May 18 – Turntable Talk 14 : Elton Was Worth A Few Weeks Allowance

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we wrap it up and I look back at …the first!

Thanks to all the guest writers for the great trips down memory lane! Interestingly, four mentioned Beatles-related records (themselves or solo works by Paul McCartney) among their very firsts. Not me, though I do think a Wings album made it into my first half dozen or so LPs.

I was lucky, I grew up in a house where there was often music playing. My parents both liked music and seemed to appreciate a range of styles. My Mom was more pop-oriented, liked the Beatles, Tom Jones I think – probably partly because he was Welsh like her, but probably partly because she was a woman with eyes and most women back then seemed to think Tom had “it”. My dad, when I was young, seemed to like older country music and often had that on in the car; he’d also soon get to appreciate some more traditional music like marching bands, anthemic pieces. He didn’t go in for much rock or pop, but he did like Seals & Crofts, and a few other acts of the ’70s. Then there was my older brother, old enough to like more of what would be “FM” rock – Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Led Zep, some Alice Cooper to annoy my mom if nothing else. If I had a leaning back when I was really young, it would probably be for easy-listening pop songs I heard in the background, and would later find to be things done by artists like Classics IV (whom I still like listening to), Dionne Warwick, the Mamas & the Papas.

I was “stuck” with listening to whatever happened to be on in the house until, I think, Christmas 1971. Or sometime around then. I was given a little transistor radio of my own… one that was about the size of a thick celphone by today’s standards, with a tiny gnurled dial on one side to change the AM stations and a volume on it somewhere. It came with a single earbud, if I wanted to listen in privacy. That’s when everything changed.

I quickly found Chum radio in Toronto, at the time the most popular radio station in the land. It was a typical AM, top 40 (although they put out a weekly chart that was actually top 30 instead as seen in the example below) music. And I listened a lot. It was one of the very few perks of being sick a lot. I had a bit more time to listen when other kids would be out playing, or even at school some days. I seem to remember all the music that came from ’72 more clearly than many years and much more so than any year prior. “Summer Breeze” (one my dad liked), “American Pie”, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”, “Brandy”, “Long Cool Woman” … so many great singles to enjoy and sing along with. I still enjoy them now, but sing along a whole lot less frequently!

My parents gave me an allowance – probably 50 cents a week, maybe equivalent to two or three bucks now. Not much, but it made five or six year old me feel rich. I wasn’t a candy fan generally, and didn’t share my brother’s love of comic books, so for me, my money went to two things – baseball (infrequently hockey) cards and records. At the time, I didn’t have anything to play records on, but my brother had a portable record player he sometimes left out, and there was a good one in the living room that was part of my dad’s stereo. Somewhere along the way Dad taught me how to switch that on and turn it to the turntable. So many a trip to the mall with my mom were highlights to me, because I could go to the Eatons department store and go to their records section downstairs, and buy a 45. If I’d been saving for a few weeks, maybe two. I think the 7” singles were about 59 cents each then. I couldn’t tell you exactly what one I bought first but I do remember having and loving “Tightrope” by Leon Russell and “Nice To Be With you” by Jim Gold & the Gallery from that year. And “Rocketman”, by Elton John of course.

Elton became my first “favorite” musician and was everywhere on Canadian radio back then. Canucks loved him and there was lots of material to love – between November ’71 and October ’73, he put out four new albums, one of them a double-LP. That’s a fast clip! By 1974, there was another and, more significantly for me, I was given my first stereo of my own! It was an all-in-one that I loved; gaudy looking in a way that would now be considered retro-cool. White plastic, with rounded corners, silver knobs for volume, bass, treble (something on a kids’ stereo back then not found on half the mainstream units these days – go make sense out of that!), a light up orange display for sliding the channel tuner up and down. It had an 8-track player in it, and a turntable on top, with a smoked-glass looking cover. I wish I could find a photo of it, but even Google seems stumped by that search. Anyway, that went on my bedroom dresser and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me, including making tapes (8-track) from the radio and playing my records whenever I wanted. By then I had a lot of singles, but sometime around then, end of ’74 or early ’75, I bought my very first LP … Elton John’s Greatest Hits.

Why not ? Ten of his singles all in one package, and I loved all of them. Well, nine of them off the bat, the tenth, “Border Song”, his very first single (which was a top 40 in Canada still) was new to me, but I quickly grew to like it a lot. Oddly, for some reason I can’t recall, as much as I loved his music, I think by then I only had “Rocketman” and “Bennie and the Jets” as 45s, so it was getting a lot of songs I absolutely loved all at once – “Crocodile Rock”, “Honky Cat”, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Your Song”… My brother disapproved. He scorned Elton because he figured he was a gay man . My bro’ used a slightly less polite term. That was only rumored back then, but turns out he was right. But I didn’t care, I loved his music, and that was that. Neither did most Canadians or Americans care, it seemed. The album was #1 in Canada for 14 weeks in total and in the U.S. was the top-seller of 1975. It’s diamond-status in both and has sold well over 20 million copies, and would probably be above that had MCA not eventually discontinued it and put out more extensive greatest hits packages instead.

After that, I can’t remember my second album purchase, but it might have been going backwards to get his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or forward to his Captain Fantastic that came out later in ’75. Or a K-tel … who didn’t love those 20-song hit compilations back then?

Not too long after 1975, my enthusiasm for a lot of Elton’s new work diminished, but his Greatest Hits was a record I played and played and played for years. Making it a pretty good expenditure of a month or so’s worth of allowance , close to 50 years ago.

