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August 16, 2007

Happy Birthday, shiny plastic drink coasters!

The compact disc is 25 years old tomorrow!

I’m trying to remember the first CD I bought, and not having much luck. By contrast, I clearly remember the first cassette tape I ever bought: Synchronicity by the Police, followed closely by Led Zeppelin II. I probably bought them on the same day.

I don’t remember buying much vinyl. A a pre-teen I had 7″ singles of Alan Parsons Project’s “Eye In The Sky” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me” and that’s about it. Almost everything else I bought on cassette. My speed metal-loving college roommate had a huge collection of obscure European metal albums on vinyl, but I don’t think I ever owned an LP myself. In fact, up until a few months ago I still lugged around an old plastic milk crate (”Thou Shalt Not Steal!” printed clearly on the side) of cassettes from place to place.

Can’t for the life of me remember the first CD I ever owned. Alice In Chains’ Dirt maybe?

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And Glenn Peters did speak thusly:

First vinyl: Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits (it was a Christmas present… but I’d asked for it… long ago)

First cassette: The Cars, Heartbeat City

First CD: Pink Floyd, Momentary Lapse of Reason

Trying to remember the first MP3 I downloaded. Something moderately obscure, I think.
And Eric did speak thusly:

First cassette: Don Henley’s Building the Perfect Beast

First CD: Ministry’s The Land of Rape and Honey

Kind of a shift there.
And fluffy did speak thusly:

My first CD was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I don’t remember my first cassette. It was probably one of the Mr. Men story tapes (my mom sometimes reminds me that I listened to them incessantly when I was like 3, when she wants me to feel guilty for whatever reason).
And Isn’t the Light OK? » Blog Archive » All those squeaky little ones and zeroes did speak thusly:

[...] The CD turned 25 yesterday. (via Scott Andrew) [...]
And spinhead did speak thusly:

Man I feel old.

First vinyl was a red vinyl LP of Alvin and the Chipmunks, circa 1966 (receiving Dr. Seuss’s ‘Fox in Sox’ as a gift the year before had already twisted my entertainment interests toward the iconoclastic . . . )

First cassette: never bought one new; bought my big brother’s entire collection for a few bucks when we were teenagers.

First CD: who knows; probably something off this bizarrely disjointed list of the top 100 songs on San Diego’s AOR station KGB in 1970 (no, I didn’t buy the CD in 1970, but my first investment was in something like this that kinda formed my mental vision of ‘rock’ music)

http://www.ct30.com/kgb/top10070.txt

I am simultaneously frightened (#2 was by the Partridge Family, I kid you not) and delighted (Michael Nesmith shows up *twice*, with ‘Joanne’ and ‘Silver Moon’ - probably the last time he was on *any* chart . . . )

Sometime I’ll have to tell y’all how much fun it is to operate a hand cranked Victrola and listen to Jimmie Rodgers 78s at Art Olsen’s house; he’d bought them all new when he was younger.
And Shannon Hale did speak thusly:

My first CD player was a six-disc changer, so I bought several CDs at the same time: World Party’s GoodBye Jumbo Lloyd Cole’s self-titled album; Peter Murphy’s Deep, and I forget the others. I still have those three CDs.

By that point I’d amassed a lot of vinyl (mostly Canadian indie bands or British imports). Now I have just a few 45s, and the CDs are all in sleeves in the storage locker.

I download almost everything these days.
And Dan Sinch did speak thusly:

First cassette: Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil

First CD(s): Faith No More - The Real Thing, Metallica - And Justice for All, Misfits - Collection (the one with the green skull on the cover)

Oddly enough I don’t remember the first mp3s I ever downloaded, which I think says something about the experience itself. I have vivid pictures in my mind of a lot of the different tapes and CDs I’ve bough over the years… walking to the record store… buying things on the release date. I don’t really remember anything about mp3s I’ve downloaded.
And Kerry did speak thusly:

First (and damn near last) vinyl was Fleetwood Mac, Rumors, but I bought it in 1985 when I was 12. I did not own a decent cassette player yet. Golly how sad.
First cd was U2 Achtung Baby. Has anyone else noticed how much Nicer CDs used to be? My old Achtung Baby has these really lovely smooth rounded edges, now the are all pointy and sharp. I have no idea what my first tape was. Probably either Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins. 1986-ish.
And spinhead did speak thusly:

Since I recently found a Sony turntable for $99 brand new, I’m in the market for vinyl again. Still surprises me how much better the Beatles sound on vinyl than CD, scratchy ticks and pops included.

And since you can’t get Neil Young’s ‘Time Fades Away’ on CD, it’s amazing how much better it sounds on vinyl, than not at all .

I remember when Acthung Baby was released, Tower had the limited edition vinyl right next to the CD. Last vinyl release I remember.
And JvA did speak thusly:

My first LP was Synchronicity, purchased on the same day as Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I choose to think of the Police record as my first, though they were both at the same time.