At a friend's Christmas party on Saturday, I was surprised (and let's face it, psyched) to find that their preferred method of listening to music was a record player. This wasn't so much a hip "High Fidelity" type comment on the quality of modern music but more because the kind of music they like (from the 30s and 40s) is easier to find on vinyl.
I can get with that. I like the Mills Brothers as much as the next person. Probably more so because that is basically all my parents would play when they took us on road trips (Someday I will tell you the story about Officially The Most BORING Vacation Ever For a Nine Year Old and Seven Year Old otherwise known as Drive To D.C, And On The Way Home Make Stops in Amish Country and Gettysburg).
Anyway, we all started talking about our favorite records. I will always remember fondly the first record I ever got, My parents gave it to me along with my stereo/record player in first grade. It was The Best of the Beach Boys, Volume 2.
I fell in love with it immediately. "I Get Around" became my personal anthem. I remember listening to "Don't Worry, Baby" at 7 years old and being pretty confident that it would be my wedding song. The next day I asked these twins in my class, Brad and Chad, if they wanted to get married and only one of them agreed. Not wanting to split brothers up, I told them when they could agree we would set the date. Then I found out polygamy was illegal and decided it would be better for us all if we remained friends.
I also set in motion the musical ruination/maturation of my cousin Maia who at the time was only allowed to listen to classical music. After an afternoon with me she went home singing "She's so fine my FOUR OH NINE!" and I am told has never been the same since.
And althought I know I accumulated a lot of records in my youth...that is the one I will always remember. Just like I will always remember the first record I paid for myself (Duran Duran RIO), The first tape I ever bought (The Cocktail Soundtrack..which I still believe to be one of the best soundtracks of all time) and the first CD I ever got (The Beatles Abbey Road).
These days it's all about the MP3s, but it's still fun to look back and measure your life by what album you got when (and I guess in what format!). I wonder if kids these days will look back and remember their first MP3 the way I remember my first record.
Somehow I think not.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
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13 comments:
but Kim that is AWESOME!! i love it. the hoff rules. :-)
Thank God, Kim. I absolutely feel the same way! My first non-children's record was "Menudo". Not all of us were cool children. LOL.
I honestly don't remember the first record, tape or cd I bought/received (most like because I borrowed my older sister's), but it saddens me! I wish I remembered. :(
My first record was Totally Minnie. My first CD was Mariah Carey's Music Box and MTV Unplugged.
i had the opposite problem, in the 80s most young girls were in love with the New Kids On The Block and I had no idea who they were until my 4th grade birthday when EVERYONE bought me NKOTB stuff:posters, tapes, t shirts, etc. I never really got into them though. Except Donnie of course, because he was obviously hot.
My first tape was also the Cocktail soundtrack!! I don't think I ever bought my own record. My first CD was definitely not a classic like yours -- it was Hootie and the Blowfish!
Oh, I loved me some NKOTB. Remember when the Wahlbergs played basketball with our friend's brother after school? It was the talk of Braintree!
definitely. one of their ex-girlfriends used to come to Sunset Lake all the time when i worked there and even THEN, like 13 years after they were popular, people were still like "OMG THAT's DONNIE'S EX GIRLFRIEND!!". Braintree loves NKOTB.
you know what's funny? most people i know have record players and listen/prefer them to cds/mp3s. the scratchy sound is so awesome. i love it. when i went to nyc a few weeks ago we listened to avail on vinyl - perfect! to add to the addition:
first cd owned - nkotb christmas album
first vinyl- sgt. peppers
first tape- michael jackson thriller. <3 danielle
the first tapes i bought were mariah carey (self-titled) and paula abdul "spellbound". the first CD i owned was duran duran's greatest hits. it was a gift from my parents b/c they knew i loved "orniary world". :-)
~Jeannie
Hi! Found your blog through Jenny, and her through Erin, and her through… can’t even remember at this point; I’ve been reading for way too - stalker! stalker! - long.
My first tape was ALSO the Cocktail soundtrack. I too am from a suburb of Boston – was Kokomo a Mass thing? My first record was the single of “Take My Breath Away,” which had this awesome song “Radar Radio” on the other side. The first CD I bought, years later, was Pearl Jam's "Ten."
I was thinking the EXACT same thing the other day about kids not remembering their first mp3s (though I do remember mine: Enrique Iglesias, “Bailamos” – I was afraid to download it and made my boyfriend at the time send it to me over IM), and how many of the CDs and tapes I bought were just to either have the lyrics to the songs or because they just looked so damn COOL. These kids are missing out completely. And they have it so easy! Why, in MY day, we made MIX tapes, and had to listen to the radio for HOURS and scramble to press "record" when the song du jour came on!
Donnie was my favorite NewKid by FAR, too. I never understood the girls who liked Danny. Ew. My friend now lives in their old house in Dorchester. Small world, indeed.
yes!! i totally remember making mix taps off the radio and having certain songs end with "KISS 108!" if I couldn't press stop fast enough!
i have no idea what my first mp3 was although i do know i got it my freshman year of college. I hate to say this, but it may have been Jay Z/Jermaine D "Money Ain't a Thing".
I lied. I don't hate to say it. I STILL love that song!
oh my god, the hilarity. i had completely forgotten about making mix tapes off of KISS 108 until you mentioned it. leaping up off the bed to try to start the tape on time, too, that was a challenge...
flashbacks are fun :)
My first record was also a single--
"Raspberry Beret" by Prince. My first tape was Paula Abdul, don't remember the name of the album, but I just about wore that tape out. My first CD was Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg. My husband and I still listen to that CD on long car rides...it's a classic!
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