That’s our memories – I’d love to hear your firsts . Feel free to comment on them.

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May 17 – Turntable Talk 14 : The Original Parodying Al

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we welcome back John , from The Sound of One Hand Typing. There he typically takes an interesting look at a a song a day, from a range of decades and styles. His first record was:

My Uncle Ed was upgrading his stereo equipment in the early '60's and talked his younger brother (Dad) into buying his old one. Soon we had albums by June Christy, The Dukes of Dixieland, Si Zentner, Jack Jones, Andy Williams, Andre Previn (who played some pretty great jazz piano), and others. 

Mom's Aunt Cash was the person who got my music collection started when she bought me Allan Sherman's album My Son, The Celebrity. I think I had heard it somewhere and said I really liked it, so the next time she made the drive from the South Side, she brought me my very own copy.

If you aren't familiar with Allan, he was a master of the song parody, a sort of late 1950's-early 1960's Weird Al Yankovic. He took familiar songs and wrote lyrics for them that had his fans in stitches. For example, the opening track on “Celebrity” was a parody of the French folk song "Alouette" called "Al 'n Yetta"....

I received a music education by listening to Allan Sherman. Many of the melodies were familiar, or would become familiar in later years. The second track on the album was a trio of songs by George M. Cohan that received the parodist's touch. I was seven. I had no idea who George M. Cohan was, so I asked Dad. "Look it up at school tomorrow, Johnny," he said, so I did. I learned how to read the names of songs' original authors off of the record label, and saw that to of them had been written by Gilbert and Sullivan. I didn't bother asking Dad who they were, I went to the World Book at school and learned about them and the operas they wrote. A character in the song "The Mexican Hat Dance" did "sambas on Homburgs to tunes of Sig Romberg and sometimes the Nutcracker Suite." I could tell that a samba was probably a dance, a Homburg was probably a hat, and Sig Romberg was probably a composer. Looked all of them up, too.

"Harvey And Sheila" was a parody of the Jewish folk song "Hava Nagila," which I was vaguely familiar with because many of my neighbors were Jewish, but there were all kinds of things to learn, namely, what all the acronyms meant...

Cash was so happy that I enjoyed that album that she bought me Sherman's next album, Allan In Wonderland, that had many more song parodies on it, all sung before a live audience, kind of like a laugh track. By far, my favorite on that album was "The Dropouts' March."

So, what happened? The British Invasion. Soon, my Allan Sherman records were gathering dust while Introducing... The Beatles played on heavy rotation at home. He was all but forgotten when he died in 1973. When I heard of his passing, I found My Son, The Celebrity and Allan In Wonderland and put them on heavy rotation. And I laughed like I was seven again.

May 16 – Turntable Talk 14 : The King Reigned In Germany

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we have Christian , from Christian’s Music Musings. He looks at new releases and spotlights older great songs there, and unlike the rest of our guest writers, grew up in Europe so his first LP might have been bought in Deutschemarks:

Thanks, Dave, for inviting me back for another Turntable Talk contribution. Your recurring feature truly is a gift that keeps on giving. I particularly enjoy reading the posts from fellow bloggers and the insights I gain in both their music tastes and personalities. And since I love writing about music, of course, it’s also fun sharing my own two cents.

This time, Dave asked us to reflect on the first album we bought, whether on vinyl, CD or in other formats. Jeez, I oftentimes can’t recall what I did the previous day, so remembering what I did some 45-plus years ago seems to be impossible. So, I decided to take some liberty with the topic.

While I really can’t remember the first record I bought with my own money, which to be clear would be my monthly allowance or any German Marks I received as a gift for my birthday or Christmas, I’m fairly certain three records were among the very first I owned and still do to this day!

Two of them are pictured above.

I believe The Beatles compilation I bought with my “own” money. The greatest hits sampler by The Everly Brothers, on the other hand, was a gift.

Obviously, I could have picked The Beatles, my all-time favorite band. But I’ve written multiple times about them, including once for Turntable Talk. That’s the main reason I picked the following record. Plus, given Elvis Presley was my first and only childhood idol before I discovered the four lads from Liverpool, there’s a high probability I owned Elvis’s 40 Greatest prior to getting the Beatles compilation.

Before I get to the record, let me tell you a little bit about my obsession with Elvis as a kid back in Germany. While my six-year-older sister introduced me to some of the greatest music ever recorded, such as Carole King’s Tapestry, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Déjà Vu, the “King of Rock and Roll” was my own discovery.

I must have “met” the man for the first time on the radio. We’re talking about 1976 or 1977, when I was 10 or 11 years old. I can’t recall specifically what it was that grabbed my attention in ways no other music had done before then. Mind you, I didn’t understand or speak any English, so I was reacting to Elvis’ amazing voice, as well as the cool groove and incredible energy projected by tunes like “Tutti Frutti” and “Jailhouse Rock”.

I became truly infatuated with Elvis and wanted to know everything about him. Obviously, there was no Internet back then, so I couldn’t simply ask Mr. Google or check Wikipedia! I do recall reading a bio published in paperback but sadly don’t remember the author or the title. Mr. Google didn’t help either, but since that bio included Elvis’ death in August 1977, obviously, it must have appeared thereafter – I assume sometime in 1978.

