I did not buy an album of my own until I was 12 years old. Pop music was completely unknown to me until I hit junior high. Before that – I listened to my parents albums. I still remember the little metal TV stand thingie – which held all the vinyl albums beneath, in slots. I love records. I love vinyl. There’s something so exciting about sliding the record out from the cover – that popping a CD out of its case just DOES NOT capture. There’s a ritual to vinyl. I’m nostalgic about it.
It’s interesting: it seems like now, in the current generation, kids are the ones who sort of lead the parents, in terms of taste, and knowing what’s hip, and cool. Like – the 13 year old daughter gets into Eminem, because she watches MTV, or whatever – and the parents may at first be concerned about it … but then they realize the awesomeness … and then they buy the albums. Without the 13 year old kid in the house, the parents might still be listening to their Go Gos albums from their youth – Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I still have all my Go Gos albums. And I also yearn to bulk up my Adam Ant and Billy Idol collection. I’m just saying that kids are WAY more savvy, in terms of pop culture, than we were in my generation. After all: we had 3 television stations. Well, no, we had 4 – including PBS. I remember when TV actually HAD NO PROGRAMMING after a certain hour of the night. They would play “The Star Spangled Banner”, and show a waving flag and then the screen would go blank. Can you imagine??? There was no VCR in the house. We didn’t sit around listening to the radio. (Now – this is just MY family. Other families were VERY in tune with what was going on – I remember the family down the street – they were always going to Elton John concerts, and they knew about stuff like Blondie and stuff like that … But this was not how my family operated).
We were the kids. And we listened to the albums that my parents already had. We listened to them over … and over … and over …
A couple of years ago, my parents and Jean and I were driving in the car. And something someone said reminded Jean and I (at the same moment) of some little coffee-house folk song that had been on one of those albums – 35 years ago – and Jean and I, simultaneously, with no discussion beforehand, BURST into song. My mother glanced at my father and said, ‘We have ruined our children.”
Like I said – once I got to junior high I made certain discoveries. I left the world of my parents music collection and learned about things like … oh, Michael Jackson. And Air Supply. And Lionel Richie. And Cyndi Lauper. A whole new world opened up to me!!
What was the first album I bought on my own?
ELO’s Time.
I heard the whole album at Mere’s house – and it was the first time that I thought: I NEED to own that.
I look at that album cover and still feel a thrill of excitement – I so remember how much I was into that album. It absolutely blew my mind. Also … there was this new-ness to the whole experience. It was the beginning of me choosing my own way. ELO!! hahahaha But it’s true!!
My fantasy for this post (which I’ve had percolating for a while) was that I would be able to actually find images of all the old album covers from my parents collection – but I was only 3/4 of the way successful. Some of those albums have slipped off into oblivion – I have searched and searched, and cannot find images of the album covers anywhere. Two in particular. Oh, but they live on in my heart!!
Now there were other albums in my parents collection outside of the ones below – but for whatever reason, they didn’t burn themselves into my psyche the way these ones did.
I know they had some Beatles, but I can’t remember the albums. I seem to recall Abbey Road being there. I know they had Peter, Paul and Mary – which we all loved – but I can’t remember the album. I know it was a live album. I know we had some Bob Dylan, but again – can’t remember the albums.
The albums below are the ones that are emblazoned in my mind as forever being a part of my childhood, and a part of my growing up.
So. Here we go. Oh, and to my siblings: I am sure I have forgotten some. Please remind me of any I might have missed.
The albums in my parents record collection that made up my cultural landscape as a child:
American Pie.
This album was so huge in my life that in kindergarten I recited the entirety of “American Pie” on Show and Tell day. Uhm … what? How much would I love to have a home video of me, with the colored ballies in my hair, wearing a small frock that my mother probably made me, and my shiny Mary Janes, shouting out to my kindergarten classmates:
Well, I know that youre in love with him
`cause I saw you dancin in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues.
I was a lonely teenage broncin buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died.
Other kids had brought in their pet turtle. Other kids did magic tricks. That was my Show and Tell. I was 5 years old. Let’s say that that album had already woven itself into my DNA.
And it’s still there. A couple years ago, I went to the Garth Brooks concert in Central Park – which was AWESOME – and at the very end, Brooks said something like: “And now I’d like to welcome to the stage my main influence – the man who pretty much is the reason I’m here today – Don McLean!”
It was a complete surprise, and people literally LOST THEIR MINDS. I started crying.
It’s mainly because he – and that album in particular – is so wrapped up in my childhood that I can’t separate the two. He is a part of my life. So to see him … up there … singing American Pie with Garth Brooks … it was one of the coolest concert-moments of my entire life.
I do remember, though, being 5 years old, or 6 – and the album cover itself really frightened me. There was something violent about that huge thumb … and the fact that he was swathed in darkness … It scared me. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it meant SOMEthing. As an adult, I can look at that photograph and see the anger beneath it – and somehow, as a child, I picked up on it.
And lastly: the line:
“I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before …”
For some reason, as a child, I got it into my head that the sacred store was Anton’s Deli – which was right around the corner from our house on Route 108. Every time I heard that particular verse, I would think mistily of Anton’s Deli … and how sad it was … that there was no music there anymore.
Next album – it took me FOREVER to find the image of the album cover online – but I did it!!!
Bob Gibson’s There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight. Bob Gibson has a very Mighty Wind appeal – the kind of folk singing depicted in that film – the pre-political folk songs, the pre-message folk songs. Gibson is an unbelievable banjo player – with a marvelous voice – and we just loved loved loved this album. I still do – I have a cassette tape I made of my parents albums – with scratches in the vinyl intact.
