| Author | Message | ||
     Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 115 Registered: 05-2005 |
I pooled my spends with my brother in 1971/2 and we bought Wig Wam Bam by The Sweet. It cost 30p and we got if from Radcliffe indoor market where the stall holder used to have the Top 30 pinned up. I know without looking that the b-side is "New York connection", which, you might think sounds like something by The Velvets but alas is exactly what it says on the label: a self penned song by The Sweet themselves. I think the lyric was "I need a woman injection...gonna get a New York connection". Answers on a postcard... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 904 Registered: 09-2006 |
Can't remember if this thread came up before and I've already posted this or not, but: First single bought: "Get Down" by Gilbert O'Sullivan First album bought: "Believe in Music" a K-Tel compilation - some of the songs I remember being on it were Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) - Looking Glass Maggie May - Rod Stewart Go All the Way - Raspberries Beautiful Sunday - Daniel Boone I Believe in Music - Gallery Mama Weer All Crazee Now - Slade Go Away Little Girl - Donny Osmond Sunny Days - Lighthouse Money Back Guarantee - Five Man Electrical Band How Do You Do? - Mouth & McNeil and 827 more... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1922 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Jam - Funeral Pyre. Yes, I was that cool. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 915 Registered: 10-2004 |
Well, there's the first record I *got*, which was Duran Duran's Rio. It was a Xmas gift. I was 8. The year was '83. Then there's the first album I *bought* (a few weeks later, with funds likely cobbled together from left-over xmas money and allowance), which was Motley Crue's Shout at the Devil. So, I guess I had slightly eclectic tastes for an 8 year old. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 961 Registered: 01-2005 |
Beatles 65 was the first vinyl album I got as a present for my 12th birthday. I got about six 8 Track tapes 4 years later in 1969 as Christmas presents with a player. Let's see, they were: Crosby, Stills and Nash - Crosby, Stills and Nash Doors - Soft Parade Led Zeppelin - II Tom Paxton - Morning Again Janis Joplin - I Got Dem Ol' Kosmic Blues Again Mama Moody Blues - On The Threshold Of A Dream | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 906 Registered: 09-2006 |
What does the little red-cheeked smiley next to the thread title mean? | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 117 Registered: 05-2005 |
A slight twinge of embarrasment ? I found a picture of me playing air guitar to it wearing my Cub scout jersey ! My second single was "solid gold easy action" b T Rex which I am more comfortable about... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 907 Registered: 09-2006 |
Ah Wilson, the Sweet are just fine...I've got a best-of of theirs, and even though it runs out of steam a little past the halfway mark I still enjoy it a lot. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 908 Registered: 09-2006 |
Also, the great comic book Love and Rockets, by the Brothers Hernandez (the Bauhaus refugees borrowed the name when they started their band) titled one of their best stories "Wig Wam Bam," with one of their characters detailing how listening to the 45 at a young age was her first stepstone on the way to punk. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1923 Registered: 05-2005 |
I adored Los Bros Hernandez Allen. Love And Rockets and Peter Bagge's Hate are my two favourite ever comics. The thrill I would get from picking up the latest editions from, for instance, Newbury Comics in Boston, was almost up there with buying a Jam 7". Almost. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 909 Registered: 09-2006 |
What's also great about the Bros. is that almost 30 years later they're still putting the comic out and the quality hasn't slipped noticably at all - it's still amazing. Oh, and agreed about Mssr. Bagge as well, who's a true gentleman...I was lucky enough to meet him at a signing tour in Seattle back in 1990, along with Los Bros., R. Crumb, Aline Komisky and Dan Clowes. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1925 Registered: 05-2005 |
That's an impressive list in one signing Allen. I'd love to meet them. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 910 Registered: 09-2006 |
It was during one of those times where comics became more high profile for a short time, so Fantagraphics arranged a tour...oh, and I just remembered that Jim Woodring was there, too. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1929 Registered: 05-2005 |
I was living in Boston at the time Allen and I remember that tour now that I think of it. I'm wondering why I didn't go when it came to Boston. Maybe I'd left just before they arrived in Bean Town. | ||
| Lewisdhead Member Username: Lewisdhead Post Number: 16 Registered: 01-2007 |
The Police-Regatta de Blanc | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 143 Registered: 10-2006 |
Sunarise - Rolf Harris The Legend of Xanadu (crack!) - Dave Dee et al. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 389 Registered: 01-2006 |
Stuart what a mememorable song as a first record, even if it is by Rolf Harris. I came across it years ago on a compilation CD by Sonic Boom (called Spacelines) of music that influenced him and funnily enough I'll be burning it tonight for a friend!! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1095 Registered: 08-2006 |
The first record I bought, I think, was Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours." I would have been 11 years old and the funds probably came from my newspaper delivery job. I love it still, although the old cassette has long since been replaced with a CD. | ||
