My formative music years were probably a little different, on account of having grown up in the Philippines; radio was different, for one, and releases were very selective. You couldn't buy any R.E.M. album earlier than Fables of the Reconstruction, for instance; there were, in effect, huge gaps in bands' discographies. There was very little old-school hiphop as well; for instance, the first time I heard Grandmaster Flash was in the '90s.
But as a child I grew up listening to my parents' music, most of which I consider excellent today; my mom claims I used to dance to "Taxman," and to this day Revolver is still one of my favorite albums ever. Simon and Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole also rounded out that period (thankfully Richard Clayderman and Ray Conniff didn't affect my consciousness that much).
My very first record purchase was the "My Sharona" vinyl single, so that dates me. (Actually, it might have been on cassette, mixed with Patrick Hernandez's "Born to Be Alive.") I still remember quite vividly the day my mom gave me and my brother money to buy an actual cassette tape for the very first time. (My purchase was Synchronicity; my brother bought Huey Lewis and The News's Sports. Ha!)
So, my formative years: U2's The Unforgettable Fire, the Police's Reggatta de Blanc, Talking Heads' Remain in Light (I was the only Heads fan in my entire high school) -- and, obviously a little late, Pink Floyd's Meddle -- were all high school purchases, and they've happily passed the test of time. (Synchronicity is overplayed -- I can't be the only one who changes the station when "Every Breath You Take" comes on the radio -- but I happened to listen to it with a pair of great in-ear headphones earlier this year and it sounded like a totally different album.)*
By college I went through an unfortunate lapse into lite-jazz; it still sounds terrible now, and I can't imagine ever returning to that crap. But I also went hog-wild buying albums, some of which are still stellar (Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, Substance, In My Tribe) and some not (Seven and the Ragged Tiger, Make It Big -- though I will always have affection for many '80s hits).
The nineties (and grad school) finally set me on the path I'm on now, where my music purchases were mostly associated with record labels / distributors: Impulse, Tzadik, World Serpent, and especially early to mid-90s Matador.
*Having written this, I now realize why Bono, Sting and Michael Stipe (and Robert Smith to a certain extent) are all in a special circle of hell -- because in my mid-teens they were all part of bands that meant the world to me. And now they just suck.
Posted by the wily filipino at December 13, 2004 08:02 AMFunny! The 45rpm My Sharona was my very first record purchase as well.
Posted by: daniel on December 13, 2004 01:23 PMyeah, out of faithfulness i bought sting's latest album and found i kinda detest it. it's insipid. + as for u2, what's up with their latest song? i mean, these motherf*****s put out WAR, and BOY, u know?
Posted by: barb on December 13, 2004 01:58 PMDaniel: great minds think alike.
Barb: sucker! ("The Soul Cages" was my last Sting purchase, which was sold back very quickly.)
But don't you think "Uno dos tres catorse" is kind of funny though?
yeah, funny in that useless kinda way, i guess... anyway, i can't remember what my 1st 45 was, but i know my 1st album on vinyl was the police's zenyatta mondatta. my 1st cd ever was u2's war, which is why i'm bitter, much more so than achtung baby made me bitter.
and btw, seven and the ragged tiger? not so bad. really. i mean, rio is better, and arcadia's so red the rose is better, but still...
Posted by: barb on December 13, 2004 09:03 PMMy first LP was Dire Straits Brothers in Arms. And I scratched it really bad before I could get it home.
Posted by: r.piggy on December 14, 2004 11:06 AMCorrection - you *could* get an REM album earlier than "Fables..". The first cassette I got was Reckoning, which was their 2nd. It was Murmur (1st album) that was not released.
My first cassette was (dya-raan) the ET soundtrack. I watched it with my grandma and got her to buy it for me. First vinyl was probably Culture Club's first album (forgot title, it had Do You Really Wnat to Hurt Me). Wish I could brag about buying My Sharona as my first single. Waay cooler. First CD was Nevermind, since CDs were not something normal people bought in the Philippines, c. 80s.
Don't be too hard on Bono. What if he magically *does* manage to make all that foreign debt disappear? Who's gonna have egg on their face, huh? :) :) :)
And "Beautiful Day" is still a pretty good song. Sting, Stipey and Smith are the ones who haven't had *any* good stuff since the mid-90s (if one was to put forward a good case for REM's "Monster").
Posted by: krangsquared on January 1, 2005 07:26 AMBarb: Seven and the Ragged Tiger is much better than I remembered, though it isn't Rio or So Red the Rose. And "New Moon on Monday" is my favorite Duran Duran song ever -- and now I actually have a copy of it, thanks to you!
Krangsquared: I saw R.E.M. on the Monster tour, so I have some affection for that album (their last good one, really).
But the ET soundtrack though? Funny -- that was the very first video we rented after we bought our Betamax machine.
ET soundtrack: hey, it's not so much about musical quality (though John Williams is up there, as far as memorable movie themes go), as it was about getting a souvenir of the movie! :)