httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5v1_UgD2Ro
I'm not gonna try to get good ratings this week, because I probably really can't anyway. Instead, I'm going to try to entertain everyone with a little "Cheaptoy Musical History" week to see how I got to where I am with my musical tastes. As you can see from the video above, this could be a little embarrassing. My first ever cd that I bought was Pocket Full of Kryptonite. I was about 11 or 12 at the time and just starting to not listen to just what my parents had on in the car (KOOL 108.... not for me these days.)
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Ooh, this'll be a fun week!
agreed. Ace of Base better be up tomorrow!
It may or may not be. I never actually purchased that Ace of Base cd as far as I can remember, I copied it. I've got seven days though, so we'll see just how much history I want to get into before spending a day or two actually playing something I like.
brotherS went through an Ace of Base phase a few years ago. I just kind of shook my head. This was the guy who introduced me to the likes of Deep Purple, the Motor City Madman and Nazareth in the early-to-mid 1970s.
A few years ago? Not many, many years ago?
dude, when you reach my age, it is easier to remember stuff from "a few years ago" than it is from a few years ago.
Hey, out of curiousity, did my post end up working or did someone fix it? When I checked it this morning, the video wasn't showing up.
I did a little bit of editing this morning. Don't use the "insert link" (<a href=....>) for embedding a video. Just the URL and add v to the httpv: and you're set.
Hmm, I'm not sure how that happened. I just copied and pasted the URL, but it looks like it just automatically did that, and I forgot to check the text tab. Anywho, fixed for the rest of the week.
Dunno how that happened, but no worries.
Just for future reference, I went ahead and made a little illustrated guide to embedding youtube videos. This is accessible from the Help/FAQ menu.
I just copied and pasted the URL,
I'm not entirely sure of the problem, but I think WordPress will automatically embed YouTube videos in posts. That could have caused some problems.
Also, great how-to Mags. The one caveat is that this won't work for Macs.
I think the first record I ever bought with my own money was "Popcorn" by Hot Butter.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfdLh0MHqKw
For some reason while listening to that, I desparately wanted to be playing an 8-bit, side-scrolling action game with a futuristic bent.
Scott Krippayne "Wild Imagination", coming up on 20 years ago.
Don McLean "American Pie" for me
The California Raisins "Sing the Hits Songs"
cheaps - the more I get to know you, the more I think we must have been separated at birth. Pocket Full of Kryptonite was also the first album (tape) that I purchased...the second may or may not have been - eek - Spellbound.
I could not have told you that those albums were released four months apart+.
Its possible. This country doesn't exactly have a good history of responsible actions by hospitals when it comes to birthing. I'm just glad you simply live somewhere else, instead of chained up in the attic.
Also, regarding your second album. If it makes you feel any better, I haven't really gotten to the period in my life where I look back and feel shame. (it won't be tomorrow, either.)
Both...both of your thoughts made me laugh.
AMR - I didn't remember it either until the Kryponite album cover triggered a flashback.
mötley crüe - theatre of pain
Poison - look what the cat dragged in. My mom wasn't pleased.
Open Up and Say ... Ahh! Mom was thrilled.
Every roooose has its thorn...
I borrowed a copy of open up with the original cover art. My parents had to have a talk with me and my brother about appropriateness.
Yep. Cannot wait to have the same conversation with my kids. It's coming soon.
My once-upon-a-time-GF at the Alma Mater (pre-mrsS) lived in NYC as a young child. She had a li'l friend who was fond of belting out the lyrics to this song from the then-current musical, Hair.
Mine too, meat.
First album - I was gifted (from my parents) the Unplugged concerts of Eric Clapton and Neil Young on cassette when I got my first Walkman, followed shortly by Aerosmith - Big Ones (also from my parents via my little brother).
First cassette purchased - ? maybe REM - Out of Time, maybe Aerosmith - Pump
First CD purchased (a year or two later) - Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill (I already had a friend's CD of The Offspring - Smash that he had given to me)
oh, upping the ante, eh? Then in addition...
First LP: Jim Croce Photographs and Memories
First cassette: Wings Wings at the Speed of Sound
First CD: Dire Straits Brothers in Arms or Alan Parsons Project Stereotomy (I think)
First LP, used: Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon and Fleetwood Mac, Rumours. (Church Garage sale.)
First 12" single, new: The Pharcyde, "She Said"
First LP, new: Lydia Loveless, Indestructible Machine
First CD, used: Ice T, O.G. Original Gangsta
First CD, new: Singles OST and Temple of the Dog
First CD Maxi single: Nine Inch Nails, "Head Like a Hole" ???
First Cassette: (Cali Raisins, see above)
First Cassingle: Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit" b/w "Even in His Youth"
Last Cassette, New: Aaron Dilloway, After the Showers
Last Cassette before that, New: Björk Telegram ???
Last Cassette, Used: Primal Scream, Screamadelica ???
First purchase for me: MC Hammer - "PLease Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em"
I'm pretty sure the first anything I ever bought was by Weird Al.