I also watched Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite on German TV. Given the original broadcast aired in 1973, it must have been a re-run, likely in the wake of Elvis’s passing. I also recall watching the Western Flaming Star (1960). Elvis starred in many movies, most of which were forgettable. I would say Flaming Star and Jailhouse Rock (1957) were among the best ones.

My obsession with Elvis culminated in attempts to impersonate the King in front of the mirror. I would even put grease in my hair. Once I also “costumed” as Elvis during the so-called Karneval season, which is prominent in the Rhineland, the area where I grew up, especially in the cities of Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Aachen and Mainz. Costuming, dancing, parades, drinking and happiness (or is it really forced silliness?) are part of the celebration, which reaches its climax in the week leading up to Ash Wednesday when ‘everything is over,’ as the Karneval fans say.

Once I started picking up the guitar as a 12- or 13-year-old, incorporating the instrument became part of my Elvis impersonation package. One of the first Elvis tunes I learned was “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”. My poor parents really had a lot to endure!

Okay, I think you get the picture. I idolized Elvis, of course in an innocent childish way.

Time to finally get to some music and the aforementioned compilation, which according to Discogs was released in 1978. I know I got it as a present for Christmas, and we’re likely talking about the holiday in that same year.

As also noted above, I still own that copy. While a bit worn it’s still playable. To prove it, I’ll leave with clips of four tunes I captured myself, one from each side of the double LP.

Side 1, Track 7: (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear (1957) – of course, I couldn’t skip that one!

Side 2, Track 2: Hard Headed Woman (1958) – this song just rocks; love the cool guitar solo by the great Scotty Moore!

Side 3, Track 10: Can’t Help Falling In Love (1961) – call it schmaltz, but that tune is a true beauty, which literally has brought me to tears!

Side 4, Track 8: Suspicious Minds (1969) – one of my all-time favorites I couldn’t skip!

While since those days back in the second half of the ‘70s I’ve become a bit more mature (I think!) and no longer idolize Elvis, or anyone else for that matter, I still enjoy much of his music. I also think Elvis was an incredible performer, especially in the ‘50s before joining the U.S. Army in March 1958 for his military service.

May 15 – Turntable Talk 14 : Fab Four A Fab First

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we have Max , from the Power Pop blog. There he regularly writes great bits about songs, power pop or not as well as at times looks back on classic TV like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek. His first time to the cash register:

Dave wanted to know the first album I bought myself. So that’s my next topic- Feels Like The First Time. Do you remember what the first album you bought was? LP? CD? Reel to reel, LOL? Why that one? Do you still have it? Would you want to ?

I didn’t know this album was a greatest hits package when I purchased it. I’m picking this album because of the personal connection to it…and it might be the album that influenced me the most in my life. I was only 8 years old and I bought it on vinyl. I do still have the jacket somewhere but the album was lost with all of the moving I did in my twenties.

Is this the best Beatles greatest hits album? No, not by a long shot but it was the first Beatle album (or any album) I bought and was not handed down by my sister or relatives. I had some money given to me by a relative and mom helped me with the rest. The first Beatle album I listened to was my cousin’s copy of Meet The Beatles…he let me borrow it for a while. The Hey Jude album sent me down the road of getting into music that was at least a generation before me…and I’m still in that generation. I don’t regret a thing, because I’m still discovering new old music and new music that has its influences.

My cousin kept telling me of this great song called “Paperback Writer” and he didn’t have a copy. He built the song up so much that I had to listen to it. Of course, back then there was no internet and no easy way to listen to a song. I found this album at a record store that I begged my mom to take me. I went through the Beatles albums and this one had “Paperback Writer”. I couldn’t believe these bearded guys were in the same band as on Meet The Beatles. So when I was 8 years old I got two albums… one was a birthday present… the soundtrack to Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang (that I requested), and then I bought this one. My mom asked…are you sure? A nod of my head and I bought a ticket to enter the Beatles world which I still reside.

It has a slight mixture of older, middle, and at that time, newer songs. This was a collection of non-album singles and B sides from the Beatles on the American Capitol label.

The album was conceived by Allen Klein (boooo) and Apple Records and released in 1970. The original name was going to be “The Beatles Again” but they wanted to capitalize on the hit “Hey Jude”. It was a nice album that should have included more of their earlier hits but it gave us a couple… “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I Should Have Known Better”.

My favorite at that time was of course “Paperback Writer”…that guitar and those backing vocals…were/are great! If that song would not have lived up to my cousin’s building…I may not have stuck with The Beatles. Remember, all I’d heard to that point was their first album with Capitol, Meet The Beatles, so I couldn’t believe that “Rain” and the rest came from the same band that played “I Want To Hold Your Hand”. I didn’t know the history. My 8-year-old mind thought…”What the hell happened?…” Where I am musically now…all started with this album purchase.

This album brings back memories of playing it on a green portable turn table I had at the time with removable speakers.

Like this but green…

the songs:

Can’t Buy Me Love
I Should Have Known Better
Paperback Writer
Rain
Lady Madonna
Revolution
Hey Jude
Old Brown Shoe
Don’t Let Me Down
Ballad Of John And Yoko

May 14 – Turntable Talk 14 : Kiss Brought Some Alive With Joy

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we have Deke , from Deke’s Viny Reviews and More. Deke’s always enthusiastic especially about hard rock and vinyl releases. Has he always been? We’ll find out here:

Thanks to Dave for once again letting me participate with you all. It will come as no shocker, but my first album was KISS Alive II which was released in 1977 but I had not gotten it until sometime in early1978 when I was in Duluth, Minnesota and used my trip money to buy this album.

