Over the past week I was cleaning out the garage in a failed attempt at having a yard/garage/tag sale. Funny how things that have been missing for decades suddenly become needed or sentimental as a soon as they get put on the table to sell.
In the midst of all the junk, I did stumble upon this magical box…
It contained my record collection from High School to the point in college where I stopped buying albums and switched to CDs. (Roughly early ’70s to 1984)
The funny thing is, much of the most important music from those years is not in my collection. My friends and I were masters at taping each other’s albums, and living off of cassettes. (Nowadays you would probably get sued by the RIAA.)
So, here a a few of the albums that jumped out at me and brought back great memories. These are all from before I graduated form High School. I’m sure you have you own collection in your head, or in your garage. Please share!
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When I was 13, my parents bought me my very own record player. (plastic, teakwood needle – awesome!) My mom had no idea what records to buy, so she asked the guy at the record store his opinion. She came home with these:
…even though I was never a Beatles fan.
(Sigh)
Kenny Loggins
Billy Joel
Dan Fogelberg
James Taylor
I think I was the only kid my age that actually owned a Jackson Browne album. Yup, that’s me: Mr. Sophisticated.
The first concert I ever saw, and the first album ever given to me by a girl.
Steve Miller Band (Thanks Jennie!)
Movie Soundtracks were big!
Yes, I did eat raw eggs like every other red-blooded American boy.
Don’t mock. Who would have predicted that 20 years later I would play the “Rainbow Song” on the guitar with my daughter at a daddy-daughter talent show.
I DID NOT OWN THIS ALBUM: (My parents did!)
But I knew every song, and danced a mean “Latin Hustle”.
Jazz was my friend in HS.
Of course, so was Frampton. Peter Frampton was required listening in the late 70’s. It is amazing how well this album has held up 33 years later.
I saw the Cars perform in 1978 as a warm-up band for Styx. I used to hide this album because I was afraid my parents would deem it too risque – and make me throw it away.
What this concert did, in retrospect, was symbolize my personal shift from “Rock” to “New Wave”. While many were riding the dying current of ‘Disco”, I had moved on to the likes of this:
So, that is just some of what I was listening to in my formative years. Maybe one day I will post my college era music – that’s when it gets eclectic.
One final influence…
“the circle of our love….”
Yup. I’m old.
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I’m a little young (or a lot) for vinyl. We did get Saturday’s Warrior on VHS for Christmas one year. My little sister played it incessantly and with nothing better to do, i watched. All I have to say is, “Jimmy, don’t forget your promise.”
Very fun post! I actually did a similar one a few months back, but it was on the first CDs and cassette tapes I remember buying.
My parents had quite a decent collection of vinyl records when I was growing up (everything from The Beatles and Queen to Willie Nelson and Billy Joel), my own record collection mostly consisted of the read-along story books that went something like “turn the page when you hear Tinkerbell’s chime—drrrrriiiingggg!”
Fun walk down memory lane. I confess I had many of these same albums in my long-since lost collection. Featuring your post today in Mormon Daddy Blogs (http://mormondaddyblogs.com).
Ah, memories…I’m a bit younger than thou; my first record was “We Are the World” which was a gift when I was 7 years old.
My first CD was a few years later, and was Jackson Browne’s Lawyers in Love. Funny, since all these years later I’m now a lawyer myself, and also very much in love myself with my dear EC.
Tom O’Neill
Great collection!
I think you could write an excellent post on how Saturday’s Warrior influenced a generation’s thinking re: certain doctrinal principles. And by doctrinal, I mean made up by the creator (note the little c, rather than The Creator), but people to this day believe to be True Doctrine.
Just in case you run out of post ideas one day. 🙂
Good thinking, hiding the “Candy O” album. Did you also have to sing “Sittin on a bar stool, talkin like a DARN fool” so your parents would let you listen to “Too Much Time on My Hands”? I still get a little tingly feeling every time I hear that sequence of opening notes. Which isn’t often, because my tape player in my car tends to skip.
Great collection! Could you make me a mix tape of all of that??
I actually hit a Dan Fogelberg concert (and, yes I had that album you showed..along with a few others), which was awesome! I wish I’d experience a STYX concert..And Wings totally rocked it!
My high school days were influenced by Metallica’s Black Album, Pink Floyd, Indigo Girls and various glam rock bands and AC/DC. There was a country stint but luckily I survived that and moved on.
My brother won a KISS album from one of the radio stations, I still have that one; along with…yep, you got it…The Osmond Brothers…oooh sooo dreammmy!
I have to sign this as anonymous only because blogger still will not let me comment as myself…they need to step up and get it fixed.
Kari – duchsfearl.blogspot.com
I love the music for Saturday’s Warrior! When I was a senior, our high school actually performed Saturday’s Warrior. You know, small-town Utah…that was 25 years ago. It would never happen now (sigh).
Sandy