Jean and I can still sing the entire album in its entirety.
“There’s a meetin’ here tonight
There’s a meetin’ here tonight
I know you by your friendly face
There’s a meetin’ here tonight …”
My personal favorite?
“This train is bound for glory, this train …”
He sang old spirituals – “Jordan River” … He sang “Titanic”, a rollicking funny version:
Oh, they built the ship Titanic to last a thousand years
But the good Lord could not save them from their fears
An iceberg on a wave
brought them to a watery grave
It was sad when that great ship went down
It was sad, oh glory, it was sad, halleluia
Sad when the great ship went down
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives
It was sad when the great ship went down.
I have known a couple of banjo players in my life – and whenever I have said, “Uhm … geeky reference … but did you ever listen to Bob Gibson?” they flip OUT. “That dude could play.” Banjo players all know who he was, and all rave about him.
Bob Gibson. Love that album. Love him.
“Woah back Buck and bee-baba-lan
Who brought the back Buck – WOAH Cunningham!”
I have no idea what I am talking about but Jean will remember.
Next album? It’s still an album I listen to all the time:
The Clancy Brothers at Carnegie Hall! My parents had many more Clancy Brothers albums in their collection, but this one was our favorite – and indeed – it still is for me, today. It’s a perfect album. Hard to call an album perfect, but this album is.
I loved the pictures of them on the back of the album, with their Irish knit sweaters, and their laughing faces. There was something about them … something familiar … I loved the accents. I had to warm up to Tommy Makem because he wasn’t, you know, a Clancy … and I didn’t get half of their jokes … but as the years have gone on, the humor deepens, I see what’s going on – and best of all – my favorite thing about this album – is the crowd at Carnegie Hall. Listening to them cheer, and clap along, and burst into laughter gives me goosebumps to this day. They know all the words, get all the jokes …
Perfect album. Just perfect.
Their whole medley of childhood songs they would sing … I love that:
“Ahem! Ahem!
Me mother has gone to church!
She told me not to play with you because you’re in the dirt!
It isn’t because you’re dirty
It isn’t because you’re clean
It’s because you have the whooping cough and eat Margar-een.”
You can imagine after listening to stuff like THAT that going to dances in junior high where everyone was gyrating to Michael Jackson was quite a culture shock.
Next album:
Ian and Sylvia!! The Mitch and Mickey of a bygone age. Aren’t they both so gorgeous? My parents loved Ian and Sylvia and had many of their albums – I remember this album cover as well:
I actually can’t remember any of their tunes – but the album covers themselves fill me with nostalgia – I can SEE our den on Paul Avenue, with the hooked rug, and the old couch, and I can HEAR the sounds of kids playing in the neighborhood outside the window … and I can taste the popsicle I was probably eating … and I know that I was wearing corduroy pants my mom made me, and I had my hair in ponytails … Those two album covers bring back an entire world.
Stuff like this always reminds me of the brilliant statement by acting teacher Lee Strasberg: “Sometimes you look at a pair of your shoes and see your whole life.”
Ian and Sylvia’s album covers are like that for me.
Next album? This one was HUGE, at least to me:
John Denver!
Ah, the first chords:
“He was born in the summer of his 27th year …”
Goosebump territory. I just loved John Denver. I think my love might have been validated by his appearnces on The Muppet Show and on Sesame Street. He seemed like the kind of guy who would understand kids.
OBVIOUSLY someone who wrote “Grandma’s Featherbed” understood what it was like to be a kid!
This is from memory:
“It was 5 feet wide, 6 feet high
And soft as a downy chick
It was made from the feathers of forty-leven geese
Took a whole bolt of cloth for the tick
It’d hold eight kids and four hound-dogs
And a piggy we stole from the shed
We didnt get much sleep but we had a lot of fun
On grandmas feather bed”
I will overlook the unbelievable GOOFINESS of “forty-leven geese” – and just say: this song was one of those songs that I wanted to just climb into as a child. I wanted to be in that bed, I wanted to live in that world. I just loved it.
But there are other wonderful songs on that album – His version of “Mother Nature’s Son” is great – and don’t even get me started on “Matthew”.
Yes, and joy was just a thing that he was raised on
Love was just a way to live and die
Gold was just a windy Kansas wheatfield
Blue was just the Kansas summer sky
And this always gets me right in the throat:
And so he came to live at our house
And he came to work the land
He came to ease my daddy’s burden
And he came to be my friend
Goofy? Yes. Sentimental? Yes. But I guess I like sentimental if it’s done right. “He came to be my friend”. Denver’s telling a story in that song. And that’s the payoff moment. It’s KILLER. Those lyrics have stayed with me for 35 damn years.
Next album?
Joan Baez.
Now – I could have SWORN that that was not the album cover. How I remember it is that the front of the album was a kind of swooping line drawing of a woman – kind of a very spare Mists of Avalon-ish woman – and on the back was a serious black and white photo of Joan Baez.
The only reason I know that this one is the album (and maybe they re-released it with a more modern cover) – is that this is the album that has Baez’s version of Dylan’s “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” – which, I swear, I could not get enough of as a kid. The lyrics are so intricate, and … they never repeat themselves … and I remember thinking that this was a reaallly grown-up song. I couldn’t understand it. It was in another realm, the realm of grown-ups. I could understand all of John Denver’s songs, but there was a mystery at the heart of Baez singing “Sad-Eyed Lady” and I found it fascinating, and also vaguely upsetting. It made me feel left out. Her voice is so marvelous, so perfect, really … but I didn’t know what was going on … who was the lady … why were her eyes sad … Genius lyrics.
