ILM Snapshot: First Five Records You Bought

Howard Jones - "Things Can Only Get Better" 7" (in all probability very poor)

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - "Welcome To The Pleasuredome" 7" (excellent then and now)

Ultravox - RAGE IN EDEN (really really bad. Or, actually is it - has The Thin Wall (ace) on and The Voice (OK) and a couple of other catchily Teutonic confections. But an awful title and cover and a very dreary song about being a WWI casualty. Will Ultravox synth sounds be next up for rehabilitation?)

Eurythmics - REVENGE (bad, and I knew at the time it was bad, but I had shelled out for an album and had to manfully struggle with it. Bought as best of a bad lot on a holiday in France.)

Stravinsky - THE RITE OF SPRING (my attempt to 'get into' classical music, feeling very intimidated by the older and cleverer boys at my new school. Excellent of course but I dont think I could listen to it now.)

Michael Jackson - Thriller (just because everyone else had it)

Quiet Riot - Condition Critical (I was disappointed that it didn't have "Come On Feel the Noise" on it; I may never have even listened to it)

Beastie Boys - License to Ill (so I could learn all the words to "Paul Revere". One of the best albums ever.

Run DMC - Raising Hell (so I could learn all the words to "You Be Illin")

Does anyone else remember Kwame?

1) Prince - Batdance

2) Alice Cooper - Trash

3) Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

I honestly can't remember what I got after these, could have been something by either: Megadeth or Guns'N'Roses...but probably more Iron Maiden albums. Or maybe it was Winger.

Wayne's World Soundtrack. What can I say? Bought cause it had Bohemian Rhapsody on.

Blur - The Great Escape. Classic then and near classic now, despite the bad press it got. It's Blur's best work of that phase, Parklife was too long, and blatantly insulted by them purely to seem cool. (Note Alex never seemed to say it was crap, though.)

Queen - Made In Heaven. Liked it then, but basically it's unmitigated toss. But I do have a soft spot for 'Heaven For Everyone'.

I honestly can't remember anything else...

Dare To Be Stupid - Weird Al Liscense To Ill - (You know.) Vacation - The Go Go's Batman sndtrk. - Prince

I can't really remember any others. These were bought/given over a course of about 4 years...I didn't really start paying attention to music until I was 13 or so...then it was all downhill...

2) Paul McCartney-McCartney. I really liked it then, now I just think it's underrated. The cover's cool. I found the instrumentals boring, but then I hated instrumentals when I was 8. I was jealous of Linda's daughter, featured in the inner sleeve.

3) Beatles-Let It Be. I remember I thought the movie was boring. I liked the album though, didn't realize how messy and back to basics it was supposed to be. I was puzzled by the reference to Charles Hawtrey.

4) Woodstock Soundtrack-Saved my allowance for months to get this. I thought I was so cool, a 3 record set with a triple gatefold sleeve. And the Fish Cheer! And pictures of skinnydippers! Musically, I think I'd like a lot of it now. John Sebastian sounds like a dipshit, though.

5) Blood Sweat & Tears-self-titled. My avant-garde purchase, ha ha. Dreadful, except "Spinning Wheel" and "And When I Die". David Clayton Thomas is pretty camp.

One out of five ain't bad. But which is the one?

Get A Grip - Aerosmith

Greatest Hits - Aerosmith

Permanent Vacation - Aerosmith

Pandora's Box - Aerosmith

Five guesses on which band introduced me to music fandom...

Tom E - forgive me for saying you are being a wee bit pretentious in calling yourself a slow starter at 11-13. Some of us took a lot longer than that to BUY a RECORD.

I also disagree with you, or at least want to disagree with you, about the Eurythmics LP.

I was under the impression most of the people on this board were buying records at age 5 or some similarly early age. Not sure why.

Don't remember the next 3.

1) Public Enemy - Nation of Millions 2) Arrested Devolpment - 3 Years, 5 Monthes, 4 Days in the Life of.... Or how ever long. 3) Pavement - S&E 4) Dinosaur jr - Where You've Been 5) Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps.

I never realized how much I borrowed from older brothers till now.

1) Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A. - My brother had some other Springsteen albums, including Nebraska and Born To Run, and I really liked those. So I thought I'd pick up the new one because I liked "Dancing in the Dark." I don't own this album anymore, but I'm always looking for a clean $1 vinyl copy. Don't think I'll like it much (the production kills it) but want to have it around. Soon after buying the LP I bought the 7-inch of the title track, and it has one of Springsteen's greatest songs on the B-side, the heart- wrenching "Shut Out The Light." I even bought the "Born In The USA" 12-inch dance mix! I was obsessed. Owned the entire Springsteen catalog before I had 20 records total.

2) Led Zeppelin II - I still love this record. It's never gotten old.

3) Led Zeppellin IV - Still sounds great. Probably the last Zeppelin album I'd put on now, though, because I played it so much.

4) Bruce Springsteen, Darkness On The Edge of Town - Remember being very disappointed when I first heard this. Knowing it came between Born To Run, which was my favorite album of all time, and the very pop The River, my expectations were high. Still my least favorite Springsteen album of the 70s and 80s.

5) The Who, Magic Bus/Sings My Generation - I swear I remember this being a two-fer vinyl reissue. Again, my brother had all the good Who records, and I was filling in a gap. I remember liking "Bucket T" a lot, but most of my other faves were already on Meaty Beaty, which we had. Haven't heard these LPs in years.

2) Green Day - Dookie (at 12)

3) The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (at 12)

4) Bjork - Post (at 13)

5) Portishead - Dummy (at 13)

First had cash of my own when I signed on for supplementary benefit pre-college. Spent it on:

Suzanne Vega: "Suzanne Vega" Joni Mitchell: "Hejira" Tangerine Dream: "Phaedra" Jean-Michel Jarre: "Zoolook" Philip Glass: "Glassworks"

Guess which two of the above I no longer own.

Prior to that I had records bought for me; I think my LP collection pre-Sixth Form was 80% Abba.

In my case:

1.) Unforgivable but it was for charidee: the reworking of "Ferry 'Cross The Mersey" following the Hillsborough disaster, May 1989.

2.) For the same reasons, the second version of "Do They Know It's Christmas", December 1989, which I don't think I've heard in 10 years (it's *always* the original).

3.) Jason Donovan's "When You Come Back To Me", early 1990. One of PWL's finest and cheated out of Christmas Number 1 by the above.

4.), 5.) and 6.) Can't get these into precise order but circa June 1990: Jason's "Another Night", Big Fun and Sonia's "You've Got A Friend" (more charity bollocks) and Elton John's "Sacrifice" / Healing Hands" (which I bought for my mum, really because "Sacrifice" is about the only Elton song she likes: the only one of these records not produced by Stock Aitken Waterman).

Next came (and this is the real crime) "That's Just The Way It Is" by Phil Collins, then "Tom's Diner" by DNA featuring Suzanne Vega, which I'm convinced would still sound great. I also have Jive Bunny's "Swing The Mood", NKOTB's "Hangin' Tough" and Snap's "The Power" from this period, but didn't actually buy any of them at the time.

Madonna, Like a Prayer

Madonna, Like a Virgin

Tiffany

G'n'R, Appetite for Destruction

I think Janet Jackson...?

I really don't remember. Some of them I obviously bought quite late (Like a Virgin I specifically remember being my first my-own-money purchase, but I was like 8 or 9 at the time, and since it came out when I was like 4...). Had bought for me...the first album I ever had given to me was Michael Jackson's Thriller, but I can't remember anything besides that. I didn't need to own my own, me and my mom had the same taste then.

U2 - 'Achtung Baby!' - I still like it, though I never listen to it. I hear its flaws now, and Bono can be a little over-the-top; besides, I can't really separate it from being a ninth grader pining about how no girls liked me and listening to "Who's Gonna Wild Your Wild Horses..."

MC Hammer - (whatever that first full-length was called) - ummm, whatever. At least I never bought Vanilla Ice.

It's weird, too, I distinctly remember hearing "How Soon Is Now" as a very young kid - maybe 8 or 9 - and getting goosebumps. It was only years later, when I bought 'Singles,' that I realized it was a Smiths song.