I was hooked and still am when it comes to anything Hard Rock. KISS had it down pat at the time. Since then I’ve been a fan for 45 years. They have gotten silly in regards to marketing, which I won’t get into but when it comes to reissuing their past albums with demos, live material, I’m still that guy that will go and get the updated versions.

KISS Alive II ,my original copy, is long gone. But about five years ago my daughter Lauren gifted me a reissue copy of Alive II and KISS themselves did the right thing by including the original booklet plus the stick-on tattoos that came with it. Seeing all that took me right back to ’78…

I thought I would talk about most of the songs on here as this was not only my introduction not only to KISS but to that crazy world of Hard Rock/Metal.

KISS growing up in the ’70s were huge. They were in all kinds of print press like Circus and Creem and even teeny bopper magazines like 16. So of course a pal of mine whose name was John Young had the KISS Originals (first three Kiss studio records packaged as a triple set) and when I saw the cover of the “Originals” I drooled. Who are these four Kabuki-like warriors with makeup?

Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter aka Demon, Starchild, Spaceman and Cat.

Let me talk about the songs from this double-vinyl that have basically brainwashed me since 1978!

“DETROIT ROCK CITY” Some Kiss guy announces “You wanted the best …..” we know the rest, right? We’re off and there’s the crowd roaring at the opening riff of “Detroit Rock City”. The crowd is jacked. I mean the audio of it. To this day when I listen to it I find the crowd too much even – if it’s a Kiss crowd (or the supposed sample KISS used by The Super Bowl ’77 crowd!) Who knows and I see what KISS is doing, they’re making it seem bigger and better and were louder than all you other acts out there. For me at age 11 going on 12 …it friggin’ worked.

“KING OF THE NIGHTIME WORLD” is launched and the KISS live chops (is it live?)… well for me at that time, they sound live and I’m blown away. Holy geez are Ace/Paul pulling down some dual leads at the end of this tune! Yeah they actually are…

“LADIES ROOM” Next to the Creatures Of The Night album (1982), I would have to say this is Gene Simmons best-sung record and it’s the live one. I mean check out the top left pick of Simmons (front cover) where he has all that blood and guck spewing out of his mouth! Man he’s a mess, but being 12 at the time you would have thought “Mom can I sleep tonight with the light on tonight ?”after looking at that pic.

“CALLING DR. LOVE” KISS sound like they know what they’re doing on this track. Better yet, Peter Criss pulls out the cowbell and by the time I got around to getting the studio albums, it’s evidently clear that these live versions are played at a fast clip compared to the studio offerings. Party stimulants were around I’m sure on that “Kiss Alive II Tour” of 1977.

“SHOCK ME” My favourite Kiss guy, Space Ace Frehley loads up (literally ) and blasts off with his lead vocal and guitar solo on “Shock Me”. It’s a great track and a bunch of mish-mashing notes make up his guitar solo and of course the guitar is smoking during it.

“HARD LUCK WOMAN” & “TOMORROW & TONIGHT”- Were both recorded in the studio and then the live crowd was slapped down in the background so KISS could fill up the live portion of the album without repeating tracks that were on the first Kiss Alive from two years earlier! I wonder what went through Simmons and Stanley’s heads at the time when they did this stunt! Yeah I know and you know what went through their heads, the answer was….$$$$$$$$$$$$ and more $$$$$$$$!

“I STOLE YOUR LOVE” Was this not the tour opener? Except for Alive II it’s the opening song on Side 3 ! Good straight ahead rocker track!

“BETH”- So Petey the cat man gets his limelight complete with prerecorded symphony . It’s his time to shine, while Gene And Paul count the $$$$ backstage and Ace… well I dunno…

“GOD OF THUNDER” Demon Gene, the lord of the wasteland, slams forward on this Sabbath-like stomp complete with Peter Criss drum solo which I thought at the time was the greatest drum solo… until I heard Neal Peart in 1981 totally mash his drum set on his solo on YYZ! Anyways Criss does his deal and we’re headed to the finish line with …

“SHOUT IT OUT LOUD” Gene and Paul want us to all “Shout it Out Loud!” You gotta have a party! This song we have all heard and the live portion album ends with Kiss telling us they love us!

So Kiss decides “Hey we got 15 minutes on side 4 lets get the yaya’s out ,so to speak and each guy does a studio tune well except Criss. Listen to Peter’s solo album from 1978 and this will explain to you the listener why there are no studio tracks of his on Alive II!

“AMERICAN MAN” Paulie struts himself and tells us he is an American Man! Ummm, is this really KISS playing on this? Bob Kulick supposedly played all the lead guitar on these tracks except for the Ace tune (coming up)

“LARGER THAN LIFE” It’s Simmons and it’s not a bad tune! I’ve heard better (“Radioactive”), heard worse (his whole Asshole solo album). It’s Gene circa ’77, ego included!

“ROCKET RIDE” This is why Ace is my fave Kiss guy until he split in 1982! He just rocks out this track. I mean does it get any better in the Frehley Hall Of Fame with lyrics like ” baby wants it fast baby wants a blast she wants a Rocket Ride!” ? Plus his solo is so sloppy it’s cool! Ace in ’77, you were the deal!

“ANY WAY YOU WANT IT” Cover tune and Stanley and crew rock it up but yeah its a cover!