| Jonathan Evans Member Username: Jon Post Number: 146 Registered: 04-2005 |
The first single I bought was Rock This Town by The Stray Cats..... The first album I bought...can't really remember it might have been Dream Into Action by Howard Jones..... The first CDSingle was With Or Without You by U2..... The first CD album was Oxygene by Jeam Michel Jarre..... Make of that what you will! Cheers Jon | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1962 Registered: 05-2005 |
I didn't know With Or Without You was even relased as a CD single. Did you get it on release in 1987? If so you were an early adapter (in marketing speak) of CD technology. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 403 Registered: 05-2005 |
I seem to remember having a hand in choosing a French Imported 40-track double LP of Elvis in Woolworths when I was 6, a few months after his death. But that would have been for "family" listening. I remember wondering what "Le Roi du Rock n' Roll" meant. I went halves with my sister on "Chart Hits '81" which included such classics as The Birdy Song, but in it's defence it also had OMD's Souvenir and a few other good ones! And further in my defence, I was 10! First one I remember buying all for myself would probably have been REM, Fables of the Reconstruction. There may have been something earlier, but I've obviously blocked it out as too embarrassing! | ||
| Jonathan Evans Member Username: Jon Post Number: 148 Registered: 04-2005 |
Padraig I got it when it came out, which would have probably been 87-88 so and it was a gatefold sleeve....very nice! I was about 15 at the time and therefore hadn't got the biggest 'record' collection and so converting to CD was easy for me. Cheers Jon | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 123 Registered: 05-2005 |
Fables is the REM album I come back to most, the crap production by Joe Boyd I now find quite warm and sepia like. If those songs were over polished it would lose something...Good advices is just beautiful, Wendell Gee is very sad, great to play on guitar... | ||
| peter ward Member Username: Peter_ward Post Number: 64 Registered: 06-2005 |
Adam & The Ants - Stand and Deliver 7" in Dundalk shopping centre. First album was Kings Of The Wild Frontier by the same bandit, I drew the line at wearing a white strip across my nose. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 306 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think this was done some time in the past.... ...but my first CD was Wilder by the Teardrop Explodes. And so began the process of replacing my vinyl collection on CD! | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 918 Registered: 09-2006 |
Ah, forgot that one...my first CD was James Brown's "Roots of a Revolution." I'd resisted CD for awhile, but I really wanted this album and it was only available on disc, so... | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 405 Registered: 05-2005 |
"I drew the line at wearing the white strip across my nose." Peter, admit it. Standing at the bathroom mirror, you spot the tub of Sudocream, you must have tried it out!! | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 396 Registered: 01-2006 |
I was an Adam Ant nut about the same time as Peter and yes Catherine I did it. Think it was Nivea cream though. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2050 Registered: 05-2005 |
Si, Adam Ant gets a retro piece (long due) in this month's Uncut. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 397 Registered: 01-2006 |
Spence didn't he go a bit loopy, something bout shooting a rifle at someone, possibly photographers. I think the first album I bought was Kings Of The Wild Frontier as well, I even got the one before that called Dirk Wears White Sox which wasn't great. Then it was One Step Beyond and I was a little 10 year old Nutty Boy for a few years... Spence I've been listening to Wilco's AM and Mermaid Avenue demos recently, let me know if you want directions to them, same place as the others... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2051 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah he did go a bit AWOL. Shame. Mind you, he was past his best music wise and he turned from this pretty boy into someone who'd of looked the part in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Oh and he spawned The Monochrome Set. I think my life at that point sounded very similar to yours! It was a fab time, especially at our rose tinted time of life! We used to Ant Rap running down the stairs at the school block, all shouting down or up to one another, these strange fuc*ed up lyrics, whilst peering over the stair rails, bit like the blue and red Beatles albums I guess! WIlco, mmm yes please, I'll drop u a line. Cheers Si. | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 406 Registered: 05-2005 |
A friend's cousin worked in one of the London airports in the mid-late 80's, and met him. He asked HER if she'd like his autograph! Mermaid Avenue Demos? Sounds good to me! Might drop you an email, if ya don't mind? | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 398 Registered: 01-2006 |
Hah that's hilarious. No sweat Catherine re the Demos... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 980 Registered: 01-2005 |
The first cd I bought was Dark Side Of The Moon, I would guess it would have been March of 1985. I bought my first cd player the following month, a Sony. I bought my first VCR player around the same time. A Hitachi VCR Hi-Fi unit. One of the first tapes I bought was URGH! A Music War. I used to get some killer deals on these as my brother in law and also my bud Greg were salesmen at a local appliance chain stores. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 312 Registered: 05-2005 |
