Tell Me About Your First Time

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(have we done this before?)

OK, enough with the double entendres.

Describe the first time you heard (whatever) and why you remember it.

.. .. Now I forget why I'm posting this... I remembered the first time I heard something yesterday... what the hell was it? I remember it totally blowing me away.

Damn, that was a great song! (whatever it was..)

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 4 February 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember when I heard Jimmy Somerville's voice for the first time. I was in Piccadilly Records in Manchester and they put on 'Smalltown Boy' - it was probably the week it was released. It stopped me in my tracks completely. It wasn't that there was any personal resonance in the lyrics (though I imagine for a young gay man hearing it at that time it would have had an even greater impact), it was just the strangeness of his voice.

I love it when a record just blows you away like that.

― James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

i remember belatedly "getting" the bassline off m/a/r/r/s - pump up the volume in the back of the car on the way to school. the rest is history.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember seeing the video for "Eighties" by Killing Joke on some random cable channel (not MTV) at a friend's place on Cornelia Street right off 6th Avenue in the summer of 1984, becoming haplessly gobsmacked at its simple, malevolent brilliance and racing across the street to Record Runner (little subterrenean record shop, now called Downstairs Records, I believe....meanwhile, there is a more recent shop called Record Runner a block to the west) to buy the 12". Also remember wearing a Motley Crue t-shirt at the time (black with handcuffs in the eyesockets of a skull) and feeling instantly ashamed of it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember getting Ladies And Gentlemen... by Spiritualized the day before it came out (my brother worked for vital at the time, and gave me a copy on the Sunday cos he knew I was wetting my pants over it, plus he felt guilty for giving away his first promo of it, which was of the original print run, ie; it had the Elvis lift in the first track ["wise men say only fools fall in love"]), and sitting alone in my room and listening to it start-to-finish after lunch and feeling my tiny 17-year-old soul get ripped wide open. And then I went to play football with my mates almost immediately afterwards, and I didn't say a word to anyone for about three hours until someone finally said "Nick, you're dead quiet, how come?" and I just garbled "Spiritualized" really quietly back at them and then rushed back home to play it again. And I played it once, twice daily, for the next three months.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"only fools rush in", dur.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

And I played it once, twice daily, for the next three months.

As prescribed. Good.

― James Ball (James Ball), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember my Dad playing me "Pet Sounds" for the first time when I was 11. Even at 11 I was blown away.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I want to answer this thread but I think I've told 4 different Vitalic stories already and making it 5 is a bit ott perhaps.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

You know, I have few intense memories of Hearing new songs. But I have strong memories of Seeing new videos.

When I was 11-12, catching "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was both scary and exciting. The music was Really Noisy for my young ears, and completely metal (something that I at the very least wasn't SUPPOSED to like), but the band and audience looked like the creepy college/high schoolers I'd see around town (I lived in Bloomington, IN) rather than silly metal folks like Poison). The lights and everything were reminiscent of horror films (something else I strongly disliked at the time), but the music really did grab me right away. I'm sure my experience would have been different if I was older and especially had I already heard the Pixies and Dino Jr., but electric shocks spilled through my elementary school when that video came out. When I hear over-rated but good albums like Queens Of The Stone Age and AYWKUBTTOD now I get really happy thinking about the kids who are young enough to get really wrapped on in the mystery and production effects of it all, like I did when I realized the R's on R.E.M.'s "Green" turned into 4's. That blew my mind.

Eminem's "My Name Is" had a similar rush of FINALLY to it. I sure didn't think he was a sign of the apocalypse. I simply loved seeing a guy on MTV who had humorously blatant and unapologetic disregard for socially redeemable pop culture (which included the Thinking Man's Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson).

