This was the cover of the first album I ever bought with my own money... Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975. I was 12. I bought it at a Kmart in Spartanburg for $7.50. Don't ask me why I remember the price -- maybe because that felt like a lot of money when you were 12.
Anyway, to take a break from sports for this one blog post, I was wondering what your first album was, and if you had one memory to share about listening to that album. Whether it was in 1950 or 2008, I'm interested.
I'm thinking about this because I'm a big music fan and I just finished my first concert review for The Observer. This won't be a regular thing -- I know you are thankful for that -- but I wrote a review of the Eagles' Wednesday night concert in Charlotte that is now online and will be published in the newspaper Friday. Somebody told me John Fox was there, too -- not sure about that, but it makes sense as he (and I) both have a little more time on our hands this week than we expected.
I remember I bought this Eagles album at the behest of my slightly older cousin Glen, who always had good advice on music. When we got home, he insisted on singing me a couple of verses of every song before we got to put the vinyl record on this old turntable my parents had.
But it was great stuff. I'm glad my first album was something classic like this -- one of the biggest-selling albums ever -- instead of Captain and Tennille or something.
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My aunt gave me Eric Clapton "461 Ocaen Blvd" as a present when I was very young & I thought it was hippie rock, when I got a bit older it turned into one of my favs...I cannot remember the exact first one I evr bought but it was something like "Whos Next", "Led Zepelin IV", "Harvest" or maybe "Some Girls". I had 8-track tapes of "Shakedown Street" & "Darkness on the Edge of Town" that I wore out, remember "Frampton Comes Alive??" I do remember seeing a concert by the Eagles with Fleetwood Mac opening up for them, I think my tickets were $10.00...
Eagles, huh? You must've had older sisters. Anyway, excellent question!
I still remember pouring thru a sale bin at the old KMart on North Tryon to come out with The Who Live at Leeds and the first two Emerson, Lake, and Palmer albums. I distinctly remember that the Who was $3.99 and the ELPs were $4.99 each. I assume I had $15 to spend. Had to be around 1978 or so and I was 13ish.
I still have those albums.
And you must've never run across Mojo Nixon over the years.
JAT
Supertramp's "Breakfast in America" - Christmas, 1979...
First album? Ah yes, KISS Live II. I got it at a Fay's Drug Store when I was six, so that would have been 1978. It got played over and over and over until it drove my parents nuts. My brother and I would pick up tennis rackets and play air guitar while jumping on our beds. That album was the main influence in wanting to have a music career. Funny thing is....I STILL HAVE IT and it is in pretty good condition.
I don't remember which one but it was one of Michael Jackson's albums. I am 33. When I was about 6 or 7 it seems like Michael Jackson was really popular at school. I remember seeing his like thirty-minute video for Thriller. Later when I was a teenager I got into classic rock buying Led Zeppelin albums and then I saw Phish several times. I think the Grateful Dead is great. Anyway...
Paul McCartney - McCartney II
I don't remember how old I was at the time, probably 11 or 12, but I do remember I bought it twice. Yup, twice.
I was listening to it outside on a record player while I was in the pool. It was on the table, under an umbrella and working fine. When side one finished, I flipped it to side two and went back into the pool. Shortly after, the sun started to beat down on it and it warped into a David Chihuly like piece of art.
I was crushed; my first album destroyed by the sun. So I pestered my mom to take me back to Price's Music to get another one. I still have that album, though I no longer have a turntable on which to play it. Maybe I'll get one of those USB turntables and copy my old albums to MP3s...
My first album (tape actually) was Rush, Moving Pictures. It's still one of the best complete albums ever made (in my opinion anyway).
Argh...Kool & the Gangs Celebration...Hey meckdeck, the K-Mart on N Tryon goes back a ways. Remember Shazadas downtown?? Me and a buddy would always go there on Saturdays after playing basketball at Charlotte Athletic Club to check out the rap/hip-hop music selection.
my aunt gave me the first beatle album. i loved it because the screamed during "i saw her standing there". hooked on music ever since. first record was a 45 by the stones, "its only rock'n'roll". first album i bought was actually an 8 track tape, "we're an american band" by grand funk railroad. my first concert was fleetwood mac on the rumours tour in the old charloote coliseum on independence blvd. is it still there? i dont live in charlotte.
Guys: This is Scott Fowler -- great comments so far. There are some classic first albums here: the Beatles, Clapton, KISS and so on. Here's a lady named Beth who e-mailed me directly because she couldn't get the comment on the bloc, so I'm posting her comment as is:
"My first album I ever bought with my own money was an Elvis greatest hits album advertised on TV after he died. I gave my mom the money and she sent away for it in the mail. I can remember checking the mail for what seemed like an eternity, but when it finally came it was better than Christmas. And yes, I still have it today!"
I hate to admit it, but my first album was Kris Kross. Born in 1983, I was probably 8-9 at the time. I really wish I still had it! My tape player would never leave my side.
Like you Scott, I'm a big music fan & collector. Being a big Beatles fan and watching them on Ed Sullivan in February of 1964, the earliest albums I bought on my own were by the Fab 4. I can remember paying less than $3.00 for an album way back then. The first CD I ever bought? The "James Gang Live" which at the time I bought it, the recording was over 20 years old.
