My home cleanout and organizing continues. I am staring down boxes of a lot of obsolete formats like VHS, CDs, cassettes and albums. What do I keep? What do I get rid of? When do you need the hard copy of a memory?
When I was 12 years old I got my first album. I still have it.
The album had a big sticker on it stating you had to be 18 years old to buy it. I was not. Putting on mascara and my best pair of Road Runners wouldn’t convince anyone otherwise.
So Norm, my father, went to the store and bought it for me.
I take a strange sort of pride in the fact that my first album was a comedy album. It make sense for me really. You know. Because I’m funny. I mean, I’m not being particularly funny at this moment but … I can be hilarious if I try very hard and you're just coming out of dental surgery in.
I probably haven’t listened to this album since I was 16. I thought about listening to it a decade ago when Robin Williams died and then didn't. I'm hesitant because I have no idea if I’ll think it’s funny or sad or dated or timely.
I don't think I want to lose the memory I have of it. What if I think it's awful, I hate it, and question every thought I've ever had about everything while I was 12? What then?
Now onto the first music album I bought.
I have no idea how we got there or why our parents let us, but I got my first music album on a trip to Buffalo with some highschool friends. You may notice I’ve spelled highschool as one word instead of the more socially acceptable two worded “high school”. That’s because I strongly believe it should be one word and I am rebelling against the two worded highschool spelling.
I realize I achieve nothing with this protest.
Anyhow, I had a certain amount of money to spend while I was in Buffalo and I’m sure if Betty had anything to do with it I was supposed to buy clothing, shoes or makeup. But I didn’t.
I bought this.
John Cougar, as he was known then, is now John Mellencamp. I was lucky enough to interview him when I was an entertainment reporter. And he was just like I thought he would be; relaxed & rough, with a smoker’s cough and without pretence.
I don't know what the second or the last album I bought was but I feel attached to them. Plus I have a turntable. So even though I rarely play them and when I do I feel like I've just sat down to listen before I have to get up and flip the album over, I am going to dedicate several linear feet of storage to vinyl.
My cassettes will all be given away or chucked. There are a couple rarer ones that I might have transferred to digital. The CDs ... omg the CDs. I worked as a music reporter for a few years in the 90's and I have almost every CD made in those years.
I also have all the CDs I bought myself in the years before and after my time at MuchMoreMusic.
But I don't own a CD player.
And a CD just doesn't have the patina of an album.
So I'm going to go through all of the CDs and just make note of any I remember loving - a Steve Poltz record comes to mind - and then I'll buy it in digital form.
I have Tupperware BINS of VHS tapes of almost every SINGLE time I was on television. There are hours and hours and hours of my life on television starting from when I first volunteered on local cable to the next 10 years of hosting shows, most of them daily.
I'd love to just hand the boxes to someone and say please convert everything and deliver them back with a bag of chips please. Maybe I will. Years ago I did a sponsored post for Legacybox and they really did do a great job of converting stuff for me, but there must be a local place I can try as well. I'll have to look into it.
You know what’s coming now. Now I'm going to ask you what YOUR first album was.
I'm excited to hear the answers.
Canadamsel
I was 13.
Margot Hatheway Hayes
My first LP was Beatlemania!, the first Beatle album released in Canada, November ‘63, a month before my thirteenth birthday. I wore it out nearly. The only record player I had was a portable my parents bought me when I was ten and it usually had a penny taped to the arm. I believe the album was $4.60 because our 8% sales tax made it an even $5.00. Many followed but that was the first one for which I marched to Herbie’s Music Store in Fredericton, NB, and laid down my accumulated allowance.
Margot Hatheway Hayes
Oh, forgot to say my first 45 rpm was Please, Please Me. (flip side, Ask Me Why). Same music store. .99¢ before tax! I still have all my 45s and lps!
Nancy Berendt
Jesus Christ Superstar
Nancy Berendt
1970, I was 14. Had to confirm dates
DaveR
Not positive, but I think my first 45 was "Dark Lady" by Cher, and my first album (and first concert) was The DeFranco Family straight out of Port Colborne, Ontario. You know, "Heartbeat, It's A Lovebeat", "Abra-Ca-Dabra".
Alana
The first 45 I bought with my own money was Centerfold by The J Geils Band; it probably cost .79$ or something. Still have it, still listen to it.
