Sherman Set the Way Back Machine to�

[rplace]

1976!

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My wife is out of town so I got a rare chance to cut the khorns loose. I spun a few sides of Jazz and Rock then for some reason dragged out the CBS ½ speed master of Bostons self titled first LP.

I tell you I was 12 years old all over again. I was immediately transported back to my parents basement. At that time I did not even have my own stereo in my bedroom. I had to schlep my LPs down to the dungeons basement and give them a whirl on my parents mahogany, Zenith consoledont get excited it was a lo-fi, solid state, AM/FM with record changer affair; no Fischer 500c tucked away in this baby. The wood was nice and it had that very late 60s early 70s look to it. But I digress.

I cant get over how blasting that tonight brought back a flood of memories of hot summer nights, just starting to think about girls and really feeling like the music was written specifically for me. Not my parents old people stuff and not my two older sisters love songs like Weve only Just Begun or the like. It talked to me directly and I could not wait to leave the world behind and escape into the music.

The Boston LP might have actually been the first LP that I bought with my own money and kept in my room as mine.

This better quality chunk of vinyl on the khorns might have a bit more detail to it tonight, but the music was all that mattered. It could have been played over two tin cans and string for all I cared. There are so many songs and albums that you hear and instantly remember a time in your life or an event.

So give me one of your stories.

[oldbuckster]

Well, Thank You Mr. Peabody.........I don't have a story but, here is an interesting fact: the music that you listened to from 14 years old thru the age of 26 years old Tends to set your tatse in music for the rest of your life. This is a general statement, but I feel it's pretty true. Think about it...................

[colterphoto1]

Zenith or RCA I think it was. Mom's first stereo- a garish blue two-toned vinyl coated thing. with plastic tonearm and a second speaker attached to the side of the cabinet that could be swung out on a hinge or [gasp] removed and separated for that wowing stereo effect.

In early high school about 1972 I'd joined the Capital records club and had some cassettes that I played through my little combo AM/FM/Cassette player bought from Sears [whatever happened to Roebuck] with lawn mowing money. Uriah Heep and Chicago come to mind. They are long gone.

But the quality of those cassettes sucked and my Dad had Kingston Trio, Herb Alpert, and Ferrante and Techner on vinyl that sounded great- so I KNEW those albums were the way to go.

I joined the Columbia Club and went for the 7 LP's for low $$ with that dreaded membership commitment.

My first selections stuck with me for a lifetime. Steppenwolf 7, Led Zep I and II, Chicago at Carnegie Hall (4 lp's count as only 2 selections!), can't really recall any of the others.

I remember my Dad coming home one day when 'The Pusher' was reverberating through our modest ranch house! TURN THAT JUNGLE MUSIC OFF! became the battle cry.

A couple of years later I had a Fender MusicMan bass with Peavy cabinet and Traynor Tube head (yup, tubes on bass, can you imagine the horror)- my band set up a room in the basement and we treated Mom to horrible renditions of Zep, Purple and Kiss songs with your's truly on vocals. But that opens up an entirely different chapter.....

Thanks for tripping me on memory lane..

Michael

[chops]

Well, Thank You Mr. Peabody.........I don't have a story but, here is an interesting fact: the music that you listened to from 14 years old thru the age of 26 years old Tends to set your tatse in music for the rest of your life. This is a general statement, but I feel it's pretty true. Think about it...................

I think this is very true!

Everytime I hear an old song from Sting, Level 42, Culture Club, Depeche Mode, Bruce Hornsby(sp?), Pet Shop Boys, Fleetwood Mac, 38 Special, etc, etc, etc... You get the picture.

Anyway, I am always transported back to the early to mid 80's when I was just really getting into stereo equipment of my own, even if it was all "hand-me-downs" from my father and bro (jt1stcav). However, I guess I started a little early at the ripe ol' age of 7 or so.

The system back the consisted of all Technics, SA-5170 25W receiver, RS-616 cassette deck, SL-210 or 220 turntable (can't remember exactly), and an old but newer Kenwood 10 band EQ similar to the GE-1100. Unfortunately, none of the speakers were handed down to me at that point, so I had to wire up old, on the verge of blown stock car speakers free-air on two small shevles on either side of the room. They were a pair of half-blown 6" wizer cone speakers and a pair of wizer cone 4" x 10" speakers out of my other-other brother's old '81 Oldsmobile Omega! Later on, I did save up for a pair of small 6" two-way bookshelf speakers from Radio Shack. This was also around the time I started building speakers out of shoe boxes and other cardboard boxes. There's absolutely no telling what impedence I was wiring those things up to! For all I know, I could have had something like 32 ohms or .25 ohms at any given time! LOL

Boy, those were the days... No worries, no bills, no responsiblities, just homework.

[whamo]

I myself purchased Boston when it first came out. I heard it only once

on the radio and knew there was something special with this one. I

brought it home and played it on my father's stereo it was fantastic.

My father stole my Boston from me lol. Mark

[oldbuckster]

The first time I played Led Zeppelin II ; Whole lotta Love turned up loud in my parents house, not a nice picture, Parents never seemed to like that album, hated that song, Boy would I get bitched out. Had to move out shortly after I brought that album home, It came down to ME or the album had to go, I went. Actually, now that I think about it, it was also the first time I played my new stereo. Had just got out of the Army, had bought an Akai intergrated amp, a pair of Akai speakers, an Akai glass headed Reel to Reel tape deck, had it all sent home while I was in Nam, had never seen or heard the system, and just happened to have Led Zep II on tape. Boy, that was a long time ago Mr. Peabody, 30 something years in the way back machine, and still I'm not any smarter.