In conclusion – Rewind, like I said to early ’79 and Alive II blew my 11-year old mind! Kiss laid down the law with a gimmick and it royally paid off, ’til the public got sick of Kiss and their deal in the early ’80s. Except for me. I still littered Gene and Paul’s pockets with dollars, not cents!

 

May 13 – Turntable Talk 14 – Muppets To McCartney & More

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we have Keith , the Nostalgic Italian. Keith is a great at making the ordinary events in family life seem interesting and often funny, and with a background as a radio DJ on both rock and country stations, you know he’s had quite a few records in his own collection through the years:

It’s time for another round of Turntable Talk. This is the 14th edition hosted by Dave over at A Sound Day. As always he has presented our little group of music lovers with a great topic.

In his instructions he asks:

“Do you remember what the first album you bought was? LP? CD? Reel to reel, LOL? Why that one? Do you still have it? Would you want to ? Let your nostalgia run wild! Tell us about that first record you made your own.“

Let me start by saying that many of the albums my dad had, eventually wound up as “mine.” When I think back to the albums I remember there are some that I will never forget. To be clear, my dad bought these, but I wound up listening to them. He had many from Roy Orbison, Elvis, Lenny Dee, Herb Alpert, and so many others. The ones that eventually wound up in my room were a bit odd.

First, there was Dumb Ditties. An album of novelty songs put out by K-Tel. What 6 year old kid didn’t like silly songs?

Then there were two albums that had TV themes on them. There were not the original artists, and this was long before TV Toons put out their collections. They were actually pretty cheesy versions that a kid like me knew weren’t quite right, but close enough. They had goofy cartoon drawings of the main characters from the shows on the cover and were done by the Pop Singers and Orchestra. Was that even a real group?!

The last album that my dad bought that wound up in my record collection was the 1977 album of The Muppet Show. It had the theme song, Mah-Nah-Mah-Nah, and plenty of clips of the two old guys heckling the acts. Now as far as the first album I actually bought, my memory is hazy. I know it had to be one of two and I know I would have bought them within a week of each other.

I had a paper route. I remember that you collected whatever your customers owed you for the week, and you paid for your papers. Whatever extra tip money you made was yours. I don’t recall making a lot of money, but it was enough to go up to the toy store to buy Star Wars stuff or to Harmony House to buy an album.

My dad had a couple of the Beatles albums. He had the blue and red greatest hits albums with them looking over the railing.

I loved the Beatles growing up – early Beatles. It took me a while to appreciate the later Beatles stuff. I recall walking into the Harmony House and grabbing either Beatles ’65 OR Beatles VI. I wish I could remember which one was THE first. I know, however, that these two albums were bought almost immediately after I began delivering papers.

Whichever one I bought first, I suppose doesn’t matter. These two albums contain some of my favorite songs by the Fab Four and they were played over and over again.

“This happened once before, when I came to your door. No reply….” A cold open starts Beatles 65. Boom! There’s John. What follows on the album was a variety of musical nuggets that my young ear just loved!

The harmonies sounded even better with headphones. “I’m a Loser”, “Baby’s In Black”, “I’ll Be Back”, and “Mr. Moonlight” each had me trying to sing all the different notes. There were great cover songs like “Honey Don’t”, “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”, and “Rock and Roll Music”. Then there was “I’ll Follow the Sun”. Beautifully simple.

Beatles 65 was an album I played from start to finish many times.

As for Beatles VI, there were “skip” songs on this one for me. Skip songs were “You Like Me Too Much”, “Words of Love”, “Tell Me What You See”, and “Every Little Thing”. Why those didn’t do much for me, I can’t say.

I, of course, loved those great cover songs – “Dizzy Miss Lizzie”, “Bad Boy”, and “Kansas City”. I knew all of these songs by their original artists, but came to dig those Beatles versions more.

As a kid, I often found myself drumming my desk in school to the opening of “Look What You’re Doing”. The teachers told me to leave the drumming to Ringo!

The one song that is the stand out for me on the album was “Eight Days a Week”. What a great song. It is one that even non Beatles fans know, love, and sing along to. I could be mistaken on this, but I swear there was no fade in on the album. I remember the first time I played this at a radio station and the fade in happened – it freaked me out. Either way, it is one of their best songs.

My love for the Fab Four started very early in life thanks to the musical influence of my mom and dad (and maybe that Beatles cartoon). That love for them continues to this day. It only makes sense to me that the first album I would buy would be from them! These albums remain as fresh today as they were when they were released – years before I ever got my hands on them.

Thanks again to Dave for inviting me to take part in this feature.  As always, I look forward to reading the other contributions and to next month’s topic.

May 12 – Turntable Talk 14 : Paul Ram-med His Way Onto The Record Player

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 14^th instalment…if you’re wondering about past topics, I indexed the first dozen here. For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is Feels Like The First Time. No, no, we’re not going X-rated here, we’re talking about a different kind of first – the first album our guests ever bought.

Today we start off with Randy from Mostly Music Covers. Randy does a more thorough look at cover songs than anybody I’ve ever come across, and recently has looked at songs translated from foreign languages at his site:

The question of do you remember the first album you bought is not all that straight forward. Having said that I am going to rip the bandage off, it was The Partridge Family Album. When you finish laughing, please allow me to explain. It would have been 1971 and I was 12. I was coerced by my oldest sister to pony up my allowance/birthday/lawn cutting money I had been saving so that she and the year younger than I, sister #2 (of 3) if you are keeping score, could buy the album. I will admit to watching the show and I may or may not have had a crush on Susan Dey. However, I was not a willing participant in the purchase and did not attend the offending event, nevertheless the deed was done. And as is often said, “the truth will out”. It’s a reoccurring nightmare but there it is, scars and all, thanks to Dave. I do forgive you, my friend.

