• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come on, man.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Bark louder, little dog.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

A consequence of cucumbers

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / First album?

First album?

by Tim F|  November 24, 20059:58 am| 60 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

I’m planning to spend the day with the extended family, but this post raised an interesting question: what was the first album that you bought on your own? Vinyl, tape or CD?

For me it was Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust. I bought it on tape some time during the first second Reagan administration.

Diesel and Dust

Yep, I was pretty much born a raging lefty. You won’t be surprised to know that around the same time I secretly put weighted-down Listerine bottles in my family’s toilet bowls to reduce water per flush.

***Update***

Tear in time-space continuum repaired.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Happy Thanksgiving!
Next Post: When Victims Collide »

Reader Interactions

60Comments

  1. 1.

    MrSnrub

    November 24, 2005 at 10:00 am

    Abba’s Greatest Hits

    I’m so ashamed

  2. 2.

    Rob

    November 24, 2005 at 10:06 am

    Cosmo’s factory – I was about 12, I think.

    It’s still a great album. In fact I may go out an buy it for my son.

  3. 3.

    Anna

    November 24, 2005 at 10:10 am

    Queen’s “Jazz” on cassette. (I still listen to Queen, though that cassette is long gone.)

  4. 4.

    Krista

    November 24, 2005 at 10:16 am

    I know that I bought Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms fairly early on in my life. But I’m afraid that it wasn’t the first one I ever bought on my own. That honor goes to Debbie Gibson…it’s pretty disgusting how 1980’s I was.

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    November 24, 2005 at 10:25 am

    Yes- Fragile was one ofthe first.

    I think. I know the first album I ever received was in the 70’s and it was an Elvis Greatest hits piece. I also remember getting a Three Dog Night album.

  6. 6.

    Sojourner

    November 24, 2005 at 10:27 am

    Springsteen, Born to Run.

    I’m old.

  7. 7.

    demimondian

    November 24, 2005 at 10:29 am

    Kansas, _Point of Know Return_

    Soj — I’m older.

  8. 8.

    Mary

    November 24, 2005 at 10:42 am

    First five albums:

    1. (13) Wings – Red Rose Speedway
    2. (14) Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection
    3. (14) Elton John – Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
    4. (14) Liona Boyd – whatever her first album was
    5. (15) Patti Smith – Horses

    And it was all downhill into Dylan and punk after that.

  9. 9.

    Bob In Pacifica

    November 24, 2005 at 10:44 am

    I had a Martin Denny album, I think my dad gave it to me for a gift. The first album I remember buying was “Bob Dylan” which had his version of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.” Lots of dying songs, “In My Time Of Dying,” “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean,” etc. And “Man Of Constant Sorrow.” My older sister was a folkie and bought all the Peter, Paul and Mary 45s. Soon after this it was “Meet The Beatles,” and history marched on.

  10. 10.

    Dan

    November 24, 2005 at 10:46 am

    Led Zeppelin 4.

    And no, I’m not that old.

  11. 11.

    salvage

    November 24, 2005 at 10:53 am

    Culture Club.

    You know which one.

  12. 12.

    donald

    November 24, 2005 at 10:53 am

    Tapestry. I was 10, I don’t know how I can live with myself. What an ugly memory!

  13. 13.

    Gold Star for Robot Boy

    November 24, 2005 at 10:57 am

    A Doors compilation that began with a live version of “Who Do You Love?”
    My friends and I were into a lot of 60s music. As I explain it, music from the late 80s sucked so much we had to steal from other decades.

  14. 14.

    Vladi G

    November 24, 2005 at 11:12 am

    I think R.E.M.’s Green was the first tape I ever bought, but I had an older brother with a ton of LPs that I used to listen to, so I didn’t start getting into my own thing until high school. I was probably the last person on earth to get a device that could play CDs (around 1995), so I think the first CD I ever bought was “University” by Throwing Muses.

  15. 15.

    Gray

    November 24, 2005 at 11:16 am

    I guess this must have been “The very best of ABBA”, german edition with the famous ‘Musikladen’ cover…

  16. 16.

    RSA

    November 24, 2005 at 11:33 am

    You guys think you’re old? The first record I bought was a 45, though I can’t recall what–probably some piece of pop crap. I was a late adopter of CD technology; my first CD was U2’s Joshua Tree in 1985.

  17. 17.

    Laura

    November 24, 2005 at 11:33 am

    I’ve inherited the family’s vinyl because I’m the only one with a turntable, and between my dad, brother and stepsister, they created a pretty good collection. I was the youngest, so I didn’t need to buy my own music until college. If I had to guess, I’d say it was Elvis Costello and the Attractions on tape.

  18. 18.