My parents had a lot more Joan Baez in their collection – but this is the album that stands out for me, because of that one song.
Next album?
My Fair Lady.
We listened to this album until it was filled with scratches and became uesless. We ADORED this album – only we ritualistically skipped over “On the street where you live”. BORING! Now I love that song, but it’s just the most boring thing on the album when you are 8. I loved her, I loved her voice, I especially loved her tour de force (although I wouldn’t have called it that) on “Show Me”. Now that I know how difficult that damn song is – I am even more blown away by Julie Andrews’ pipes.
We loved this album. I never really liked the movie version because … I just couldn’t get the sound of Julie Andrews out of my head … I didn’t like that Audrey Hepburn was lip synching – even though there was a perfectly wonderful actress out there who had originated it and could sing her own stuff! Yes – even back then – I was aware of the injustices and realities of show biz.
Next album? Uhm ….
Herb Alpert.
What? What IS this album? I am still totally confused by the entire project. I don’t even know what the project WAS. Not to mention the album cover.
The cover, naturally, kind of scared me as a child … because you can alllllllllmost see her boob … and I just didn’t want to see her boob. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder: won’t her skin be all sticky and gross after being covered in whipped cream? Ikky!
However: my sister Jean and I had HOURS of fun listening to this album. We would dress up in my mother’s old party dresses, from her high school formals – one was green and pink – and one was white and yellow – they were gorgeous – with pouffy skirts that flared around when you twirled, and cinched waists – We would put on those dresses and do entire dance routines, involving pantomime, and choreography, to the Whipped Cream album. We had entire story-lines in our mind – there was one story-line involving a young man named Pedro, if I recall, and we would enact these stories – through dance – whirling around and around in the den – wearing my mother’s dresses from her high school formals.
I guess it was the only way we could make sense of that terrifying album cover.
Now there were two other albums which were MAJOR in my life – and despite a long ardous search on the Internet – I cannot find the album covers from my memory.
But I will list the albums nonetheless – in case anyone out there has ANY information about any of these albums:
The Raunch Hands – these guys were from Harvard, I believe – 6 or 7 of them – and they formed a folk group – and put out a couple of albums. I loved them so much that I STILL keep my eyes open for second-hand versions of their albums. They may not be as good as I remember, but I am willing to take that chance. They were wonderful – I love male harmonizing.
Which leads me to the last album – the ultimate male harmonizers:
The Yale Whiffenpoofs. The oldest a capella group in America – the Yale Whiffenpoofs are 14 Yale undergraduates – chosen every year – and … basically, they’re unbelievable. You might recognize the current group from their brief appearance on The West Wing during a Christmas episode. When I found out that my friend Kate’s brother HAD ACTUALLY BEEN A FECKIN’ WHIFFENPOOF, I flipped out. Anyway, the album that my parents had – was an album they put out in 1959 – it was some anniversary, some important Whiffenpoof anniversary. I cannot find evidence of it ANYWHERE online – I still have a cassette tape that I made of my parents album – but it would be nice to have that particular album in my collection, in CD form. It’s male singing at its best. Also, I remember the album cover – and I remember the back of the album – a scattering of black and white photos: Images from the black-tie dinner celebrating the Whiffenpoof anniversary – little doddering old men who had been in the Whiffenpoofs 40 years earlier, whatever – down to young strapping undergrades of the 1959 class … Also, there were hot pictures of these guys singing all over the world – including a drop-dead gorgeous picture of them singing in some tropical country, or maybe in Florida – who knows – but whatever: they were wearing Bermuda shorts instead of the usual tuxedo. I LOVED that picture. I dreamt of dating a Whiffenpoof one day. When I finally met Kate’s brother, the little child within me was a bit in awe. It was as though I was back in my parents den – an awe-struck young girl – looking at these strapping young Ivy Leaguers – wondering if I would ever be a grown-up … and there I was, now an adult myself, meeting an ACTUAL Whiffenpoof.
Old dreams never die!
My mom and dad had that Herb Alpert album, except I always thought it looked like SHAVING cream and I wondered if she was going to be attacked by some giant Gillette. Plus it has always bothered me that his name is ALPERT — why not ALBERT? What is UP with that P? It bugs.
My friends were always envious of my mom and dad’s record collection — for some reason they thought my parents were COOL, which is, well, absurd. They were most definitely NOT cool — they wouldn’t even let me have the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack! But I have a definite memory of my mom and dad taking me and my friends Crystal and Monica to the movies one night. We were listening to Meatloaf on 8-track, and Monica said, “Man, your parents are cool.”
Now I realize it was because I had young parents (when I was in junior high, they were barely in their 30s) who were at least 10 years younger than all my friends’ parents. So OF COURSE, they listened to “cool” music — they were practically kids themselves.
laughing about the sacred store and anton’s deli…i love the connections little kids make!!
Lisa –
There are few words in the English language that make me happier than the words:
“We were listening to Meatloaf on 8-track”
siobhan – i know!! hahahaha
I don’t even think it’s Anton’s Deli anymore which is even more tragic! The “sacred store” is not even there anymore!
My Dad still has that Herb Albert album. I don’t recognize the other covers, but when I saw that cover here I had flash backs. I didn’t see that cover until I was 12 or so and by then the entire image was lost on me. What is that? Whipped cream? Shaving cream? Either way, it does nothing for me. :-)
I’m going to my folks’ on Friday to “put up Christmas lights” I’ll have to see if my dad will play that one for me.
So funny – it seems like all of us, in this generation, had parents who owned that particular weirdo album. hahahahaha
Cool post. My parent’s albums were more like Perry Como/Four Seasons if I remember right. They did indulge us kids with 45s though and we had a ton of those from the late ’60s and early ’70s, all vanilla pop/rock stuff like the Monkees or, ahem, The Partridge Family. They even bought us one of those cheap record players that basically used a nail for a stylus to play them on so we wouldn’t mess up the good stereo. The first album I bought on my own was Dark Side of the Moon and actually it was an 8-Track tape because that was, you know, the wave of the future. I was back to vinyl not long after that.
I’ve got a bunch of my folks’ albums; I’ll have to scan them.
I learned Days of Future Past on 8-track. I remember the first time I heard it on vinyl, I was all confused, as the songs were in the ‘wrong’ order…
Bingley – hahahaha!!!
You guys, I absolutely love how much 8-track is being mentioned!! Yup – wave of the future!
And Dave E – man, remember 45s? The first 45 I bought was (please don’t judge) “The Eye of the Tiger”. hahaha
“It’s the thrill of the fight
Risin’ UP
to the challenge of a rival …”
I have the Raunch Hands album somewhere. And it is as good as you remember. I have to buy a freakin’ record player. First album I ever bought was the Devo album with “Jerkin’ Back and Forth” on it. I remember you were angry with me because YOU liked them first. HA! I also remember insisting on being the only one to sing the last line of American Pie because I was convinced that I alone knew how to sing it. Sorry!
bren
bren – HAHAHAHAHAHA I don’t remember that about the last line of American Pie! I am laughing out loud!!
Also, sorry I gave you shit about Devo. You can like them too.
Oh thank god you put “Whipped Cream’ on there! As for the beatles, there was NO “Abbey Road”. much too hippie-ish (we might have inherited Uncle Mike’s copy after the fact). Nope – it was pure 1954 (?) “Meet the Beatles” You know, the non-scary stuff like “She loves you”. Then we also had the Granny Smith greatest hits – no white album shit either, Mum and Dad would have been too afraid of that. by the way, do you remember the long, arduous hours sitting in front of the speakers iwth the tape-recorder taping ourselves singing the harmony? We absolutely rocked.
One more thing — no, Anton’s is not there anymore. It is now I think, a spin-off of Kingston Pizza. Not sacred, not at all.
jean – hahahahaha
“no white album shit either, Mum and Dad would have been too afraid of that.”
hahahahaha
Yes. I remember the long long hours … tape recording ourselves … hunched by the speakers … Beautiful!
So “the girl who sang the blues” has even more to be blue about, apparently.
I also have a vivid memory of listening to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band up at the Ross house in the basement. And being completely FREAKED out by the Beatles. As I still am. The Herb Alpert lady may have cemented my heterosexuality too, as I remember being frustrated by the barely concealed boob. For a hilarious parody of that album title, look up Soul Asylum. Before they got really famous and bad they were a very good band. One of their album covers is the lead singer in a perfect recreation of the Herb Alpert album…
“Before they got really famous and bad they were a very good band.”
hahahaha
I am a little bit thrilled right now because, apparently, all of my siblings are on line right now – at the same time – and are all commenting here. Yay!!
Bren – yes, you are still freaked by the Beatles. I love that.
the soul asylum album is called “clam dip and other delights”.
loved the essay.
I have a friend who is in sociology who says that children’s musical tastes are formed largely at a particular age (I want to say 10 or so, but I don’t remember what age she said).
my parents were a bit older- they were married 10 years before they had me – and they were both what you might have called “longhairs.” They had mostly classical albums around the house but also some Gilbert and Sullivan and soundtracks to musicals. I remember TOTALLY putting on the soundtrack to “The Sound of Music” and acting out much of the story with my stuffed animals (well, not with ALL the “kids” in the family, I don’t think I had that many). And dancing along to records. And singing with them.
They also had a few 8-tracks of sort of pop rock and folkie stuff. I still like John Denver (even though there was a time in high school when it was the epitome of uncool to like him) because they had John Denver albums, and I can remember a summer trip where we listened to them over and over again on the 8-track player in the car….
I still listen to primarily classical music but do have a soft spot for show tunes. (And also John Denver, even if the only “album” of his is the Christmas one. Yes, the one with the Muppets. You gotta problem with that?)
Red-Judge you? After admitting to The Partridge Family and The Monkees I think not! I actually remember buying the 45 with I’m Not Your Steppin Stone/I’m a Believer.
Dave E – BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ricki –
I love John Denver when he is surrounded by Muppets!! hahaha. I got no problem with that.
I know we’re of similar ages – because I grew up with John Denver and when I hit puberty it again became, like you said, the epitome of uncool to like him … I always secretly liked him though.
Bren – just found the album:
http://www.twintone.com/projects/88144.html
hahahahaha Hysterical!!
Dearest: I know this posting was about ‘your’ favorite albums, but for the record: my favorite was Phil Ochs [in concert I think] which your mother hated. We must have been quite the dweebs. love, dad
dad – I don’t remember the Phil Ochs one!
Oh, wait – I remember another album: there was a Donovan record in there as well, with Mellow Yellow on it.
now, i don’t know if you’re aware of this, but “not your steppin’ stone” had a whole underground life of its own, one that i’ve always wanted to write an essay about…
in the early ’80’s, the musical form “hardcore” was grabbing a teeny toehold. these bands played very loud, very fast, and very angrily. they were the total precursors to every crappy staind/system of a down/korn (although i like korn) band that drifts across the radio today. this scene played out not on mtv, not in mainstream music press, but in home made fanzines and scummy clubs. most of the bands were under 21, 18 even, and the center of the movement was a band out of d.c. called minor threat. they formed their own record label, they played all ages shows (the band name is a clue as to their attitude…) at the time, the music seemed like pure noise to most people, but my friends and i flipped. listen today without the fear of volume and speed that existed at that time and these songs sound almost like the ramones. then they sounded like machinery exploding. people COULD NOT handle this music. i was openly hated for thinking it was even music.
but i digress…somehow, in the hardcore punk live show, performing “not your stepping stone” became an obligatory gesture. same as the jackass in the back who yells “freebird” (and i’ve been that jackass), the tradition started somewhere and before you knew it, everyone did it. minor threat recorded a version of the song but this was an homage to the tradition not the inception. i have no idea who did it first, but within the first year of the CREATION OF THIS WHOLE NEW GENRE OF MUSIC, you could bet you’d hear “stepping stone” at a hardcore show. i sang it with my band every time we performed in public and i saw it sung many more times.
the monkees. who knew?
All this talk about albums and 8-tracks and parents (Hi, Sheila’s Dad!) takes me back to sitting on the staircase of our best friends’s house with all “the kids” (who were banned from downstairs), listening to our parents having parties. We dreamed of the day when WE could sit, talk, eat California Onion Dip and cocktail weenies, drink white wine, and listen to Roberta Flack.
Trust me, when you’re 8? “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” is the COOLEST.
Bren –
I knew none of that.
You amaze me.
Lisa –
We had identical childhoods, excpet for the fact that my parents did not listen to Meatloaf. I also remember sitting at the top of the stairs in my pajamas, listening to my parents have their bridge parties – and people still smoked back then! – hahaha
Also, I love how they just blatantly banished us from the room. “Go. This is an adult party. Go.” We were able to occupy ourselves with our toys upstairs, or whatever … and they whooped it up downstairs.
And Roberta Flack is, indeed, the height of being an adult.
If you Google “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”, the first hit is the lyrics of the Sex Pistols version.
Huh. Kinda cool for a Boyce/Hart song.
Oh, of course! The smoking! My mom was the only one of their “group” who didn’t smoke, so she’d be very very lonely if everyone had to go outside to smoke like they do today.
I loved those parties. We’d sit and listen to them downstairs for a while until we got bored (All that TALKING, who could stand it?!) and then we’d either play hide-n-go-seek or watch TV. Our parties were ALWAYS at the Parkers’s house; they were rich and only had one kid. Richard had his own TV and stereo IN HIS ROOM, and we of course thought he was the shit. Which he was.
After completely dismantling all his stuff, we would fall asleep on the coats and be carried home. Good times. The BEST times.
(The Parkers had a pool, so in the summer there was much partying. And Tab. Lots and lots of Tab.)
Where to start? Long live ANALOG! You are right, Sheila, opening a CD is nothing like opening an album. I remember many, many hours spent reading and examining album covers. Plus, they were great for rolling–not that I would know.
As a boy, I owned 7-10 Herb Alpert albums, but Whipped Cream…was the best. I especially liked A Taste of Honey–I used to listen to it before Church League Basketball games to psyche myself up. My parents were much younger than my friends’ parents, and considered quite cool. Among their Lettermen, Ray Coniff, Frank Sinatra, Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Harry Belafonte, were a few Beatles, lots of Four Tops, Supremes, Temptations, and O’Jays, and Beach Boys. We always had music playing in the house. My Dad took my sister and me to see Diana Ross and the Supremes for our first live concert–what a blast that was. When the Four Tops came to town, my Mother(who was a High School teacher)ended up with her picture on the front page of the newspaper dancing at the concert with Curtis Price, the best high school basketball player in the state. My Dad had that photo on his desk for many years.
I love hearing people talk about their memories of early exposure to music. There is something about an album cover that can trigger such recollections. As you do, many people remember their parents’ or grandparents’ collections, and remember the music they heard back then. I still own somewhere around 5-6,000 albums, much to my wife’s chagrin. If you ever wanted to find an old favorite, just drop me a line–I got CONNECTIONS.
6,000 albums??? Do you have a warehouse in your backyard?/ Wow!!
So … er … you wouldn’t happen to have the album put out by the Whiffenpoofs in 1959, would you? Probably not.
I love the details of what people remember from their childhoods too – so cool!!!
I don’t have the Whiffenpoof’s album, but I bet I can find it if you want me to.
Okay, here are the deets:
It came out in 1959, I believe – and was some anniversary album – maybe their 50th anniversary? It didn’t have a snappy title – it might have just been “The Whiffenpoofs” – and I also believe it was the first album the group ever put out. But when I googled around for The Whiffenpoofs – all I found was their most recent stuff.
Since then – the Whiffenpoofs put out albums every couple of years – but the 1959 one was the first.
songs on the album that I remember:
Mountain Greenery
Scarlet Ribbons for her Hair
uhm … and that’s all I remember right now.
Maybe they did Annie Laurie as well.
Lisa – isn’t there something just so … wonderful … about having grown up in the 70s? Everything you say is so familiar to me.
Tab!!!
I also loved being out at other people’s houses and getting to change into my pjs with the other kids in the house – and then being taken home, fast asleep. So wonderful!
Very cool. I still have my stereo from 1987, and the turntable still works. I have, I dunno, not quite 100 albums still–some stuff, like some classical, I got used (very cheap and in wonderful shape). My top five hunks of vinyl (not the best of all time, just my personal vinyl favorites):
The Beatles’ Second Album (this is actually my parents’ monaural copy. It’s more scratches and tape than record and jacket, but still fun to listen to.
The Amazing Colossal Band Did you know that the best instrumental surf band in the world aside from Dick Dale is from Helsinki? Yes, fans, it’s Laika and the Cosmonauts!
Armed Forces Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Little more need be said.
Give ‘Em Enough Rope Clash purists tend to discount this one. It was their first US release and was produced by Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas, but it was perfect for this ex-metalhead investigating punk rock.
Zontar Must Die! Alas, I can’t find this one–I must have lost it. A 1984 release by a gloriously ragged Cleveland band called the Wombats. Literally irreplaceable. I still dream of stumbling on it in a yet-to-be-unpacked box in the cellar.
Re: the Shaving Cream cover, I have a fairly amusing parody in the form of a Soul Asylum CD called Clam Dip and Other Delights. Not sure who it is sitting in all that clam dip, but he reminds me of Tom Waits.
Ken – awesome list of albums!!! I love your commentary as well. Very cool. I’m jealous that you have a turntable – I really need to get one, because I still have a pretty cool collection of records back at my parents house.
Oh, and if you scroll up through this huge comment thread – you’ll see I put a link to that Clam Dip album cover – so funny!!!! hahahaha
Woops, I missed it. Silly me.
Sheila-
When I saw you were talking about album covers from your childhood, the very first thing I thought about was that Herb Alpert cover. I absolutely, positively remember seeing that many, many times in your house on Paul Ave. I guess it was pretty racy for the times…
As for John Denver-for me it was Greatest Hits-first album I ever got. Still a favorite.
Best,
Shannon
WOW, what memories those brought back! hehehe, the first thing I thought of when I started reading this was the HATB “cream” cover! Herb Alpert… I too looked at that album cover for HOURS as a young man, but unlike you Shiela, I REALLY wanted to see that boob! :) Anyway, growing up in Colorado, John Denver was HUGE with us. Even my old man, who’s musical interestes were Mario Lanza (this from a guy who went to high school with Buddy Holley!) liked him; although I distinctly remember him dissing on his “goofy round specs” lol. His songs are the reason I learned to play the guitar, and still love to play his songs. Thanks Sheila for a wonderful trip back in time!!!
Oh, and the Champs album cover with all the guys in red shirts sitting on motorcycles. I Wore. That. Thing. OUT! I knew “tequilla” LONG before Pee Wee did his dance! My Mom had the coolest collection, like I said, my Dad had no taste in music :)
Crap, I’m like addicted to this now. One more thing, I vividly remember my best friend Tom in High school had just put a cassette player in his truck. We were out drinking beer that night and he held up a Foreigner tape and said “this is the future”. How funny now, at the time all we wanted was to upgrade from 8 track to cassette! Wow, the life in small town Colorado!
Aw man, when I saw the Clancy Brothers on your list I clapped my hands!
I’ll always remember my very first gig as a costume designer at summer stock. My sister came to visit, and ended up helping me with some eleventh-hour stitching. We were listening to “Peter Kagan and the Wind” on the Makem and Clancy album: “Down the smoking, stormy seas she came! Over the rail of the dory she came, laughing, to his arms!” Amy and I looked at each other, and we both had tears streaming down our faces. Then we both started laughing.
It’s one of my favorite memories.
The 8 track was invented by Bill Lear, the man who founded the Lear Jet company that makes small jets for corporate use.
http://www.8trackheaven.com/early.html
I was surpised to read that the 8 track lasted until Madonnna.
My father met him several times while flying small aircraft, and I have one or two of Bill’s prototype tapes somewhere that he gave Dad. I suppose they’re quite valuable.
John, while Lear developed the 8-track there were several other magnetic tape recorder/players being marketed. Some arguably superior to the 8-track, but no one else seemed to have Lear’s money and contacts — which really pushed the format to the front.
My first album? Cheech and Chong’s Get Out of My Room.
Cullen – the article I linked to mentions that Lear’s marketing perhaps outshone his technical genius – it was putting the thing in every ’66 Ford that shot the 8-track system to the top of the pack. I have a couple of catridges of 4 tracks somewhere, too, as well as a nice old reel-to-reel player.
Lear was one of those rare people with an eye for both business and technical matters, although he did go off the deep end in his later years.
Sheila,
Just saw this on Gizmodo today.
It’s a USB turntable. Let me say that again. IT’S A USB TURNTABLE FOR GOODNESS SAKES.
It’s made by a company called ION and the model name is ITTUSB.
Rips that vinyl right to your PC on the fly. Then you can make discs or mp3s.
It also plays through your stereo just like the old days.
And its only $139.
The people will buy, Ray. The people most definately will buy.
“Just on the border of your waking mind…there lies another time…where darkness and light are one…” Great album! Love the ELO. Both “Time” and “Out of the Blue” were a big part of my soundtrack in high school.
When I was a kid, my grandma had a couple of Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass albums that I loved to listen to. In my earlier years, I mispronounced his name as “Herp Albert”. He’s the reason I chose to play a trumpet when I joined the band in 5th grade.
The first record I ever picked out for myself was a 45 of “Convoy” by C.W. McCall. The first album I remember buying was by Barry Manilow, when the song “Daybreak” was popular.
Oh — and to the first commentor, on the cover of the Whipped Cream album, the model was in fact covered mostly with shaving cream. Apparently whipped cream didn’t look quite right.
