I’m pretty sure it was a Jerry Reed album. Either Hot A’Mighty or Uptown Poker Club. I know I had both, just can’t recall which I bought first, but both were before I turned ten. At twelve, the first rock album I bought on my own was Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s The Roaring Silence. I’m sure you don’t really need me say whether I still listen to them.
The first album I bought that I still listen to (albeit on CD rather than vinyl) was The Clash’s London Calling. This was also the first album on which I recall seeing any sort of parental warning label. There was a label that said “Warning: Explicit lyrics” or words to that effect – apparently the lines “But I believe in this and it’s been tested by research/that he who fucks nuns will later join the church” were considered potentially objectionable . My parents were pretty tolerant, but I didn’t like to push them, so I kept it out Mom’s sight until we got home, then dashed to my room and tried to peel the label off. Unfortunately, it was on the cardboard of the sleeve rather than on the shrink wrap, and it proved to be nearly impossible to get off. My vinyl copy carried the scars of the attempt and the remnants of that label until my vinyl collection finally bit the dust.
You actually BOUGHT this? Ok…but did you listen to it?
All kidding aside…I read somewhere that the album itself (the vinyl album, not the cd) is a collector’s item now. (NO…I don’t have a cite, dammit…wish I did!) Might want to hang on to it if you still have it in your possession.
When I was 10 years old, early in 1970, I joined the Columbia Record Club. The first album I can remember ordering from them was a compilation LP: Bach’s Greatest Hits. It had the Toccata and Fugue, Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Air on the G String, and part of a Brandenburg Concerto from Switched-On Bach (which I got soon after). From that record club my other early purchases included Rimsky-Korsakov’s Greatest Hits, Leonard Bernstein’s Greatest Hits, and The Well-Tempered Synthesizer. I also got Miles Davis Live at the Fillmore, four sides of Bitches Brew-era amorphous free-blowing space funk. I couldn’t grok it at the time, but 8 or 9 years later when I had done enough psychedelic drugs, I put it on again and really dug it.
The first album I bought with my “own” money when I was 16 was either a Ravi Shankar raga LP, or the Chieftains’ first album (titled The Chieftains). I got them both at the same time, I think. Or else it was Sgt. Pepper. As late as 1976 you could still buy the original Apple label Beatles records in stores. I got started on Ravi Shankar from listening to “Love You To” my sister’s copy of Revolver.
Maybe this belongs in a new thread, but my most recent CD purchases (which I’m listening to as I type) are “This Sentence Is True” (The Previous Sentence Is False) by Sheila Chandra and the Ganges Orchestra, and Live in Paris and Toronto by Loreena McKennitt. Hmm, Indian and Celtic. I’ve come “Full Circle” back to where I was 25 years ago.
My very first album purchase was The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers. The original, with the pull down zipper. I still have it, and it’s in good condition, too.
First album was “Rods n’ Ratfinks” by Mr. Gasser and the Weirdos. (no, really!) It had an incredible cover drawn by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth (who recently died of a heart attack, may he rest in peace). Here’s a picture:
I’m pretty sure I received it as a Christmas present in 1963, to make up for the fact that my younger sister got “Meet the Beatles” for Christmas - her first album and a much cooler one, I must admit.
Found a very precious gem in a goodwill. An original copy of Dead Kennedy’s Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables in the original wrapping. Back in the good old days of tons of artwork within the album.
This brings back memories of when music was still exciting and dangerous. I guess every CD I buy nowadays, I’m trying to recreate that feeling of first purchase. Anyway, here are mine:
First album owned by me (but bought for me): Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
First cassette bought by me: Iron Maiden - Powerslave
First single bought by me: Van Halen - Dreams
First LP bought by me: Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
First CD(s) bought by me: Kingdiamond - Them and Conspiracy
I had to hide 7th son from my parents for months in a cupboard, and now it sounds fairly quaint
I faked illness to stay home from school, and I managed to convince my mother to go to the store and buy me the album. This was when I was in HS in the late 70’s; I was playing the Beatles morning, noon, and night.
When I was a kid in the 60s, I loved the tune Classical Gas (Mason Williams was on every TV variety show at the time).
So on my 8th birthday, my grandparents gave me “The Mason Williams Phonograph Album”.
The first record I bought myself was later that year. It was A Boy Named Sue, sung by Johnny Cash.
My first album was Barry Manilow Live, just in case anybody thinks they still have the most embarrassing story.
My first CD was Dvorak’s New World Symphony. Couldn’t tell you the orchestra or conducter off hand but it was a pretty new recording in 1986.
I still have both.
My mom had “Bubble Gum, Lemonade and Something For Mama” by Mama Cass on 8-track when I was eight, and sometimes left it on all day (8-tracks are tape loops, for the young’ns, and didn’t stop playing until you took them out). I recently tracked down every track from that little gem on Napster and burned her a CD for mother’s day. What a trip into nostagia that was!
The first album I ever bought (or owned) was “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, a double album no less. I’ve still got the album. I haven’t listened to it in years but there are some songs on there that I still like. He is still recording over 25 years later, so I guess that’s not too bad a choice.
Well, at the age of 16 or so, my first albums cost me nothing, courtesy of Columbia Record House. (Hey - what the heck were they thinking, sending records to someone named “K. C. Jones” without payment up front?)
And of course, they were 8-track:
[li]Crosby Stills and Nash, eponymous first album[/li][li]ZZ Top, Deguello[/li][li]Atlanta Rhythm Section, Champagne Jam[/li][li]Grateful Dead, American Beauty[/li][li]Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon[/li][li]Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy[/li]and
[li]Whichever Styx album that had “Miss America”[/li]
They sent me a few others, that I never paid for, but none of them really appealed to me. I think my dad took most of em. There was an Eric Clapton tape, though… can’t remember which one. Eventually they just stopped coming.