Looking back now, WHY DID WE RESIST CDs? I remember going into the local record store one day to get "Heaven or Las Vegas" and suddenly the records section had been moved out of the way for C.D.s. I had to ask where the album version was. I didn't have my own CD player at the time and thought my housemate would find it a bit presumptuous if I started buying my CDs for her system! In hindsight, that should have been the first CD for me and it is one of the only Cocteau's I haven't replaced!. It's a cool (21 C instead of 28 C) gloomy day - I might do that today!! | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 923 Registered: 09-2006 |
Speaking for myself I know that even though CDs sure did look great in a number of respects I held off because of 1) the price in comparison to LPs. 2) the hype, which included the declaration that vinyl was now dead and turntables would soon go the way of the dinosaur. Having a large LP collection (as I'm sure many of you did as well) I felt somewhat conflicted by all that. And as we know, it didn't exactly turn out that way. I'm also sort of glad I held out a little bit because a fair percentage of those early CDs were awful quickie transfers. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 987 Registered: 01-2005 |
I was still buying vinyl for a short while after I bought my cd player, but by 1986 I had stopped. I wonder what the replacement percentage of vinyl to cd is typical? I probably have somewhere around 700 vinyl albums and more than half I would guess I have a cd copy of now. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 933 Registered: 10-2004 |
Michael - I go out of my way to replace crappy/worn copies of my records with good clean vinyl. I'll only replace an LP with a CD if the LP proves impossible to find. Sadly, I have to buy a lot of 60s stuff on CD because finding LPs from that era in good condition typically requires you to have to shell out ridiculous sums of money. But, I love LPs and wouldn't give them up for anything. I resisted CDs for a while. I didn't get a CD player 'til around 1990 or '91. And even then, I always favored vinyl and would only buy the CD if it was more findable or cheaper than the vinyl, or if a new album wasn't even released on vinyl. That's still pretty much the case for me today. I think it is very easy to see why I resisted CDs in the 80s. For one, they were way more expensive than LPs, plus they were often packaged and designed quite cheaply. Any design was often limited to the front, leaving the spine with a stupidly generic font (much like cassettes), and quite often the insert came with a tacky text-heavy page or two that took several languages to explain CD technology, (and to basically confess that the sound was going to suck because they merely transfered the sound, as opposed to actually digitally remastering it for the format). People didn't really start transforming the entire CD "package" into a wholly unified design until the 90s. And of course, labels didn't really begin to seriously address the dire need for digital remastering until the 90s either. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 132 Registered: 05-2005 |
I hadn't thought about this before but Horsebreaker Star was my first CD purchase, I only started getting them when my trusty AIWA turntable died, about 1994. On the same day I got "What's going on" as I couldn't stand the thought of not being able to listen to that when I needed to (at least weekly) and also Hootie and the Blowfish debut. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 935 Registered: 10-2004 |
I think my first CD purchase was either Lush's "Gala," or Joy Division's "Substance." | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 314 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wilson, you let one out of the bag with the Hootie and the Blowfish! | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 136 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah I know...a rash choice following a good performance on a TV programme Danny Baker I think...anyway, it sits on the same shelf and keeps the Spin Doctors CD company !! | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 98 Registered: 05-2005 |
First single was the Doctor Who theme! First album (tape) was Synchronicity by The Police. First CD was Lloyd Cole "Rattlesnakes". | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 992 Registered: 01-2005 |
The double disc Horsebreaker Star is back in print and very available to buy again on amazon for those in need of one. I would love to see a remastered double disc 1978-1990 with some bonus live cuts! | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 926 Registered: 09-2006 |
Thanks for the heads-up, Michael. As for the other, I'd be happy just to get 1978-1990, as my vinyl copy is long gone... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 998 Registered: 01-2005 |
Hootie and The Blowfish and The Spin Doctors, those are two peas in a pod and deserve to gather dust together. I'll admit I bought the fomer, but not the latter. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 142 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Spin Doctors was a gift and I cannot bear to "re-gift" it, how could I live with myself ?? A friend of the family, many moons ago, having heard that I "liked music" but had not bothered to identify which type, bought me the Diana Ross "Im coming out" LP apropos of nothing....that was certainly re-gifted but the gesture still haunts me a bit. Why Diana Ross ? How was the decision reached ? I'm still baffled... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1983 Registered: 05-2005 |