Actually, I do have a musical memory...I was distinctly SCARED of I Am The Walrus when I first heard it. I think part of the joy overproduced and overdubbed stuff gives me comes from the fact that when I was a kid I couldn't EXPLAIN it. I assumed albums were recorded by a band and somehow these SOUNDS would just show up around them. Was there really an orchestra in the room with them? A chorus of dwarves? (I think I may have even seen that video with them all in Pig Masks so the chorus of dwarves seemed possible). The rising notes at the end totally freaked me out too, like a balloon filling to the point of bursting and you're dreading that eventual pop. "A Day In The Life" had a similar effect, but at least the earlier parts were prettier. "I Am The Walrus" was completely menacing back when I was 8 or 9 or so.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"When I was 11-12, catching "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was both scary and exciting."

Lord, you folks are all so young! I was 24 and I remember seeing the video for "Smells like Teen Spirit" for the first time at a long-lost NYU bar on 3rd avenue called the Dragon Bar (now a gay bar called -- wait for it -- Dick's), and it was followed directly thereafter by the video for "There's No Other Way" by Blur. I remember commenting to my friend how I liked'em both, and she pounded my arm black'n'blue for admitting I liked the "fey British shit" that followed Nirvana's clip.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I just other writers my age would admit that their "90s music was soooo good" bias is based on the fact that they were frikkin' kids when they heard it. Less articles about how "This band rocked when I was in high school, now they don't" and more articles about how "I liked these guys back when I didn"t know better."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

So Anthony Miccio is also 22-23? Crikey - all of you ARE just around my age, I thought yinz were like in your 30s

― Vic (Vic), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I am, which is why I'm schooling you infants around. ;-)

As for my story, I never get tired of telling it...

1990, KLA at UCLA, "Hrm, the sleeve to this EP sez it's England's equivalent to Sonic Youth or is just as good or something...okay, I'll play the first track."

*time stops for seven minutes*

"I've been standing here agape for the entire length of the song! I'm stunned! What the hell is this?"

And thus My Bloody Valentine's "Soon" and me.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

In 1996, I heard Siamese Dream for the first time. I didn't move until it ended. I think "Stunned" is the right word.

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Thursday, 6 February 2003 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

circa 82 i had just moved out of home .i got this weird looking tape from a local library called funkentelechy vs the placebo syndrome by parliament. i had dropped a trip and was on the way to peaking. i lay on my mattress with my head positioned between the two speakers of my ghettoblaster.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 6 February 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

1980. still at school. nighttime. back of a car driven by older friends on the way to a party. pull up next to dark parklands. bong is passed around. Y by the Pop Group is played. i am floating in deep dark dubspace for the first time.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 6 February 2003 00:38 (twenty-two years ago)

The first time I was exposed to Andrew WK I was at a friend's place. We'd drunk some wine and had smoked a massive joint. We were watching MuchMusic. I hadn't had TV for years at this point. Andrew WK was in the Much environment. A really hot VJ was hosting things. She was wearing a really nice red top. She said some witty things. People were pulling all sorts of ridiculous shenanigans - some girl poured creamed corn down the front of her pants. There was a commercial break - lots of loud sounds, bright colours, beautiful people selling you things. Then they played the "Party Hard" video. My friend was laughing "It's so metal - it reminds me of Grade 7!" I felt at that moment a truly deep and intense love for pop culture and all it stands for. Massive fucking corporations, pumping all kinds of financial and human resources into discovering exactly what will tickle which nerve endings, stimulate which pent-up desires, shaping all the dreams and desires and anxieties that have defined me since childhood, discovering and exploiting every primal urge that can be used, sexual, violent, what not, even the urge to rebel against the system efficiently co-opted and exploited, it's almost Brave New World - what a beautiful thing! Every little thing that happened on TV seemed to have been carefully planned out with these ends. To think human civilization had reached this point! Half the hard rock bands on TV were as good as Def Leppard! At least half the girl pop stars were as good as Tiffany! And Def Leppard and Tiffany were the greatest things ever!

Then we went to see Bernard Parmegiani at the Rien a voir festival.

(I couldn't actually tell at that point if the song was really great or not. It was a little while later that I listened to the album in a store.)

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

The first time I ever heard Andrew WK was in an NHL commercial.