I think my younger sister was more precocious than me--I remember her first album but not mine. It was Different Light by The Bangles.
I'm pretty sure the first cassette I owned was the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid, but it was a birthday gift, so I didn't buy it with my own money.
It was this Billy Preston 45. (I was 10 or 11.)
My first LP was this one by EWF.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWcATuuZAxs
(I still have it.)
I don't think I ever bought an album before going away to college (and joining one of those record clubs the summer after my freshman year). Pretenders II, I think.
My dad ran the radio station at Spamtown CC for a number of years and used to bring home some of the devil music that he got from distributors. That's how I got a 45 of "Riders on the Storm" in 1971, and a copy of Goats Head Soup in 1973.
My dad made me take over my brother's paperboy job when I was in 7th(?) grade. Told me it would teach me about managing money. Man, I hated that gig, but I showed him. Just about every dollar I ever made went to records, sneakers and junk food.
and the rest you wasted, amiright?
Bing-O!
Your experience with a paper route was much better than mine. I got my route when I was 11 and I held it until I went to high school. I used the money to buy my clothes, school supplies, etc. So, yeah, I've bought all (and I mean all) my own clothes since I was 11 years old.
I don't know, I hated that route. HATED it. It wasn't my idea and so I resented the fact that I was pushed into it. My pops was none too pleased when he finally asked to see my savings account passbook. I think it had about 10 bucks in there. (Never really did learn how to handle money.)
And with very few exceptions--church clothes, a winter coat, socks and underwear--if I wanted new clothes growing up, I had to buy them myself, too. Five older brothers meant lots of hand-me-downs.
I did a weekly ad paper and was a fairly-frequently-used sub route guy. Did the NU paper and Strib at different times.
Most kids took vacations during the summers, so that was most of my work.
I would use some of those mornings in the summer to raid people's raspberry patches and cherry tomato plants when I was done with the route.
They probably blamed birds, but I never took more than a handful from a single yard.
The actual delivery aspect wasn't so bad, it was having to collect the money from everyone. Knocking on people's doors every two weeks trying to shake them down for 3 bucks. Not something a 13 year old kid should be saddled with, IMO. I don't know when it became the practice of the subscriber sending in their fees for delivery, but it was definitely after my time.
Bonus of substitute routes.
I also generally got paid a bit more by the regular boy than he got himself.
Parents must have chipped in as an extra vacation expense.
Collecting went on through my time. I remember a dude who always told me is wife was out with the checkbook, "come back tomorrow" was his favorite saying. He went a week with that, and my old man told me to stop delivering the paper. Dude called the first night asking where his paper was. I told him to have my check waiting and I'd be right over. The same routine happened almost every month. What my paper route ended up teaching me is that people are dicks.
I learned the same thing. I remember just one name from my route that I hadn't known before: Larry Sweet. Total dick.
Some of my customers prepaid, some were monthly collection, so I didn't have to shake everyone down. The problem was, though, that sometimes customers wouldn't renew their subscription and the paper wouldn't tell us that we'd have to collect promptly. So, we'd find out that a customer owed us for six months and we'd have to collect that. My brother had a route, too, and one of his customers owed him for a year and wouldn't pay it. Stuck.
I remember one time, the monthly rate went from $1.85 to $2.15. First time I tried to collect it, she said, "It's $1.85, right." No, ma'am, $2.15." "2 FIFTEEN??111!!!!!eleventy." The next month, same thing. Read me the riot act over $0.30. And the next month. This went on for six months. Every month, railing over the extra $0.30. (Just cancel the paper, ma'am.) Finally, she said how much is it, $2.15?
Fearing the worst, I said, "No ma'am. It's now $2.40."
Not a word from her on that one.
Ah yes, the paper route. Fun.
ahh, the good old days of building entrepreneurial spirit!
I only subbed a couple of times for a friend who had a route. Never had to collect, but I do recall that he was essentially an independent contractor and had to pay for the papers. Oy. So you put a pimple-faced (or younger!) kid out in the field to shake down the newspaper's subscribers for money, but the kid (who had to be bonded!!!) was the fiscal middleman? Life lessons!!!!!1111one111!!!
I didn't like it very much, either. I needed the money, so I did it, but man, I did not like trudging through the snow on those winter nights (it was an evening paper). It was about a four mile walk (I know that because I measured it with my bike in the summer.)
My grandparents were on my route and right at about the halfway point. If it was really cold, my grandmother would make me come in for a few minutes and tell my grandpa that he was to drive me the rest of the route. So, I had that going for me, which was nice. Thinking back on it, I don't think my grandmother approved of my walking that far when it was sub zero and I was 11 or 12 years old.
I think this is the most discussion one of my dj days has ever generated.
I should also mention (in solidarity with cheaptoy week), my second LP purchased was this.
That's a great album, but man, Black Sabbath's art did not extend past their instruments.
First Album: Eric Carmen -- Eric Carmen (the one with All By Myself)
First CD: Social Distortion -- Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell