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Your First Ever Album Purchase


Jim Gregory

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10 hours ago, DizRotus said:

Although not certain, IIRC, the first album I purchased was:

 

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I can picture it on a rack near the checkout counter in Casemier’s Supermarket in Spring Lake, MI.  It was available in mono or stereo, at an extra cost.  I purchased mono.   The release date was 11/22/63, a date that sticks in the mind.

 

Sorry Marty @thebes.

 

Ah yes, supermarkets sold Lps then.  Kids shopping with their parents got to see a variety of albums displayed, as @DizRotus said, in the checkout line.  I remember the jazz soundtrack 41cL28ZX0ML.jpg

The arm was golden because he pumped a great deal of an expensive drug into it.  The drug is not identified, but assumably it was heroin.  "Mom, why is his arm golden?"  My next door neighbor and I listened to this album, at high volume, endlessly, sometimes with spontaneous dance.

 

An English lady was standing behind me as I looked at a Beatles album, tsk tsking.  She said, "They come from the very worst area -- Liverpool." 

 

My local Safeway market in Oakland, CA had a mix of new releases (pop, rock, jazz and classical), plus a low cost introduction to classical series that introduced several of my friends to the genre.  They also had Fiedler and the Boston Pops.  They had the Fantasia soundtrack (in stereo -- it was the first movie in stereo -- others followed 12 years later). 91W3GT2Ji6L._SL1500_.jpg 

 

Speaking of Disney, he had TV biopics of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky (in three channel stereo!, Left channel on FM, center channel on TV, Right channel on AM) on his show. 

 

Supermarkets, at least in Oakland, also had books -- real books, not best sellers.  I was introduced to Caldwell, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Nabokov, Huxley, Orwell, Heller, Steinbeck, Graves, Ellison, etc. at my local supermarket, and a few at the drugstore. 

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7 minutes ago, garyrc said:

 

Ah yes, supermarkets sold Lps then.  Kids shopping with their parents got to see a variety of albums displayed, as @DizRotus said, in the checkout line.  I remember the jazz soundtrack 41cL28ZX0ML.jpg

The arm was golden because he pumped a great deal of an expensive drug into it.  The drug is not identified, but assumably it was heroin.  "Mom, why is his arm golden?"  My next door neighbor and I listened to this album, at high volume, endlessly, sometimes with spontaneous dance.

 

An English lady was standing behind me as I looked at a Beatles album, tsk tsking.  She said, "They come from the very worst area -- Liverpool." 

 

My local Safeway market in Oakland, CA had a mix of new releases (pop, rock, jazz and classical), plus a low cost introduction to classical series that introduced several of my friends to the genre.  They also had Fiedler and the Boston Pops.  They had the Fantasia soundtrack (in stereo -- it was the first movie in stereo -- others followed 12 years later). 91W3GT2Ji6L._SL1500_.jpg 

 

Speaking of Disney, he had TV biopics of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky (in three channel stereo!, Left channel on FM, center channel on TV, Right channel on AM) on his show. 

 

Supermarkets, at least in Oakland, also had books -- real books, not best sellers.  I was introduced to Caldwell, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Nabokov, Huxley, Orwell, Heller, Steinbeck, Graves, Ellison, etc. at my local supermarket, and a few at the drugstore. 

It was heroin.  The movie is pretty clear.  Great music in that one.  And Kim Novak, enough said.  As a drummer, and I recall you were one at one point, this movie made an impact.  The cold turkey sequence was more than enough as a deterrent.   Never liked needles anyway.

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I thought that the reveal of “your first album purchased” would be the big surprise, but after reading the responses, for me the “album itself” is not nearly as enjoyable as the wonderful stories that followed. 
My first album purchased was The Jimi Hendrix Experience but my first record purchase was a 45 rpm Jimi Hendrix: 

All Around the Watchtower / Burning of the Midnight Lamp. I grew up on a small farm and   Dad paid $2.50 to mow the 1 acre plot the house set on. The animals ate the rest. The grass was Bahia so I mowed every Saturday.

Was at a variety store called J M Fields with my Mom. She would walk through the store shopping and I was drawn to the isle with all the albums. Enjoyed looking at all the album covers. I listened to a radio station WAPE “The Big Ape” and had heard Jimi Hendrix. At the time the 45 rpm price was closer to what I was willing to spend. I lost count of how many times I listened to that 45, but next time I went to J M Fields I went straight to the Isle with albums and picked up Jimi Hendrix Experience. 

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Not sure. It depends on what counts as "Your First Album Purchase".

 

When I was about 10 years old my parents bought me a "stereo" record player for my birthday (portable Sears Silvertone). To go with it they also got a Sing Along with Mitch Miller LP and a comedy LP The First Family (a spoof on the Kennedy presidency). So probably more for them than me, LOL

 

A few years later after my father passed my mother bought me "Introducing the Beatles" even though I didn't really like the Beatles at that point. This particular version/release is apparently worth a lot of money now.

 

After that I'm not sure. Probably The Rolling Stones "You Got Live If You Want It" is probably the first I actually purchased with my own money.

 

Hard to believe, I still have all of them.

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On 9/30/2020 at 1:40 AM, JohnA said:

Steppenwolf  Live

 

220px-SteppenwolfLive.jpg

 

A band I was in back then (Gene Hawk's Ring) opened for Steppenwolf at The Aragon Ballroom (Kinetic Playground) Chicago.

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The first 45 RPM single that I bought with my allowance was Paperback Writer by...well, you know.  I believe I was 10 (yo).

 

I have a little trouble remembering the first LP that I used my own money to buy.  My twin sisters (who are 5 years older) kept me in good tunes when they went off to college (they had duplicates of the same albums, which included James Taylor, Crosby, Stills & Nash, etc.)...but I believe this is perhaps the first LP I bought--when I was 12:

 

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Other very early ones...

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These were not easily heard on radio in their entirety so I had to shell out hard-earned money shining shoes and then throwing the evening newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) to hear these full albums when I wanted.  There were others--that basically wore out over the years.

 

Chris

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