    Demdude

    November 24, 2005 at 11:43 am

    I can’t remember the the first album. I remember first purchase of music. Two 45’s. Bob Seager “Ramblin Man” and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles “Tears of a Clown”.

    I just joined the “old folks” on the thread….

  19. 19.

    Laura

    November 24, 2005 at 11:50 am

    How about 8-track tapes? I didn’t purchase any on my own, but I remember family car trips in the station wagon with Paul McCartney and the Wings, BTO and Neil Diamond. Probably some Bread and Carpenters, too.

  20. 20.

    Mary

    November 24, 2005 at 11:52 am

    RSA, you think 1985 makes you a late adopter of CDs? HA! I bitched, moaned and whined until 1992, when I finally got Billy Bragg’s Don’t Try This At Home on CD to replace the dead tape.

  21. 21.

    Horshu

    November 24, 2005 at 11:52 am

    First album I owned was vinyl of Van Halen’s 1984 as an x-mas gift (2nd album was the 2nd one I opened, which was Ratt’s “Dancing Undercover”, so it would have been 1986 when I actually got them). First album I bought was a CD of 2 Live Crew’s “As Nasty As They Want To Be”.

  22. 22.

    Dave_Violence

    November 24, 2005 at 12:01 pm

    Beatles’ Yellow Submarine

  23. 23.

    ppGaz

    November 24, 2005 at 12:03 pm

    Okay, this will provide cover for anyone out there who is afraid to tell the truth. Laugh all you want.

    Dave Brubeck Quartet at Carnegie Hall

    1963.

    I have since replaced the vinyl with the two-CD set and it still gets played at my house regularly. I can play most of Joe Morello’s drum parts, and a few of Brubeck’s on the piano. Not at the same time, though.

  24. 24.

    demimondian

    November 24, 2005 at 12:11 pm

    I can play most of Joe Morello’s drum parts, and a few of Brubeck’s on the piano

    ppG…I think you’re guilty of a stretcher, there. Nobody can play Joe Morello’s drum parts.

    Well, except him, of course.

  25. 25.

    Otto Man

    November 24, 2005 at 12:12 pm

    Men at Work, “Cargo,” cassette

  26. 26.

    Ned Raggett

    November 24, 2005 at 12:12 pm

    I honestly can’t remember the first album I bought on my own, it would have been the early eighties though. Candidates include what are still two of the greatest albums of all time, Duran Duran’s Rio and Def Leppard’s Pyromania, both of which shaped my taste irrevocably in terms of loving loud brash music of all kinds. Even though my favorite band of all time is My Bloody Valentine, who sound like neither group. Well, too much.

    First CD I ever bought I remember, though — the Less Than Zero soundtrack, early 1988. Still have it, though I haven’t listened in years. Hearing Glenn Danzig sing this lush romantic ballad during the in-between years post-Samhain and pre-Danzig the group is kinda weird.

  27. 27.

    GEC

    November 24, 2005 at 12:14 pm

    OLD? You want old?? My first was “Let There Be Drums” by Sandy Nelson circa 1961 or 62, when I was (gasp!!) 11 or 12…. I’ll go back to my rocking chair now…..

  28. 28.

    ppGaz

    November 24, 2005 at 12:18 pm

    Nobody can play Joe Morello’s drum parts.

    When slightly drunk, I am convinced that I can, and I’ll thank you not to spoil that illusion.

  29. 29.

    CalDevil

    November 24, 2005 at 12:41 pm

    Jackson 5 “ABC” was the first I bought myself. I think for about $3.98 at the long lost Korvette’s discount department store.

    And, in keeping with the age defensiveness of fellow commenters, I’m not that old either.

  30. 30.

    Mr.Ortiz

    November 24, 2005 at 1:38 pm

    Looks like I’m the baby of the bunch. First album purchased (and only cassette purchased) was Alice in Chains, Jar of Flies. Second album and first CD was Pearl Jam, Ten. But I had an older brother who was in Gold Star for Robot’s camp regarding 80s music, so I was raised on Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Pink Floyd.

  31. 31.

    Big E

    November 24, 2005 at 1:39 pm

    Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, then
    more Miles & ‘Trane… hasn’t stopped ;-)

  32. 32.

    zzyzx

    November 24, 2005 at 1:39 pm

    First albums I remember owning were the Beatles 67-70 on vinyl and The Bee Gee’s Greatest Hits on 8 track.

  33. 33.

    Louise

    November 24, 2005 at 2:21 pm

    Ok, GEC is a teeny bit older than I am , but I win the shame contest (at least in retrospect). The first album I bought with my own money? ABC – The Jackson 5. How could I have known?

  34. 34.