My first album was a birthday gift and it was literally called The Album by ABBA. I got it for my 9th birthday…I still have it, still listen to it, IMO it was their best album.
Sam
I bought the REM Green album on cassette. Not because I liked REM (yet) but I wanted to seem cool around the older kids.
Tamara
Remember when you could listen to the album before you bought it in one of those little rooms in a store? The first album I ever bought was a gift for my dad and it was Mozart's clarinet concerto. The first 45 I bought for me was The Monster Mash.
Colleen D Cailes
Wow!! Reading these posts is like a trip down memory lane. I bought my first album when I was 11 or 12 with my own money. I can't remember how much it was but it was at a record store in the Hillside Mall in Victoria. Madman Across the Water by Elton John. I still love the music although my albums are long gone. I think I will put on the CD now.
Tina
Cher---Gypsy, Tramps & Thieves
Catherine Powers
Music from Big Pink by The Band. In 1968 I was in love with Robbie Robertson. I still love that album and have it in multiple formats. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Nadja
I crushed on Robbie so bad... cried my eyes out through The Last Waltz...
Karen
Over the summer I was at a cottage with my family when news of his death came out. I announced it and other than my cousin nobody even blinked an eye. I was like, ROBBIE ROBERTSON! HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO HE IS??!! Pftt. People. ~ karen!
Fran
First album…Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel. Still know all the lyrics of every song on that album. Still have CD and Vinyl collection though everything has been digitalized and the house is all wired so we can listen everyday, everywhere at home. Music continues to be the background of our everyday life! 🎶🎶🎶🔊
Ms. Peppercorn
I’m embarrassed that I don’t remember but on a different note, did you ever get the $65 back from paying too much for the candelabras at the Christys Antique show?
Karen
NOPE! I did not. And I'll never get over it. ~ karen!
Donna Griffith
I was twelve when I saved my allowance and went to the KMart in Winnipeg to buy my first album. It was Abbey Road by of course, the Beatles.
My first 45 was Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum (had to look that up!).
Karen
Hi Donna! My favourite version of that song is the Dr. & the Medics whom I'm sure I thought wrote the song at the time, lol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rMdBf_JHZA ~ karen!
Donna Griffith
Omg that’s hilarious! About the same time I played my 45 of Lola by the Kinks over and over and over. One day I was lying on the living room floor listening to Lola and my mom marched into the room apron on, hands on hips and asked me what this song was about. I replied ‘ I don’t know some guy loves some girl or something.’ She turned around and didn’t say another word. Boy was I unaware when I was 12!
Terrisa Hohn
Billy Joel: Glass Houses
Jules
I think the first album my sister and I were given for Christmas was called Southern Fried Rock, which had a picture of a fried egg on the cover, and my dad bought it at the local hardware store. It was the 70’s, I guess it all makes sense through that lens!
Joan Fowler
"Revolver" The Beatles. Prior to that it was all 45's - stacks upon stacks. I had no other way of storing them. Buying my first album made me feel like I was finally an adult.
JillB
The first 45 that I bought (the first record for me) was Cher's "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves." The first album was a gift - ABBA Greatest Hits Volume II, and the first CD was ABBA Gold. I have a trend there!
Karen
I love ABBA but Cher always gets my vote. ~ karen!
Tracey
Neil Sedaka … “ Sedaka ‘s Back “ which I bought ,, but prior to that my parents bought the Partridge Family album for me ( which I still have (
Deb from Maryland
I was 9 years old and used my own money (which set me back six months) to buy "Introducing Herman's Hermits". LOVED that album. My mother finally told me that if she heard it playing one more time, she would take it. So I had to put the record player on my bed and have the sound barely audible after that. Oh, if only head phones had been invented sooner. lol
Thanks for the pleasure of that unexpected walk down memory lane.
Karen
I wonder how many people will be pulling out albums to play this weekend. :)! ~ karen!
john Naismith
I don't remember my first LP but my first tape which my parents gave me with a GE black mono tape player was Blondie (Autoamerican). I think I was given a 45, Boney M's (Rasputin) and (The boys in the bright white sports car) with my first record player which was cream and brown plastic with a transparent yellow lid. I still have the tape player, the tape and the 45's. lol
Karen
Rah rah Rasputin! I don't know how I don't have any 45s, but I don't. The ONE I'd like is a 45 of David Bowie and Bing Crosby. But I gave it to my sister for Christmas. I probably bought it at Cheapies. ~ karen!