Now that we have that unpleasantness out of the way, after that experience I was ready to go it alone for my music purchases, but an album was a way off yet. That summer I started working a paper route, yes that was an actual thing, delivering newspapers to people’s door. That would be followed with a gig at the gun club, and various other interesting jobs, but a story for another day. Formative years for us all at that age in developing our music interest and I have to say I was a little naïve. For starters the 45 rpm single was financially more viable than an album, (even being gainfully employed) so a few of those would be the beginnings of my music investments. In 1973 there was “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night, and “Draggin’ the Line” by Tommy James.

I had really taken a liking to Paul McCartney’s post The Beatles efforts, at least the few songs that initially made the regular rotation on the local AM stations. By 1974 it was the explosion of Wings and songs like “My Love” from Red Rose Speedway and then all the great songs from Band on the Run. I bought the single “Jet” but immediately feel in love with “Let Me Roll it” on the B-side. My friends at this time were into Rush, Zeppelin, and Bowie. I wasn’t quite ready to go there yet.

We are in 1974, so at 15 I am very late to the party for my first album, for that matter also for my first, oh wait, never mind. Now for a moment we need to backtrack to 1972 and still with Paul McCartney’s songs. It was his solo album Ram (released in May of 1971) that had got a lot of airplay on the radio and I liked the songs I heard. A trip to the record stores would involve seeing all the new albums on display, with new album price tags as well. Not in the bargain bin but not at full price was Ram. So, it was I really like Wings and Sir Paul’s new stuff, but the ‘old’ stuff was the right price.

Still got the album!

Thanks to Wikipedia it’s an easy copy and paste for the track listing.

Side one

“Too Many People” (Paul McCartney) – 4:10

“3 Legs” (P. McCartney) – 2:44

“Ram On” (P. McCartney) – 2:26

“Dear Boy” (P. McCartney, Linda McCartney) – 2:12

“Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” (P. McCartney, L. McCartney) – 4:49

“Smile Away” (P. McCartney) – 3:51

Side two

“Heart of the Country” (P. McCartney, L. McCartney) – 2:21

“Monkberry Moon Delight” (P. McCartney, L. McCartney) – 5:21

“Eat at Home” (P. McCartney, L. McCartney) – 3:18

“Long Haired Lady” (P. McCartney, L. McCartney) – 5:54

“Ram On (Reprise)” (P. McCartney) – 0:52

“The Back Seat of My Car” (P. McCartney) – 4:26

I loved this album then and I still do, the ‘Rams’ share of the songs on it are amazing. And most importantly it’s a “Smile Away” from The Partridge Family. “Ram on”

April 17 – Turntable Talk 13 : Riding The Rails South

Thanks again to my guests for participating this time around in Turntable Talk, which I hope all of you have enjoyed. As you know, this time out, the topic was “This song’s going places!” . When I had the idea for this topic, it struck me how many great songs are about traveling. Not only are the unlimited number of songs about destinations – “New York , New York” by Sinatra, “Please Come to Boston” by Dave Loggins, “I Love L.A.” by Randy Newman or its cynical counterpoint “Dead Loss (sic) Angeles” by the Stranglers, “A Rainy Night in Georgia”… and on and on endlessly. But even more, there are thousands of quality songs about getting to whereever you’re going. The journey is the event, the memory, sometimes more than the destination.

There’ve been a few about jetting off – “Jet Airliner” by Steve Miller, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” the first hit ever written by John Denver, for instance – and one or two about boats (would we have the term “Yacht Rock” if we didn’t have Christopher Cross’ “Sailing”?) and many about the allure of the highway like the one Deke picked (“Heading out on the Highway”) . From the classic rock of “Highway Star” by Deep Purple to the weird alternative sounds of It’s Immaterial and their “Driving Away From Home” songs of the road appeal to musicians. But all those combined pale next to the number of great train songs.

Early 20^th Century songwriters knew it – “Chatanooga Choo-choo”, “The Atkinson, Topeka and Santa Fe” – and even as train travel became less common, songs about it didn’t. Nor did they get worse.

I’ve always been fascinated by trains since I was a little boy. I grew up near the busiest mainline of the CP Rail, twenty, thirty trains a day rumbling along between Toronto and Montreal. I could hear every one of them from my house and could see them rolling from my public school yard. When I hit junior high, we had to run cross country for gym… on a dirt track paralleling the rail lines. When a fast-moving, 80-car freight coincided with my gym class, my already turtlish run times slowed some I can tell you. I spent more than one or two Saturdays with my first little 35mm camera standing along the tracks waiting for the lights of a distant diesel to come into sight and ready to grab some shots of noisy engines and brightly colored freight cars. My dad and I bonded over a model railroad we had dreams of building; we got the table and the rolling stock, I built a couple of 1’87^th scale buildings for it. Never got it much done, but even as my dad hit his 80s, it was still in his basement, a bucket list thing for him to finish with me.

