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.
Kathy
I love your posts! I feel them in my soul.
John Denver's Greatest Hits (I may have stolen it from my parents and never given it back -- loved it and still LOVE it)
Lionel Richie -- Can't Slow Down (1983) I think I was in 6th grade!
Karen
I love, love John Denver. ~ karen!
MARY MORRIS
German Version of Meet The Beatles.
My sister didn’t want our parents to know she wanted it and I knew the people in the record store. We went in and sat in a listening booth to the entire album.
Twice.
The second album, which was for me this time, was The Monkees.
Third was a Davy Jones album from England!
Arlene Saunders
I am pretty sure my second album was 'Catch Bull at Four' - Cat Stevens -- The FIRST Album I bought was a Photo Album - I was thirteen - and had just purchased a Kodak Instamatic Camera - Still have the Album - but sadly not the camera!
David
I enjoyed your post. There was always plenty of albums at the house but the one I actually paid for and went to the store to buy was "Meet the Beatles". It was the beginning of a lifetime enjoying the Beatles journey. Still have the album (and the rest of the collection).
Karen
It's amazing how many of us remember out first album. I also remember the first song I learned the lyrics to. Maybe that's an upcoming post, lol. ~ karen!
Nancy MacKinnon
Early Morning Rain by Gordon Lightfoot. (50ish years ago). Still love the songs!
Jan in Waterdown
Christmas 1970, when my sweetie and I got engaged, I gave him a Lightfoot album, can’t remember which one. Gord was sooo cool, playing in T.O. coffeehouses. His songs still resonate and have stood the test of time. Sad that he’s gone….
Summer
The first album I remember buying with my own money was Pearl Jam Vs. on cassette. It was 1993 and I was 13 years old. I remember buying it out of a vending machine at a store that had a bunch of different cassettes to choose from. I don't remember what my first CD was for certain, but I want to say it was Green Day, Dookie about a year later.
Karen
I know Green Day is huge, but I still think they're underrated as a band. ~ karen!
Carolyn
Yes! Love Love Love Green Day
Joan Gordon
The Wild The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle - Bruce Springsteen
Wore it out until my parents bought me headphones for my stereo. They preferred Simon & Garfunkel
Now I am a proud 61 yo Swiftie as well, and I buy her vinyl for my vintage turntable.
Paige
Meet The Beatles. I bought it Korvettes I’m New Jersey as a reward for getting good grades when I was 12. My 37 year old daughter has it and my old turntable now so I can listen to it when I visit her apartment, takes me waaaay back❤️
Angela
George Strait, The Chill of an Early Fall. It was the only George Strait CD our Walmart had in stock. Well, that was my first CD.
One of the only cassette tapes I remember buying is The Presidents of the United States of America. My mom had no idea what I was buying.
Peggy Grobmyer
Carpenters. I remember it had a flap like an envelope
Melinda
My first album was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (Simon and Garfunkel). I still have it...
glenda
The B-52's selftitled. It was 1980, I was 16 (prior to that I asked for albums for my birthday). Still love it! I gave it to a good friend who still has a turntable and we play it when I travel to visit her. Dance This Mess Around!:)
Cathy Prince-Reid
My first album was Grand Funk Railroad. Side 2 was live … I didn’t even know what a live album was before I bought it. Our family’s huge stereo console was in the living room and, to my delight, my Dad hooked up speakers to my bedroom. Meant I had run to turn the album over to side 2. Great memories
Sandra D
My dad was in the Air Force and we were living in 4 Wing, Germany - I was about 10 and saw a record player for (I think) around $7 so I knocked on the Cpl's Club door and asked for my dad, who gave me the money. I bought a lot of 45's for that player (it did play 33's, too). I don't remember what my first album was - just thought you'd like to hear about the little player I still have. :)
Sandra D
And, I think you'd still find that Robin Williams record funny.
Elaine
My first album was by Three Dog Night. Still have it here somewhere too. I used to love going to the Bay and sifting through records in their music section. A lot of my babysitting money was spent on records.
Gayle Bell
My first album, bought with my babysitting money, was "Are You Experienced" by Jimi Hendrix. I've never tired of listening to his music but I stream it now since the album is so scratched (and I don't know where it is either). I need to do some serious purging as well.
Gretchen
The Monkees ( my Dad bought it on my request)
Bread or Elton John—I think Bread-but am not positive.
Serah Fredericks
Loved reading this and, I still use all of those formats! I actually have a cassette player and a cd player and a VHS player in the home (of course DVD too). When my dad passed I took all of his recordings of classics on VHS that had his hadwriting and foolishly let them go. I still regret it to this day but my first cassette was Michael Jackson's Thriller (I was born in 89), and my first CD might have been Spice Girls. Love obsolete things, and I love that your first record was Robin Williams and that you want to preserve the memory. Merry wintertime! ~S
Karen
Thanks Serah! I will definitely be popping the lid on the record player this weekend. I actually think I'm going to kick things off with Purple Rain. ~ karen!
Patty
I’m not sure. It might have been Rubber Soul. I was a big Beatles fan. I remember my mom letting me stay up to watch them on The Ed Sullivan Show — I would have been around 5 then. But I do remember buying later albums. I remember waiting with a girlfriend at the record store to purchase Catch Bull at Four as soon as it came out - she and I were huge Cat Stevens fans - this would have been 1972 and I was around 13. Still have all my vinyl. I also remember long phone calls with another girlfriend where we would play songs over the phone to one another, until our mothers made us get off the phone. Good memories. First arena concert (I know you didn’t ask): Fleetwood Mac.
Jennifer
Blondie, Eat the the Beat