    Mike S

    November 24, 2005 at 2:27 pm

    First 45 was The Monkeys Not your stepping stone and the first album was The Eagles Hotel California. I bought the album in New Jersey and for some reason they had edited out Hell from “This could be Heaven or this could be (skip).” I exchanged it three times and the replacement kept doing the same thing.

  35. 35.

    John Redworth

    November 24, 2005 at 4:37 pm

    First album I bought was Johnny Cash- At Folsom Prison

    The next album was Kiss Alive II

    Next was Sex Pistols- Never Mind the Bollocks…

    Next was Clash- The Clash

    Next was The Who- Quadrophenia

    and I believe the next was Kinks- You Really Got Me or it was Jimi Hendrix- Are You Experienced…

    It helped to have a brother that was 10 years older than I was… he gave me some great points to start my love of music… the first album my brother gave me was Miles Davis- Kind of Blue…

  36. 36.

    John Redworth

    November 24, 2005 at 4:39 pm

    Mr Snrub… Abba’s Greatest Hits is a great album… but I am really screwed up when it comes to music…

  37. 37.

    ubernerd83

    November 24, 2005 at 4:41 pm

    Just so I can make everyone feel old, the first CD I remember buying was Make Yourself by Incubus. There were lots of classical CDS before that, but they’re all kind of garbled together in my head.

  38. 38.

    The Disenfranchised Voter

    November 24, 2005 at 5:10 pm

    I bought two albums when I first got my cd player. The Presidents of the United States of America, self-titled.

    “Lump sat alone in a buggy marsh–totally emoitonless expect for her heart”

    And the Smashing Pumpkins, Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. That album kicks so much ass. So many good songs on there.

  39. 39.

    TexasMike

    November 24, 2005 at 6:42 pm

    Kiss Destroyer

    I wanted Alive II but my parents wouldn’t allow it. All my friends had those cool tatoos. My face was clean and bare. Now I get fake tatoos whenever I go to the fair. My shrink says that there’s an issue here. What does he know…stupid Paul Anka listening P.H.D.

  40. 40.

    circlethewagons

    November 24, 2005 at 6:45 pm

    The Wombles.
    I think it was self-titled.
    I’ve been trying to “womble free” through life ever since.

  41. 41.

    not 'murikan

    November 24, 2005 at 7:51 pm

    Discharge > say nothing …

  42. 42.

    Eural

    November 24, 2005 at 8:22 pm

    My first purchase – based entirely on the cool sci-fi cover art – was Peter Gabriel Plays Live. I was also a big Midnight Oil fan and it brings a tear to my eye to know they will only be memory (at least until the obligatory reunion tour/album).

  43. 43.

    Nicholas

    November 24, 2005 at 8:26 pm

    Hey John, did you know that Peter Garret, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, is currently my representative in the Australian Federal House of Representatives? No kidding…

    He seems like a pretty decent guy. I have that album too; not bad.

    Mr Peter Garrett MP

  44. 44.

    Jess

    November 24, 2005 at 9:16 pm

    I know my first was a Led Zeppelin record (not counting a few 45’s of embarrassingly bad 70s pop). I think it was the third one–I was obsessed with “Immigrant Song.” My first concert, when I was 13, was Kiss–the best inititiation into the warped world of rock ever!

  45. 45.

    Off Colfax

    November 24, 2005 at 9:24 pm

    I know I’ll be subjected to multitude ridicule for admiting this one in a public forum. But my first album?

    Wierd Al Yankovic’s Dare To Be Stupid

    ‘Nuff said.

  46. 46.

    Dexter

    November 24, 2005 at 10:20 pm

    Hey John, did you know that Peter Garret, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, is currently my representative in the Australian Federal House of Representatives? No kidding…

    Peter Garrett is certifiable. He’s about as far to the left as you can get without crossing the international date line.

  47. 47.

    RonB

    November 24, 2005 at 10:33 pm

    First vinyl-Disraeli Gears by Cream
    First tape-Master Of Puppets by Metallica
    First CD-Saint Julian by Julian Cope…I think

  48. 48.

    Mac Buckets

    November 25, 2005 at 12:46 am

    First vinyl — Clash – London Calling
    First tape — Elvis Costello – Get Happy!!!
    First CD — Jazz Butcher — Sex & Travel

  49. 49.

    Mac Buckets

    November 25, 2005 at 12:47 am

    Hey John, did you know that Peter Garret, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, is currently my representative in the Australian Federal House of Representatives?

    I’m betting he’s the tallest MP in the world.

  50. 50.

    Nicholas

    November 25, 2005 at 2:06 am

    Peter Garrett is certifiable. He’s about as far to the left as you can get without crossing the international date line.