My first album I bought myself was REM - Document. Seems like kind of an odd choice for an (I'm guessing) 11 year old, I know, but I have older siblings and a dad who have always liked good music and growing up in the 80's, REM was pretty huge. I still have it and I still love the same REM songs, they're timeless just like The Eagles.
Slim Whitman- "Una Palama Blanco" Slim sold more albums that the Beatles and Elvis put together (in a remote village of Urkutz).
Seriously, the first that I owned was Humble Pie "Rockin the Fillmore"
The first that I bought was Deep Purple "Machine Head"
I wish I could say it was something legendary like Revolver or Rubber Soul, but I was born in 1985. So, while I'm upset that my first album was probably Aerosmith's "Big Ones", there is some consolation in the fact that I'm not as aged as all of you old timers.
Frampton Comes Alive in mid 70s (I was probably in 5th or 6th grade). I have an older sister who was into Fleetwood Mac, Poco, the Eagles and stuff like that, so I listened to her albums (and 8 tracks don't you know) but the first one I actually spent my own coin on was the aforementioned. It's still worth a listen every now and then. The guy could play, and the recording and arrangements were very tight for a live album of that period. Hotel California had to be in the group of first albums, too. Classic, timeless album. Eagles were in their prime, then. Saw them last night on the front row. It was awesome.
1st vinyl albums purchased: Meet the Beatles, Beach Boys Concert--summer 1964--less than $4.00 each. All mono back then. I went home and listened to them on an old Silvertone
"record player" that had one 4" speaker (looked like a small suitcase when you closed it up). Sounded wonderful to my 13 year-old ears.
My first album was either Shawn Cassidy or the Partridge Family. But the first album I ever bought with my own money was the Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat... Fun times!
While I would like to report something cool like a lot of the other posters, I admit the first album I remember (or more precisely tape) was a gift: Starship, (post-Jefferson Airplane) and their album "Knee Deep in the Hoopla (1985)." featuring "We built this City on Rock and Roll." I got it as a birthday gift which means I would have been about 10. At the time "We built this City" was a big No. 1 hit, and man I wore that tape out. Looking back now, however, I have to cringe more than a little bit.
Metallica. Black album. Classic.
Elvis - Blue Hawaii-soundtrack
Alabama's "Mountain Music" Album back in 1982
I had just turned 13 in January 1973, so I had birthday money to spend. At the old Rock Hill Mall on Cherry Road I bought my first two albums: Cheech and Chong Los Cochinos and Led Zepellin Houses of the Holy. To this day, "Dancing Days" is one of my favorite songs.
Here's one from another reader named Jimi who had trouble posting on the blog:
"When I was about 5 (this would have been in 1976), I got a Mickey Mouse record player for Christmas from my parents, who mail ordered that from Sears. I had somehow gotten my mom to buy me a Fleetwood Mac little 45. I played the heck out of that record and out of that Mickey Mouse record player. Wish I still had both!"
The first ones I can remember are Out of Time by R.E.M. and Grave Dancer's Union by Soul Asylum, to be cool in 6th grade.
But both of them shaped my music playing and musical tastes for the rest of my life.
My 1st Album was earth, wind and fire "open our eyes" I still have it. I also have prince 1st album "for you" and It is autographed by him when he came to what was then called the Park center (now the grady cole center).
He was 19 at the time and so was I. Whoa, I've gotten old.!!!
First album I got as a gift: Nine Days - the Madding Crowd. A great album by a band who, unfortunately, will always be labeled as a 1-hit wonder.
First album I ever bought with my own money : Weird Al - Running with Scissors. Weird Al really got me into music. He made me want to go listen to the songs he made fun of. Which I think helped expand my music taste.
First album I ever enjoyed: Devo - Shout. I was given it for free when i was little when it didn't sell at a yardsale. Devo revolutionized New Wave, Punk, and the way synthesizers were used. I can never understand why they didn't get more popularity.
Miles davis "Kind of Blue" which in 1959 for a kid from Cape May, NJ, was a bit odd. I remember the record store owner quizzing me about if I knew what I was buying..yes with my own grass mowing money. It changed my life and to this day I paint jazz greats sold internationally.
first album, boyz II men, colleyhighharmony!!!
I was a child born in the beginnings of the big hair bands heyday. Kiss Alive II was the first album I bought with my own money. It opened up with great concert pics and I think it had a poster with it. I remember rockin out to Shout it out loud. However, KC and the Sunshine Band Part Three was the first album I ever owned. I had almost blocked that out of my mind. Oh well. Shake Shake Shake .... Shake your Booty.
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John in 1973. Classic.
the first album I ever owned was Def Leppard "Pyromania," which was given to me by my folks for xmas along with my first boom box. the first album I ever bought with my own money is a little trickier because it was probably the Columbia Records 12 albums for a penny deal. I remember getting the package and being so excited. I can only recall about half of what I got, but it was full of stuff like Dokken "Under Lock and Key," Ratt "Invasion of Your Privacy," Heart S/T, Judas Priest "Turbo" (which I hated, but have since learned to enjoy save for the song "Parental Guidance"), and the GTR S/T album. I disowned all that stuff when I got into the more extreme elements of Heavy Metal, but eventually worked my way backwards.
These days, I enjoy pretty much everything - from Dee Dee Sharp to Steely Dan to Hall & Oates to obscure British post-punk to contemporary alternative and Brit-pop to dark ambient and, yeah, plenty of Metal of every shape and form. Music is easily on equal footing with sports in my world.
Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!
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