That was me, but the “romance of the rails” seemed universal. Best romantic movie of the ’90s? Many would say Before Midnight – a young Ethan Hawke runs into a sexy French girl on a European train and they spend one incredible magical night together in Vienna. Not as easy to pull off on a 747. It’s just a great way to travel. You talk to people and see the world go by leisurely, from a different perspective. Where I grew up, the Go Train was the ideal way to get from the suburbs into midtown Toronto for a ballgame or concert and a $6 ticket. You got a totally different perspective on the city than you would driving through the gridlock on the highway. You saw people’s backyards… the laundry hanging, the vegetable gardens… once in a blue moon, a pretty gal sunbathing nude. But at 60 mph, you couldn’t see her all that well. The backs of stores and factories. The hidden life of the city. It was such a different way of seeing it all. And maybe you’d strike up a conversation with the stranger sitting across from you.

All that in mind, no wonder my choice for the topic would be a train song. But there are a good number of them to choose from – “Midnight Train to Georgia”, “Long Train Running”, my countryman Gordon Lightfoot’s epic “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”, etc. Kenny Rogers couldn’t have gotten to know “The Gambler” if they were flying Southwest Airlines! But to me, the ultimate “going places” tune was from 1972 – Arlo Guthrie‘s “City of New Orleans”.

I will try not to over-analyze. I loved the song when I was a child and heard it on my transistor AM radio and would sing along. I love it now… but am not inclined to sing along, although no promises if you got me to the club car and I enjoyed a few refreshments!

The song’s a folk classic, and to me it just works in every way. A little bit poignant and sad, a little bit optimistic, a little bit excited about the trip ahead and then the terminus too. But never losing sight of how so much was mundane. A bit like a metaphor for life. And it’s played so well by Guthrie and his musician friends… on the song he was reluctant to do.

And the story of the song parallels the feel of it nicely. Guthrie didn’t write the song, which became, if not his best-known (“Alice’s Restaurant” might take that crown) certainly his best-selling single and only American top 40 hit. In my hometown, it actually hit #6 on the charts. But the song has a story behind it.

Young Chicago folk-singer Steve Goodman wrote it, and was first to record it. But, he ran into his idol, Guthrie, in a bar. He asked him to listen to his song. Guthrie… was reluctant. But he agreed, if the lad bought him a beer. He said he’d listen until his beer ran dry. By the end, he agreed to record it and hopefully bought Goodman a brewski!

Goodman knew “The City of New Orleans” very well. And it turns out, knew a hit song when he wrote one.

“The City of New Orleans” is far from fiction. It was a real train, and the song was derived from real life. It was in fact the flagship luxury train of the Illinois Central Railroad, running the almost thousand miles between Chicago and New Orleans in around sixteen hours… impressive since it stopped in many river delta cities like Cairo,Illinois, Memphis, Jackson, Mississippi and Hammond, Louisiana along the way. Young Goodman went to the University of Illinois and used the train regularly in the ’60s to go the 200-odd miles from Chicago to the campus in Champaign, and sometimes to venture southwards to friends places. He and a school buddy traveled frequently together and he began to write the song around 1967. “He developed the ability to see meaning in mundance activities” his friend said later. Like the people he saw on the train and things he observed out its windows.

When he and his future-wife Nancy took it in 1970 to visit her grandma in southern Illinois,and then back, he finished off the song. “Just outside of Chicago, there was a bunch of old men standing around tin cans, warming themselves and waving”. Graveyards of rusted automobiles. Passing trains that have no names. “Nancy was still asleep, so I went down to the club car, and ended up playing cards with a couple of old men.”

Ahh yes, the club car. The City of New Orleans was the height of luxury when it was launched in 1947. It had an observation car, glass roof and all, a bar, a diner, a ladies’ lounge. Usually it carried 18 cars behind a couple of gleaming, shiny new E7 diesel locomotives, clad in elegant orange and brown. When you think of “glamorous train trips” or maybe a Hitchcock scene played out via train, this was the type of train you think of. It was busy and kept turning a profit for the IC into the ’60s. But by the time Goodman was a college kid and rode it, things were different. Air travel was coming down in price and I55 had opened up making a quick highway run south feasible. The train dropped its observation car, cut its online staff and from many reports, cleaning crew too. The streamlined engines built in the ’40s were breaking down far too often. Most railways were looking for ways to shed their passenger service. This bothered the songwriter, who saw them (correctly) as environmentally-friendly and pleasantly social.

He reflected that well in four minutes. But there was another sad parallel between song and writer.

Just as the train was beginning to lose money and esteem, Goodman felt he was nearing his final destination too. He’d been diagnosed with leukemia and worried he wouldn’t live long. That’s why he was emphatic with Guthrie. He was determined to get someone known to record it, to sell records and in doing make money for him. For his wife that he assumed would be a widow soon.

Sadly, he was right. He succumbed to his cancer in 1984, while just 36 years old. Right around when Willie Nelson’s cover of it was on the country charts and would win a Grammy . Willie did a fine cover, but for me the Arlo Guthrie version was greenlit; the one on the right track.

And the train? Well, it had its ups and downs. Before Arlo’s song hit the charts, Illinois Central – and every other main American rail line – had discontinued passenger trains and the government had started Amtrak to take over. What’s more, the Illinois Central itself with its “Main Street of Middle America” nickname and bright orange boxcars has now been bought out by … Canadian National! International free trade and all. But Amtrak restarted “The City of New Orleans” with newer equipment. As of 2022, it still garnered over 150 000 riders a year…. maybe some afraid of flying. Maybe some who just want to see for themselves those trains with no names, the frieght yards full of old black men and the graveyards of rusted automobiles, maybe go to the club car and pass the paper bag that holds the bottle around. Experience life as it used to be, take some time and say “Good Morning America, how are ya?”.