1) Yes, the movie version of My Fair Lady is bullshit. Especially if you’ve heard Julie Andrews do it.
2) I know you only mentioned Garth Brooks briefly, but all I have to say is,
“SHE’S A GREEEAAT WOMAN!!!!!!!”
1) Yes, the movie version of My Fair Lady is bullshit. Especially if you’ve heard Julie Andrews do it.
2) I know you only mentioned Garth Brooks briefly, but all I have to say is,
“SHE’S A GREEEAAT WOMAN!!!!!!!”
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WE also had that My Fair Lady album. And I believe I felt the same way about the movie/lip synching thing. We also had Herb Alpert, but not the whipped cream album…probably a little to suggestive for my parents to buy that one. We loved Herb Alpert, though.
I loved that ELO album too-I’d love to frame some of my old albums someday.
I enjoyed this post. I also remember living off my parents’–meaning, really, my Dad’s–records, along with a small collection of 45 singles I started buying. Our choice was to listen in the living room when parents weren’t around (remember when parents could leave kids alone for huge chunks of the day?) or to use a little portable player.
There weren’t too many folk records in his collection, although there were a few oddities like several Richard Dyer Bennett albums. “My Fair Lady” was in there. It and “The Sound of Music” and “Camelot” seemed to be issued as standard equipment to parents in the 60s.
Only in my teens did I get wise to some of his albums: Tom Lehrer, Bob Newhart, and “Beyond the Fringe.” I remember testing them as a little kid and being bored and puzzled. Then I tried them again when 12 or so and loved them.
The lady on the “Whipped Cream” album is Dolores Erickson. Whole living rooms have reportedly been wallpapered with this album.
Rob–A USB turntable? That’s frakking brilliant! (starting his 2006 Christmas list…)
What a way to start the day! What an amazing post, and the entire O’Malley clan commenting away. I remember so many Sopnny & Cher album covers, so many Barry manilows and because my father was italian, Jimmy Roselli and jery Vale (who was born born Genaro Louis Vitaliano) God I’d love to get my hands on those albums.
The other day I said to my wife, I think we missed one of the counting crows albums. I’m amazed that I still refer to them as albums.
Great post Sheila!
Sheila, you were right, I love this post! So much overlap with my own parents’ collection. I actually screamed when I saw the first Ian and Sylvia album cover. If I had known that there were other kids in the world, much less in the U.S., who had and listened to Ian and Sylvia … I don’t know, my whole life might be different! John Denver, Joan Baez … ahhh, it’s all coming back to me. Tell me your parents also had the Anne Murray album that looked like a patchwork quilt, the one with “Danny’s Song” on it? Ooh, I’m getting teary just thinking about it.
I so love all the comments above related to that sense of “grown up fun” going on. Those live Clancy Brothers albums really bring that back for me. I can remember my parents and their friends and siblings going out to hear Irish music at places that sounded so magical to me at the time, like The Emerald Isle, and with the same kid logic that make you connect the “sacred store” to the deli near your house, I always thought that they were going to see the Clancy Brothers (and sometimes, they probably were!) I remember the feeling that serious fun was to be had, grown up fun that I couldn’t be in on. And staying up late so that I could come down to see them when they got home, my mom smelling of perfume and cigarettes and cold. It was terrible to be excluded from that, but sort of delicious too — because you knew, without exactly knowing, that one day YOU would be having that same sort of grown up, out at night fun. All the music of that era, at least the music that was on in my little corner of it, reminds me of that, and I love that it’s such a universal experience! I wonder what songs will evoke these kinds of memories for my kids?
Thanks for a wonderful post!
And to chime in on David’s comment, I LOVE that all your siblings were posting back and forth on this, reliving it all. That’s so awesome!
Sheila –
Sadly, I believe that my children will be bombarded with Metallica, Eminem, Nirvana and Foo Fighters … trying to imagine them getting all mistily nostalgic over Metallica’s black album … uhm … I think not!!
It seems the first album I bought was the first Herman’s Hermits. :) It was big step to go the extra cost from a 45 to $3 for an LP. Of course I’d been listening to my mothers albums for some time. She had a small but eclectic collection with classical, musicals (Oklahoma and South Pacific were my favorites) and of course the Gilbert and Sullivan set of “Pirates of Penzance”, “The Mikado”, and “HMS Pinafore”.
As for the USB turntable, it sounds like a great id. But it’s belt driven for god’s sake! Think I’ll stick with my old Technics direct drive. I mean there is a line that just should never be crossed. (yeeesh, belt drive… )
i neeeeeeed a USB turntable.
we also definitely had the “help!” beatles album. i remember playing it over and over and over again (i could not get enough of it at like age 8) and mum coming in the kitchen (when the record player was moved to the kitchen) and saying, “maybe you could try playing another song?” hahaha.
siobhan – hahahaha The gentle suggestion!!!
sheila boy does that bring back memories. my
dad had that album. he used to listen to it all
the time. i can still see that crappy blonde
wood stereo my parents had. of course being a
guy i was bummed that you couldn’t see her boob!!
( i was like 10 or 11 at the time) thanks for the
memories.
sheil,
i think kids will get misty eyed about those albums. cash is obsessed with green day…hilarious to hear him singing along to american idiot in the backseat…
imagine the high voice…
welcome to a new kind of tension
all across the alien nation
everything wasn’t meant to be okay
television new day tomorrow
we’re not the ones who have to follow…
etc.
hilarious.
hahahahaha Cashel!!!
Great great album – I’m already mistily nostalgic about it!!
“Holiday” is my favorite off that album.