    Can you please explain what he’s said or done which leads you to this conclusion? So far I have not heard anything from him which supports your assertion.

    I’m betting he’s the tallest MP in the world.

    Not sure about the tallest, but probably the baldest.

  51. 51.

    John Redworth

    November 25, 2005 at 2:06 am

    Hey John, did you know that Peter Garret, the lead singer of Midnight Oil, is currently my representative in the Australian Federal House of Representatives?

    Why isn’t the guy from Men At Work holding a position like that?

  52. 52.

    Pinko Punko

    November 25, 2005 at 4:32 am

    Well, I’m still gonna be honest, but now that I see Vladi G’s on this thread, I’m totally hosed.

    I don’t know which was the first, but I got a lot of tapes I think for my 11th birthday:

    Huey Lewis and the News-Sports
    Bananarama-Bananarama
    Thompson Twins-Into the Gap
    Ghostbusters-Soundtrack

    I am so dead. *sigh*

  53. 53.

    Baron Elmo

    November 25, 2005 at 4:37 am

    First Album – Three Dog Night’s “Golden Bisquits” (a best of with a detachable foldout poster affixed to the cover, featuring a photo of the band sitting naked in some magical garden). Their music still holds up nicely, methinks.

    Now I look around the room at more than 6000 records and over 4000 CDs, remembering that day at K-Mart about 35 years ago where this damnable obsession started. What a long strange trip it’s been…

    LAST Album (purchased the night before Thanksgiving): Masayuki Takayanagi’s “Action Direct: Live at Zojoji Hall 1985” (a Japanese guitarist who plays his axe laid flat on a tabletop in what the liner notes call “ravaging and all incinerating conceptual solo performance… a mass of lethal sonic mayhem”). Like I said: a long, strange trip.

    Tim, how about a future thread in which we admit the biggest guilty pleasure in our music collections? Should be fun.

  54. 54.

    The Disenfranchised Voter

    November 25, 2005 at 8:13 am

    Mac said…

    First vinyl—Clash – London Calling

    You know, I use to have a theory that people’s musical tastes reflect their political leanings. If you still enjoy the Clash as much as you use to, then there goes that theory. I mean, the Clash and a rabid Bush supporter?–That just wouldn’t be possible if my theory is right.

  55. 55.

    Kathy K

    November 25, 2005 at 8:45 am

    Simon and Garfunkel – Sounds of Silence (yes, I am that old).

  56. 56.

    a guy called larry

    November 25, 2005 at 8:48 am

    Steppenwolf, self-titled. My mother was not what you’d call thrilled to hear that.

  57. 57.

    a guy called larry

    November 25, 2005 at 8:52 am

    I was a late adopter of CD technology

    I crashed boldly into the 80’s in 1996.

  58. 58.

    Mac Buckets

    November 25, 2005 at 1:13 pm

    If you still enjoy the Clash as much as you use to, then there goes that theory. I mean, the Clash and a rabid Bush supporter?—That just wouldn’t be possible if my theory is right.

    Exciting, groundbreaking music (and why listen to anything else?) is usually made by angry young outsiders, who skew left. The music I’ve liked since I was 11 has been left of Labour, even when Labour was left — Clash, Costello, Billy Bragg, Superchunk.

    And as Al Jourgenson said, “There’s only two kinds of music — good music and bad music. I hope we make the good kind.”

  59. 59.

    John Redworth

    November 25, 2005 at 6:13 pm

    I mean, the Clash and a rabid Bush supporter?—That just wouldn’t be possible if my theory is right.

    I don’t know… while I might be left of center and my musical tastes for the most part show such as the Clash and Billy Bragg, but I do have friends that are rabid Bush-lovers who are big fans of the Clash, et al… heck, one of the guys is so Right (musical tastes include Skrewdriver) but considers London Calling the greatest album ever…

    But it could mean that I have strange friends…

  60. 60.

    The Disenfranchised Voter

    November 28, 2005 at 4:12 am

    I think it just means that my theory was completely wrong. Heh.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • NotMax on Late Night Open Thread: Ron DeSaster In New Hampshire (Jun 2, 2023 @ 4:34am)
  • prostratedragon on Late Night Open Thread: Ron DeSaster In New Hampshire (Jun 2, 2023 @ 4:32am)
  • Anne Laurie on Late Night Open Thread: Ron DeSaster In New Hampshire (Jun 2, 2023 @ 3:57am)
  • dirge on Sexy and He Knows It (Jun 2, 2023 @ 3:53am)
  • Origuy on Late Night Open Thread: Ron DeSaster In New Hampshire (Jun 2, 2023 @ 3:46am)

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Seattle Meetup on Sat 5/13 at 5pm!

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!