The second time I ever heard Andrew WK was in a Coors commercial.

The third time I ever heard Andrew WK was in an Expedia.com commercial.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, exactly.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Sundar, what is your perception of these things in the cold (& sober) light of day?

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The first time I heard "Sk8er Boi" I was driving my parents' car in downtown Ottawa. The guitars sounded so thick and shiny at the same time as they bounced around the car in stereo separation. A great voice - clean, youthful, sort of keening and cocky at once - sang a petty teen romance fable. The track gathered itself up into distinct punches at one point, lay back into a float at another. I hoped desperately that this wasn't some indie band I'd never hear again.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:17 (twenty-two years ago)

TS: E is worse than dope or alcohol for "cold light of day" realisations

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Sundar that was masterful.

― jm (jtm), Thursday, 6 February 2003 04:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I was 14 or 15 and on my way to the school library. I'd borrowed a tape of Public Enemy's last album from Alex T - because one of their songs had got in the Festive 50 but I'd missed that broadcast not knowing what the Festive 50 was until it was halfway over. The tape was rewound to the start of side 2 - "Night Of The Living Bassheads". Our school library was a massive late-tudor shed with two colossal oak doors. The doors were straight out of a history film, huge slabs of wood, iron rings as thick of my arm to knock on. I stood in front of them until the song finished: music wasn't allowed in the library anyway but that wasn't the point - I didn't know how to process what I was hearing as it was; dealing with it in that place would have completely done my head in. To this day sometimes I see those doors when I hear that song.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 6 February 2003 10:53 (twenty-two years ago)

i remember awaiting every new Prodigy video from 'MFTJG' on TV as a massive event, as important as waiting for the release of the singles or albums themselves. I'd bought the 'One Love' EP and was enjoying it (maybe more for the Jonny L remix and the other new tracks 'Rhythm Of Life' and 'Full Throttle') - a week or two later I caught the video on MTV Party Zone and I think it was one of those moments where you realise that your favourite band is onto some new stage, they've made an evident progression - its something you can garner from the music itself of course, but the video is a useful marker of that progress as well. They'd flashed some cash from the unexpected success of the follow up singles, first album and merchandise and used some nifty CGI basically (looks crap now but this was 1993 after all) and I just loved that feeling of 'they've made it, they're actually winning at this game doing something in this way' - if only for just 2 or 3 minutes its just like watching an underdog football team who might have just been a flash in the pan hold out for an emphatic victory.

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 February 2003 12:25 (twenty-two years ago)

My favourite video first-time was Missy's "The Rain". We were in a pub and none of us had heard or heard of her and we spent the whole rest of the evening going "Beep beep" like twats but goodness it made an impression.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 6 February 2003 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Bored at music school (out of which I would soon drop), go to music library, check catalog under George Crumb and see "Ancient Voices of Children" listed as score and lp (I had seen the score before with no clue as to how to read it), check out both, listen while reading and suddenly I can see how the score functions and how these gorgeous gorgeous sounds are related to the words notes and symbols on the page and my head explodes and I am reborn.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 6 February 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Glad to see this thread finally took off...

So I remembered what song it was...

I was about 16 years old - A friend & I were doing some work & we had a few hours to kill. An older guy that we worked with had nothing to do either - so we all drove somewhere to get some victuals (that's vittles, kids.) Then we get back in the car and the guy (the old guy) breaks out some beer and puts on "Maggot Brain" - "Whaaaaat is this?" ..and it just kept going .. I think it being extrememly loud + beer + really wasn't supposed to be leaving the worksite had a profound impression on my young mind.

I heard Mike Watt's version last weekend (that's when I thought of this thread..) Watt's version isn't bad either - although kinda pointless because it's just like the Funkadelic version.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 6 February 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i remember hearing the Ramones for the first time (wattarush) and running home with #1/Radio City then hearing Thirteen for the first time. I remember sitting in the car listening to Hissing Prigs In Static Couture. My dad thought the car stereo was broke.

― nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 6 February 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

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