Everyone: all of these comments are SO COOL! It is so neat to read everyone’s remembrances – seriously. It’s awesome.
That I can actually bond with someone, in this day and age, about Ian and Sylvia, is BEYOND COOL.
my fave was listening to cashel’s little voice sing “boulevard of broken dreams”. he knew every word!
i also liked his insightful comments on how one knows when a rock song is ending. “You always know when the ending is comign when they repeat the last sentence.” Totally refreshing course in Songwriting 101 for Auntie Siobhan!
siobhan – I never heard that Cashel said that. He blows me away.
How about him saying that he had never been in a play that was “commissioned” before. what???
Get Thee to a DeLorean!
I love posts like the one Red writes today about the favorite albums of her youth, which is apparently of the same generational set as mine, growing up with her …
Bet none of y’all had Kingston Trio in your parents collection. I love this post red!!!!
Sharon – of course we did!! hahahaha Anyone who was into folk music as my parents obviously were would have the Kingston Trio ad nauseum!
Uhm … am I insane, or wasn’t Bob Gibson a part of the Kingston Trio??
I could be WAY off. For whatever reason, that one album of Bob Gibson just burned itself into my brain! Great stuff!
Sharon – I jsut read your post – awesome!!!
Men At Work!! Man, just seeing those album covers brought back my entire high school experience.
I do love Eminem, but I came to him on my own. No young whippersnappers in the picture. haha Actually, it’s because of my sisters – who basically started SHOUTING AT ME every time I said I had never heard any of his stuff. I love other rap as well, but he’s my favorite.
did anyone ever buy an album just for the sake of the artwork? I did – Asia’s “Alpha” – never was one for their music, but I was so enthralled by teh cover art, I had to get it. I may frame it someday.
I think I got overexposed to John Denver through the fandom of a college graduate who joined our church bacvk in the mid70s and brought the concept of Folk Music to the parish. He played a 12 string, just like Denver…SOUNDED just like Denver…and played his music endlessly whenever the group traveled to other parishes or on camping trips. Sunshine on My Shoulders make me twitch nowadays, but I still retain a fondness for Denver….even if he also reminds me of my exboyfriend….
Hmmmm…I think I need to see a psychologist…
Sharon – I have to say that one of the things that truly fascinated me about that ELO album I bought – was the cover. Even now, I look at it and can remember the wonder of staring at it!
im really late to this party…my father had a record player that was a HUGE piece of furniture…it had doors that opened and the turn table slid out..there was storage space..it fascinated us…my parents were older and not hip in my eyes..but then i remember my fathers albums were Ella,Louis,Sara,Julie London,Gladys Knight…when he left..he left those albums..i loved them..and i still listen to those artists all the time…maybe he was cooler than i thought. I was obsessed with his Redd Foxx and Phyliss Diller records too…so forbidden and funny…Herb Alpert was there..the whipped cream lady in attendence…loved it..is it time for a HA revival??? My parents never listened to folk music..that took the Candon family to introduce me to that. As a very young boy i began to spend my meager allowance on every Barbra Streisand album i could get my hands on…while the world was enjoying the Stones and Journey and ELO(one of my bro’s faves)..i was jamming to “Je M’appelle Barbra”…have it on cd now…Donna Summer’s Bad Girls was another self purchase…it was a double album with woman dressed as whores or “bad girls”…no replacement for the joy of that album cover and its inside flaps. My grandmother Bessie…whe owned this flat black box..not a regular album package…it opend like a very thin gift box..inside were two records…i loved it so much that by the time is was 5 i had i memorized and could do full on performances..its was “deluxe edition” of Judy at Carnegie Hall..she eventaully gave it to me because i listened it to it every time i was at her house.which was daily…of all the possessions lost in my mothers desertion of our house..that is the one that still hurts my heart…to this day..when asked the “one album on a desert island” question..it is always Judy at Carnegie Hall…at 5 i could do Stormy Weather like the best Vegas drag queen…the look and feel at that album and its unique packaging is like an instant trip to a happy part of my childhood and the love and connection to my wonderful,funny,strong,Linda Richman-like grandmother…thanks for ur almost constant brilliance Sheila.. i love you very much.
Oh, Mitchell. Bessie!!! What a life-saver she was.
Tears!!
a great lady…im so glad u knew her!
Also – I totally remember that Donna Summers album with all the hookers all over it – and Donna in that bad-ass cap that Britney Spears has since appropriated.
I particularly remember the close-up of hands on the steering wheel, with a wad of bills fanned out … member that?
So inappropriate!! hahaha
Great album though!
the man at the wheel! one of the Johns inside the album was her husband!!! that made me nervous and excited at the same pubescent time!
yes..great album..actually holds up very well…to unique in its own genre to sound dated..i listen to it …a lot!
Member going to see Donna Summer outside? And she sang Dont’ Cry for me Argentina … twice???
Like: once is enough. Yes, you do an amazing job. But just do it once.
so beautiful, though! Dancing barefoot in the grass to Donna Summer.
omg..yes..at Ravinia…why did she sing it twice????..thats freakin hysterical!
Drat! I missed this yesterday! Now I’ll have to have a big nostalgia post tonight. But I will leave you this teaser – my parents owned a 1978 Monte Carlo with an 8-track player and T-roofs. Now THAT’S guido, baby!
Nightfly –
hahahahaha Awesome!!
Man – reading through all these comments have totally made my day. I don’t know what it is – everyone seems so beautiful to me right now. The universality of what we’re talking about here – even though our parents all had different record collections, obviously –
It’s just so cool.
I look forward to your guido post! :)