Boney M -- 10,000 Light Years (also at 6)

Chuck Berry -- Best Of (also at 6)

Elvis -- Sings Country (at 6)

Debbie Gibson -- Out of the Blue (at 8)

As you can see, my tastes haven't changed an awful lot.

>>> Suzanne Vega: "Suzanne Vega"

which is fabulous - what a first buy! (It's a one-time thing - I know.)

>>> Joni Mitchell: "Hejira"

which Stevie T bought only months ago. Why couldn't he tape it from you When You Waz Kidz In Dat Liverpool Dere, dat's what I wanna no.

>>> Tangerine Dream: "Phaedra"

Probably underrated.

>>> Jean-Michel Jarre: "Zoolook"

This is the one - I'ds completely forgotten this absurd, yet seemingly memorable phrase.

>>> Philip Glass: "Glassworks"

Sounds boring.

>>> Guess which two of the above I no longer own.

Well, I hope Philip Glass is one of them. Hope != trust.

Tom E: the answer you seek is the Primitives' first LP, LOVELY.

God knows what I was doing with the JMJ thing. Perhaps it was the Frenchness (the Tigana of the Prophet 5?) + he was quite short and had good hair. Maybe I imagined that if *I* learned to play the laser harp, I could marry Charlotte Rampling too.

Only just noticed the e-mail address of Johnathan, who started this thread. Spooky.

>>> Maybe I imagined that if *I* learned to play the laser harp, I could marry Charlotte Rampling too.

And in many ways, that's what happened.

OK, ones you no longer own must = Jarre and... Tangerine Dream? Surely you wouldn't have got rid of the first Vega LP? That would just be STUPID.

The first CDs I bought were when I got a player when I was 14 (up till then everything was tapes), and included such shining sonic diamonds as Mega City Four and The Senseless Things...

Now - the four that came after "Lovely"?

Get It Together LP-Jackson Five
"Boogie Nights"-Heatwave
"We Will Rock You"/"We Are the Champions"-Queen

Slightly later: Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, "Y.M.C.A" and "In the Navy," Cheap Trick "I Want You to Want Me" 45.

I also bought the Rex Smith album on cassette! Oh yes!

DeBarge - Rhythm of the Night
(It was going to be either that or Songs from the Big Chair. a friend who was with me in the shop said I was going to pick Tears for Fears, so I picked DeBarge. Moron.)
David Bowie - At the Tower Philadelphia
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World
(Got hooked on Bowie through "Let's Dance" and bought these two for cheap after hearing my mother's copy of Low, which i totally did not 'get' when i heard then it but his voice clicked big time)

1. Janet Jackson - Control (she liked the sleeve)
2. Kate Bush - The Kick Inside (she liked Wuthering Heights)
3. Boney M - Hooray hooray it's a holiholiday (12" blue vinyl) 6 months pre the Cheeky girls' version

The next two are to be announced.

2. Roxy Music - Stranded.
Bought on the strength of "Street Life", I struggled a bit with this. Bought again for a fiver in Fopp last year, the groundwork finally paid off.

3. William Walton / Paul Schofield / Peggy Ashcroft - Facade.
Ur-rap which taught me the value of words as pure sound.

4. Slade - Sladest.
Bought for the hits, obviously - but the early pre-fame stuff came as a revelation (Pouk Hill, Look At Last Night.) People forget that Slade could be thoughtful as well - a strain which re-emerged with the "In Flame" soundtrack.

5. Steeleye Span - Below The Salt.
Still young enough to enjoy listening to people tell me stories, I think it was the narrative aspect of folk which pulled me in most of all.

Album #6 was my first embarrassing dud purchase, so thank God you only asked me for five.

I was inspired to revive by this post, re: Disintegration

BTW - this was the first CD I ever bought.

― ENBB

I don't know if I can remember five, but I know the first three I ever bought with my own money, and it was all on one exciting day. I'm at just the right age that all of them were on CD, so they were extra novel and shiny. (And fucking expensive.)

Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Nothing needs to be said about how good this is.

Chris Whitley - Living With the Law
Something may need to be said about how good this is. I'll stand behind it today. I will happily enter it into a Dead Rock Star Cage Match with your copy of Grace by Jeff Buckley. Any time, anywhere. Bring it.

