After talking with John Murdy yesterday, I realized that a top 10 albums list would take me too much thought right now. And I would have to go through all of my ticket stubs to rank the top 10 concerts I've attended. But John and I got to discussing the first CDs we purchased, back when buying a CD meant something. They were about $15 a pop on average in 1988. Doing the inflationary math that's roughly $27 to you and me now. And you think music is a rip-off today! Ha ha ha.
The very first title I bought, sheepishly, because I didn't actually own a CD player and somehow I thought the store clerk would know, was the Beatles' "Help!" Got it at the Wiz in the Pentagon City metro stop in NoVa after doing a tour of *duh* the Pentagon. So jogging my imperfect memory, between May and July 4th of 1988, I purchased, in order...
1. The Beatles, "Help!" The Wiz, Pentagon City.
2. Prince & The Revolution, "Parade." The Wiz, Georgetown.
3 & 4. The Beatles, "Beatles For Sale" and Prince, "Lovesexy" (the day it was released). The Wiz, Georgetown. The store clerk was pissed at me for my indecisiveness and said of Lovesexy, "Buy it now, you're going to eventually. Get it now!" I managed to borrow a floor mates CD player to listen to each of the above once before school was out for the semester.
5. Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Are You Experienced?" This I bought with my $70 Sanyo portable CD player at Coconuts in Jacksonville. I think that was every cent I had saved during the school year.
6. The Rolling Stones, "Rewind." The first used CD I ever got, from Vintage Vinyl in Jax.
7. The Clash, "Combat Rock." Coconuts. Should I Stay Or Should I Go became a belated party anthem for my apartment the next 3 years at college.
8. Tracy Chapman, "Tracy Chapman." What can I say, Fast Car and Baby, Can I Hold You? are great songs. But I returned it the next day for Steely Dan, "A Decade of Steely Dan." The Record Bar, Regency, Jax.
9. John Mellencamp, "The Lonesome Jubilee." Vintage Vinyl.
10. Paul McCartney, "All The Best." Coconuts, Orange Park. I think I shelled out $18.99 (a whopping and wallet-numbing $34 in today's cash) for this to the amazement of Mike and Mark who were with me that night.
Of these 10 CDs, I still possess 8 of them. Mellencamp was sold back shortly after buying it. The Steely Dan was replaced by the monster "Citizen Steely Dan," which was one of the first collections loaded onto my iPod. At the time, I was still alternating between CDs and vinyl. Not a whole lot of titles were available, but by the end of Summer I trucked back to Georgetown with about 40 CDs, including 90% of the Beatles' titles and popular party choices like "License To Ill" and the soundtrack to "Cocktail."
Don't Worry, Be Happy!
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Of course, the call numbers on the crashed plane's tail on the Licensed to Ill cover are meaningful only in a mirror. Help! The joke is not lost on you, and that is to say you know what it means, despite the fact I hardly would direct anything of the sort to you. Just pointing it out, my brother. I suppose the Batman soundtrack was a good hundie or so into the collection? :-) Great to see you back, my brother!
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Ooooh, I was at the store when the Batman soundtrack was being pulled from boxes. I split from work on a lunch break to get it. It was definitely 50+ purchase. LOL
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