certain. Quite possibly it was Paradise Theater by Styx.
First CD: Joe Satriani, Not of This Earth
The first three were 4th grade or so. I got my first CD player in 1987 or 1988, when I was in high school.