Sting - The Soul Cages
This fucking blows, and somwhere deep inside my heart, I knew it even then.

Jethro Tull - some greatest hits album was the first CD I ever bought with my own money...it isn't really all that bad, though it gets minus points for leaving off "Cross Eyed Mary" therefore delaying my introduction to that killer track until just recently....

wow that was tortured

boomtown rats - tonic for the troops
tom robinson band - power in the darkness
the jam - all mod cons and setting sons
the police - regatta de blanc

not entirely my current picks from 78/9 of course

The Stone Roses - S/T
De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising
New Order - Technique
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting

omg bloodletting

I was convinced I could be a goth at some point. I failed, I think, when I hit the Skinny Puppy wall.

at a hmv sale

nirvana - nevermind
the breeders - last splash
the hold steady - boys and girls in america
Hal - Hal
Saint Etienne - Tales from turnpike house

First five rekkids with my own, hard earned money (thanks paper route) - just checked that stacks - yep - all still there!

Journey - Infinity
Billy Squier - Don't Say No
Rolling Stones - Tattoo You
AC/DC - Back In Black
Prince - 1999

No lie - 'WKRP in Cincinnati' playlist per episode sure did influence my taste for a bit. Oh Bailey Quarters I'd bite your butt.

'WKRP in Cincinnati' sure influenced my love of turkey related humour.

1. Olivia Newton-John, "Let It Shine"/"He Ain't Heavy... He's My Brother"
2. KISS, Rock 'n' Roll Over
3. some K-TEL soundtrack comp featuring movie themes from "JAWS," "The Exorcist," "The Deep," etc.
4. KISS, Dressed to Kill
5. KISS, Destroyer

Quiet Riot, Metal Health
Michael Jackson, Thriller
KTEL compilation, Sound System
Weird Al, Polka Party
Survivor, Vital Signs

Last time this thread came around, I listed albums. This time, it's singles.

1. Tom Tom Turnaround - New World
2. Johnny Reggae - The Piglets
3. Sacramento - Middle of the Road (reduced to clear)
4. Little Willy - The Sweet
5. Mouldy Old Dough - Lieutenant Pigeon

I was SUCH a bubblegum boy.

Tapes, not records:

Beatmasters - Anywayawanna
S'Express - Original Soundtrack
Bomb The Bass - Enter The Dragon
Coldcut - What's That Noise
Bit hazy on the 5th but I think it was probably
VA - Upfront '89

Rivers of Babylon - Boney M
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - Ian Dury
Chiquitita - Abba
Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Cool for Cats - Squeeze

Oh shit:

The Police - Regatta De Blanc
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
The Police - Ghost in the Machine
The Police - Synchronicity

Ooh, t-diva's got the right idea. First five single purchases:

Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennille
Black Superman - Johnny Wakelin & the Kinshasa Brass
Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell
Theme from "Rockford Files" - Mike Post
Disco Duck - Rick Dees (& his cast of idiots)

First three all bought at once to accompany my brand-new first stereo, woo-hoo!

Phil Manzanera - Impossible Guitars
Passport - Looking Through
Egberto Gismonti - Solo
Roy Wood & Wizzard - Introducing Eddy & The Falcons
Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Mowtown Superstars collection

weird al yankovic - bad hair day
a "dogs sing the beatles" featuring beatles songs played on synths w/ a "bark" sound
barenaked ladies - the one with "one week" on it
rage against the machine - rage against the machine
prodigy - fat of the land

first 5 non-disney related 45s i remember owning. parents bought em for me of course. age 5 or so.

matthew wilder - "break my stride"
kool & the gang - "celebration"
bonnie hunt - "total eclipse of the heart" (waht??)
michael jackson & paul McCartney - "say say say"
waylon jennings - "theme from the 'dukes of hazzard'"

my best guess. bangles was a 45, the rest were cassettes

men at work - cargo
bangles - hazy shade of winter
footloose sdtk
michael jackson - thriller
quiet riot - metal health

that's "bought with my own money." before that I had Chipmunk Rock (also Urban Chipmunk), Kids From Fame, Disco Mickey Mouse and a buncha other stuff my parents bought for me and my brother

various artists - top of the pops 1978 (lp)
various artists - action replay (tape)
blondie - parallel lines (tape)
squeeze - cool for cats (lp)
motorhead - bomber (7")

hmmm with my own allowance/ Xmas $$...

Bryan Adams - Reckless
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Huey Lewis - Sports & Fore! bought same day.
Footloose OST, maybe? (actually might have been purchased for me)
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required

all cassettes.

pretty sure my mum paid for that ghostbusters 2 soundtrack so:

de la soul - the magic number/buddy (cassette)
de la soul - 3 feet high and rising LP (cassette)
various - skin beat: the first touch
808 state - the extended pleasure of dance EP (12")
candy flip - strawberry fields forever (cassette)

Van Halen 1984
ZZ Top Eliminator
Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA
Huey Lewis and the News Sports

MTV was big that year

INXS - Kick cassette album
Pet Shop Boys - Actually cassette album
Now 11 cassette double album
Happy Mondays "Wrote for Luck" 7"
Holly Johnson "Americanos" 7"

Van Halen 1984
Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA
INXS - Kick

^^^that's probably my #6-8

run dmc- raising hell
top gun soundtrack
bon jovi- slippery when wet
poison- look what the cat dragged in
inxs- kick

classic rock all the way:

led zeppelin, "song remains the same" sndtrk
jimi hendrix, "are you experienced?"
the doors, "greatest hits"

after these it gets foggy. prob. some mid-90s alterna-rock. "siamese dream" maybe, nirvana unplugged

I am a little fuzzy on the chronology here since I bought my first CD in early '92 but asked for/was gifted several around the same time period, but I can remember definitely buying with my own money:

Wayne's World - Music From The Motion Picture
Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion I
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
Pearl Jam - Ten
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Off The Deep End

i copied lots of stuff onto blank cassettes but here are the first 5 i can remember owning:

no doubt - tragic kingdom
spice girls - spice (a gift but i would have bought it, i'm sure)
aqua - aquarium

then the first CD i ever bought:

various - now 2

then i think i joined one of those columbia/bmg CD clubs and got a bunch, i'm sure the one i was most excited about was

britney spears - ...baby one more time

All I remember is a load of random rnb/hiphop compilations (one done by kiss, one was for the mobo awards, one was mixed by trevor nelson) and around the same time my sister went travelling so i 'inherited' her cds and tapes while she'd gone so i had things like life after death, the score, crazysexycool, what's the 411?, 12play etc. without knowing what they were and how much i was going to love the shit out of them.

they still sold tapes in '96?

xp

First five tapes I ever owned iirc, 1987-1988:

1. Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill
2. Weird Al Yankovil - Dare To Be Stupid
3. Rap's Greatest Hits Vol. 1
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-150-315880-1093583929.jpg
4. Rap The Beat
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/2f/33/05bd92c008a01ede143fa010.L._AA240_.jpg
5. DJ Jazzy Jeff And The Fresh Prince - He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf500/f551/f55111h3au9.jpg

cant remember the rest

I bought Miss E... So Addictive on tape, so yeah, tapes must have been going fine in '96. They only really died when people figured out how to hook their ipod up in their cars surely?

yeah some of my favorite albums of '96 i bought on tape. and i kept making mixtapes on cassette until like 2005, although i realize i'm a freak in that regard.

Billy Joel, The Stranger
Billy Joel 52nd Street
Original Soundtrack, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (won off the radio)
Rupert Holmes, "Answering Machine" (7" single)
Blondie, "Heart of Glass" (7" single)

All when I was 7-9 years old.

this was one of the first. I would have been 7 or so.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/7282/mrbean.jpg

1 Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle
2 Talking Heads - Fear Of Music
3 Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
4 Electric Light Orchestra - Discovery
5 Can't remember. Either Xanadu soundtrack, Queen, The Sex Pistols, Rush or Styx, heh.

As a 9-10 year-old, I have to say ELO was my favorite. I had the "Cars" 45 and got the album, liked the sci fi feel but still felt a bit cold. I read about Talking Heads, Costello and Sex Pistols in CREEM at the A&P Grocery store. And despite being prepubescent, I still wanted to do stuff with Olivia Newton John.