I don't remember much, but I remember......

Tireguy,

Thanks for this opportunity to take a stroll down memory lane.

It must have been 1965, because the first record I bought was a 45 of "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Picket (I can't remember what was on the flipside). I bought it from a Thrifty drugstore near my house in L.A. I was 11 years old, and my allowance could cover the cost of a 45, but not an Lp. By the time I was 13, I was working so I could regularly afford LPs. I think the first LP that I bought was either the Beatles' "Revolver" or the Rolling Stones' "Aftermath". Soon after that I bought my first real stereo system, a Nikko receiver, some crappy speakers, a Garrard record changer removed from a boken portable record player, and a pair of Sennheiser headphones (weak bass, grainy treble, but I thought they sounded great!)

I guess CRS Syndrome effects short-term more than long-term memory ...

I do remember my first purchase of music. It was an orange/red 45 of the theme song from "Cheyenne" the western TV series. I recall listening to it as I worked on my plastic model of the 20 Mule Wagon Team (you got this when you sent in a slew of box tops from Boraxo detergent). Western's were my thing back then. My second 45 was Blue Hawaii, by Elvis, which I won as a prize @ a company picnic sponsored by my father's employer (I gave this to my mother and she ended up taking my sister and myself to see the movie - yuck). I cannot remember exactly my first LP as things had gotten a bit smokey around that time, but think that it was either the red "Nazz" album or maybe something by "Country Joe & the Fish" or "Quicksilver Messenger Service". I received my first CD, "Silent Will" as a gift around 1990 as I had helped with the production. The composer of the music is a friend of mine and our original deal was that my cat would be pictured on the cover (as payment for my contribution), but instead I just received a lousy credit. We are still friends though. I gave this CD (as I did the Elvis 45) to my mother who now lived 1800 miles away (I did not own a CD player until two years ago:-). I have always been a software junkie though. When I sold my LP collection in the mid 80's it took the buyer two trips, of double stacked crates, in a full sized pickup truck to haul it to his house and in the last two years my wife and myself have accumulated over 1000 CD's and approx. 300 LP's, in the past 9 months, (99.9% of them on the used market). I recently started collecting 78's and prerecorded reel to reel tapes, but unfortunately do not own the equipment to play them on. This will come in time, but first I had better consider getting a preamp as changing IC's from source to source is starting to get a little old.

This is embarrasing but it was Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time. Cut me some slack. I was young.

I don't have a clue what my first LP was, more than likely early Led Zeppelin or Spooky Tooth's "The Mirror". The most memorable was Born to Run by Springsteen I picked up when I was 16. I was out selling stuff on the street to raise money for the Ski Patrol and at the end of a long day we dropped by a local record emporium here in Montreal, Phantasmagoria. At the time I had a B&O turntable someone gave me (and I fixed), a NAD3020 integrated, and Mission speakers. I really wasn't familiar with Springsteen at the time, I was more into British rock and metal but bought it all the same, mostly cuz I liked the record cover. I'll never forget the first time I cued it up and listened to Thunder Road. I still love that record. My first CD was Peter Gabriel; I had bought a first generation "perfect sound forever" Yamaha CD player for $1200 and there were only two titles available, Gabriel and the 1812. Listened over and over again to the new digital wonder, and as much as I loved Gabriel's work, my ears kept telling me the CD phenomena wasn't quite as good as the hype. I bought the Gabriel release on vinyl to compare, and I went back to listening to my turntable to compare (a Thorens TD147 with an Ortofon pickup). I tried to return the CDP, no luck, and as a student who worked his ass off as a labourer all summer to raise the cash I was less than happy with wasting $1200.

First LP is a memory too faded to recall. I do remember my first Pioneer table, and how the Grado I had odered to go with it took what seemed like weeks to show up ( I was a ripe old 13 at the time). My first CD ... I was 15 and the first gen 2 players (read CHEAP) were at the local electronics superstore. I took all of my birthday money and $99 later I was on my way home with the player and a copy of Beethoven 6. I was in heaven until my music teacher had me bring the player over to listen to on his system. His Linn/Roland/RS-1B system revealed the player as the hunk of junk it really was. I bought records over CDs 3:1 until I was in college and couldn't afford to replace my dead Pioneer table. Bought a turntable a few months ago, and am returning to analog as a staple in my system again.