And yes, that is where ABC got the inspiration for their morning TV show’s name.

“The City of New Orleans”. This song is going places. And takes me places, every time I hear it.

April 16 – Turntable Talk 13 : I Always Wanted To Go There

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 13^th instalment…hopefully lucky 13! For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is This Song’s Going Places! We’ve asked our guests to pick a song, or even album that is all about going somewhere…there’ve been tons of great songs about traveling, either geographically or mentally , not to mention ones about specific destinations.A big category, and I look forward to seeing what piqued the others imaginations.

Today we welcome a new contributor, John, from The Sound of One Hand Typing, a fun and eclectic site he describes as “music, musings, memoir and madness.” We hope you’ll pay a visit there and in the meantime, let’s see where his song is going:

One of my favorite movies is Blazing Saddles, and one of the best scenes comes at the end, when Bart leaves Rock Ridge...

Sometimes, the best destination for a trip is "nowhere special." A friend of mine once told me that when she and her husband would go on vacation, they would get in the car and drive. They'd stop to eat when they were hungry, stop for the night at a motel when they got tired, if they passed a Walmart or a shopping mall, they'd stop and see what they had, maybe buy things they needed... as it got close to the end of their time off, they start for home. No pressure, no reservations, just time together. 

Mary and I did that, not long after I separated from the company I had been with for almost 20 years. I still had vacation time, so we got in the car and drove north into Tennessee. We got to Mufreesboro and stopped for a couple of days, shopping at the antique stores and bookstores, dined at a couple of the finer establishments there, and on the way back to Atlanta we stopped in Lynchburg and toured the Jack Daniel's distillery. In short, we went for a ride.

Not quite a ride in a beautiful balloon... but still quite nice...  

 “Up, Up & Away” – The 5th Dimension

Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon?
We could float among the stars together, you and l
For we can fly [we can fly
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky
For we can fly [we can fly)
Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Suspended under a twilight canopy
We'll search the clouds for a star to guide us
If by some chance you find yourself loving me
We'll find a cloud to hide us
We'll keep the moon beside us
Love is waiting there in my beautiful balloon
Way up in the air in my beautiful balloon
If you'll hold my hand we'll chase your dream across the sky
For we can fly (we can fly)
Up, up and away 
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Balloon...
Up, up, and away
Up, up, and awayup, up, and away...

Source: https://genius.com/The-5th-dimension-up-up-and-away-lyrics 

To me, Jimmy Webb, who wrote "Up - Up And Away" described the perfect trip, where the destination was unimportant (or even unknown). The important thing was being with someone you love, just the two of you being together, away from everything, just hanging out in the clouds (or, in our case, Interstate 24). 

If that's not to your liking, think about this...  Constantine Cavafy wrote one of the finest poems I ever heard, called "Ithaka," read here by Sean Connery.

Here, you have a destination, but are in no hurry to get there. You might like that better. 

Have you ever done this? If so, how did it work out? If not, do you think you might someday?

April 14 – Turntable Talk 13 : Next Stop, Asbury Park

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks once again to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 13^th instalment…hopefully lucky 13! For any new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columnists from other music sites, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is This Song’s Going Places! We’ve asked our guests to pick a song, or even album that is all about going somewhere…there’ve been tons of great songs about traveling, either geographically or mentally , not to mention ones about specific destinations. A big category, and I look forward to seeing what piqued the others imaginations.

Today we check in with Max, from Power Pop blog, where currently he’s on a well-deserved short spring break but normally he discusses great tunes from the ’60s through ’90s as well as thought-provoking sci-fi TV on a daily basis. His tastes are varied, so where will he go with this?:

After Dave asked us to write a post about traveling, it was between “Promised Land” by the Big E and this one by Bruce Springsteen. I had to go with this one: “Does This Bus Stop At 82^nd Street”?

This song is a journey through an enjoyable play of words. It was written about a bus journey to a girlfriend’s house. I listened to it so many times that I know every word to this day. I was surprised to see that he still plays this in concert every now and then…but you can’t beat the studio version.

I was around 19 (1986) or so when I found this album, or when the album found me, and I was going through an angry young man phase. I had just bought a 1976 Fender Musicmaster guitar (I still have it) and a black leather jacket so I was ready. The imagery flows like water with Greetings From Asbury Park, Bruce’s debut album in 1973. It’s not very polished but that adds to it. The songs have a stream-of-consciousness feel to them. It was critically praised but did not have huge sales. The album only peaked at #60 in the Billboard Album Charts.

This album is my favorite of Bruce. Yes, I love Born to Run and Darkness… along with it, but I love the wordplay in this album. I think the only song that halts the album is “Mary Queen of Arkansas”. This song is based on people and places Springsteen met in his early years as a songwriter. His father was a bus driver for a time, which helped inspire the song.

I hear some Dylan and a very strong Van Morrison influence on this album and song. It is rough and raw and unpredictable.

“Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps

Interstellar mongrel nymphs

Rex said that lady left him limp

Love’s like that (sure it is)

Queen of diamonds, ace of spades

Newly discovered lovers of the Everglades

They take out a full-page ad in the trades

To announce their arrival

And Mary Lou, she found out how to cope

She rides to heaven on a gyroscope

The Daily News asks her for the dope

She said, “Man, the dope’s that there’s still hope”

Songs like this helped give Springsteen the tag ” the new Dylan” and he was the one performer who actually lived up to it…strap in and ride the Springsteen driven bus.