Anyone who can admit to a Hootie & The Blowfish record is a serious candidate for a Diana Ross record Wilson. You'll never live this down here! And what synchronicity! Two threads now feature discourses on Hootie & The f^&*ing Blowfish! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 145 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ah, Hootie...my wife made the mistake of taking me to a business dinner a while back and when the conversation got round to music a seriously important American client declared her passionate love for the band. I burst out laughing and, wow, did I get a seriously important kick under the table. Still have the bruise. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1510 Registered: 03-2005 |
We did this thread a year or more ago so I didn't read this one. I must say both "Wig Wam Bam" and "Legend of Xanadu" are very fine choices for first records. For the previous thread I did research to find out the name of the artist on the first single I personally spent my own infant cash on. It was called "Follow Me" and it was on the Turtles' label White Whale but right now I can't remember who was the artist except I think I remember research revealing it to be an early incarnation of Warren Zevon, or some well-known LA person like that. My first LP is easy. It was the Beatles "Yesterday & Today" with the butcher cover. It was a gift. Malcontent that I am, I wanted "Aftermath." I don't think I'll ever be able to remember what was my first CD. It was probably a re-purchase, say a Rolling Stones album or something. I think I got my player--a top-loading single disc Magnavox--in 1985 but I'm not too confident of that little stat either. There were too many things happening in those years I guess. Jeff's right; back then the discs were lazily copied from the RIAA masters and didn't sound all that wonderful but it WAS nice to skip the ticks and pops. The selection was pretty poor which is why I remember re-purchasing some old favorites early on. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1007 Registered: 01-2005 |
I liked the cd format right off the bat, with the exception of those awful hard plastic clamshell wraps that were a bitch to scizzor or the wastful cardboard longboxes. The poor quality of the early Columbia and WB discs was another sore point, and it did stop me from buying some of them until they got a proper release. I held off buying any Blondie cd's until the 2001 re-issues with the bonus cuts as an example. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 931 Registered: 09-2006 |
Ah yes, Randy...Lyme and Cybele, with Warren Z. being Lyme. I read about the circumstances in his bio...it's actually preserved on the Nuggets box set. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 359 Registered: 07-2006 |
the immaculate collection (well, i begged my mum to buy it for me). i suppose my answer is somewhat redundant as they were already the standard format when i started buying music. not that that's stopped me from subsequently buying ridiculous amounts of vinyl. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 322 Registered: 05-2005 |
I trust you have still got the butchers cover Beatle album Randy!!! If you ever feel the need to give to charity with it, I'm putting my hand out!!! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1516 Registered: 03-2005 |
I'm afraid I have to disappoint, Geoff. I stupidly traded it away long long ago. Like maybe 30 years ago. And I can't tell you what I traded it for but it's a safe bet that whatever it was, it's not a hundredth as collectible. As far as I was concerned, it was just a Beatles album and presumably it was rendered redundant by some other purchases (the UK albums I assume). I've always been kind of careless about records as collectible objects. Later on when I replaced a bunch of my vinyl with CDs I gave away the records. The memory of a few of those records does make me groan just a little but hopefully they found good homes. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 979 Registered: 10-2004 |
Heh, I've met numerous old hippie guys over the years who claimed you could spot original copies of "Yesterday and Today" that had been recalled and had the new cover glued over the original. And these numerous old hippie dudes would talk of spending hours carefully trying to steam off the new cover without ruining the original that was presumed to be underneath. I don't recall hearing any success stories with this, though. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1519 Registered: 03-2005 |
My brother did it and gave the result to me for my birthday. The only thing wrong with it was that the removal of the "new" cover took away the gloss to the old cover. So it was matte finish (and it had not originally been that). Other than that, it was totally intact and fine. I know, I know. I'm a total idiot for trading it away. But at least it's always easy for me to remember what was my first album! | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 982 Registered: 10-2004 |
Well, there's one success story, at least! I'm sure that whoever has your old copy has either sold it to send his kids through college or has it lovingly displayed in an airtight, bullet-proof, glass case with mood lighting. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1026 Registered: 01-2005 |
The MC5 - Kick Out The Jams vinyl was recalled due to Rob Tyner shouting out "Kick Out The Jams Mother F..ckers", before the band launched into the song. An original copy is worth some serious dough. I've got an original vinyl Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors on vinyl with the band members in flames. The album was only out for a month or so before the plane crash. All the albums were recalled and another cover was issued. I don't think it's that valuable though as a lot of units sold before the plane augured in. |