[whamo]

My uncle got out of the marines from vietnam and was living at my

grandma's house he had a kickass stereo. I was over at grandma's for my

12th birthday and my uncle takes me upstairs and plays Ironman. I was

floored! He gave me the album and I listened to it forever. A friend

was over once and I played it for him we were looking the liner notes

and it said Tony Iommi lead guitar. I thought it was lead like in the

metal we use for fishing sinkers my friend corrected me but I corrected

him when I said listen to it! It's a led guitar! He agreed lol.

[colterphoto1]

oooo, I'll go back a few years more. I'm in like late grade school. This friend down the street has an older brother who has playboys and cusses and stuff. Mom doesn't like me to hang out with him. His dad's a real hard drinking guy with the dark wood bar in the basement with the leather chairs and cigar smell and big speakers (Might have been Cornwalls or Altecs- all I remember is they were as big as our console TV).

So his older bro takes us down there and plays Whole Lotta Love. He explains to use that the screechy sound is the guitar player scraping a rusty nail across the strings LOL.

It's so totally weird to remember stuff like that. That was probably the first time I heard Led Zeppelin, proably 1967 or so.

Ten years later a much crazier Michael was maced by the police at the Zep concert at MSA, Indianapolis 1977.

Ah, those were the days!~

[rplace]

Whamo, that is pretty darn funny.

With Sabbath just about inventing the genre of "heavy metal" and a song like "Iron" man it would not be a far leap of faith at 12 years old to be convinced it was "led" guitar not a "leeed" guitar.

Great story and great uncle. Do you still have the LP?

EDIT: CP1 - Maced at Zep in 1977!!?? I bet that hurt at the time, but the story alone makes it worth the pain today. A good portion of my corruptible youth happened with older neighbor hood kids and RnR. Man those were the good ol days. Riding the Schwinn Stingray "up town" to the local record store and trying to make the tough decision on what to buy. College savings be damned I am blowing my paper route money.

[whamo]

No I don't have that particular lp anymore. I've owned it on lp several times. Cassette too. Now I have the disc. Mark

[colterphoto1]

Remember CUTOUTS?, those LP's that didin't sell well, so they punched a hole or cut a slit in them so they could mark them down?

My little brother was so cheap that was about all he bought. So now he has like the weirdest record collection in the world, Rory Gallager, Michael Stanley Band, Automatic Man, George Harrison, etc. Not bad, but none in your top 100 LP's to own.

Used to go to those record collectors shows too and buy weird stuff and LP's from small independents that didn't make the major chains. I got so I knew the good players and producers and could do a pretty good job of buying music I hadn't even heard just by knowing who was playing on it. (Kind of like Allan Songer today with his Jazz)

Michael

[chops]

oooo, I'll go back a few years more. I'm in like late grade school. This friend down the street has an older brother who has playboys and cusses and stuff. Mom doesn't like me to hang out with him. His dad's a real hard drinking guy with the dark wood bar in the basement with the leather chairs and cigar smell and big speakers (Might have been Cornwalls or Altecs- all I remember is they were as big as our console TV).

So his older bro takes us down there and plays Whole Lotta Love. He explains to use that the screechy sound is the guitar player scraping a rusty nail across the strings LOL.

It's so totally weird to remember stuff like that. That was probably the first time I heard Led Zeppelin, proably 1967 or so.

Ten years later a much crazier Michael was maced by the police at the Zep concert at MSA, Indianapolis 1977.

Ah, those were the days!~

Yep, must have been Cornwalls! LOL j/k []

[veloceleste]

.

[Lostinozz]

The first time I heard Led Zeppelin II was during a trip to Kansas with my folks when I was 14. We were staying with my parents friends and they had a son that was 17. He and I went to his friends house to party [<)] and they were playing that album over and over again...WOW, I knew I had to buy that LP as soon as I got back home. I bought 3 cases of Coors from his friend that night and stowed it away around the spare tire and in a storage compartment in my dads 1966 Rambler wagon after we got back to his house. On the way back to Missouri some of the cans started rattling and I thought my dad was going to stop and try to find the source of the noise, he never did and I made it back safely. If we had had a flat I would have been screwed! He was a firm believer in "spare the rod and spoil the child"...I was never spoiled!!! After we got home my sister drove me to a stream near our house and I unloaded the beer and put it "on ice" in the stream. I sold one six pack to the local bankers son for enough to buy my first of many Led Zepplin albums. It's amazing how a song or even the mention of it will bring back fond memories.

That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever done...well, maybe not the stupidest, two times in a Bolivian jail back in '81, now that was stupid! [:$]

[jt1stcav]

Fleetwood Mac's self-titled album from '75 did it for me. It was actually my younger brother's very first LP (I always bought Bach organ LPs along with Wendy Carlos synth albums).

With our paper route money we both split the cost on a 10 watt Precor Model 1018 AM/FM stereo receiver with a built-in BSR record changer and two single-driver speaker enclosures...it had to be the worse sounding system in the world but we enjoyed it! Later we bought a top-loading Realistic cassette recorder and recorded all our LPs...those early albums we both bought are to this day still in pristine condition. Last month I played that Fleetwood Mac album and thought about our childhood and the good times we had during the mid '70s...sometimes I wish I could relive those days...