Away from doing work (traveling, folding clothes, whatever) the trusty old MP3 player does fine. Portable, programmable, holds a shitload of music. Can be loaded up one song at a time with files purchased off the net. This leads me to my question:
What are all those metallic discs in a rack over by the stereo?
I vaguely remember a distant age when we had large black plastic discs in cardboard sleeves. They played music in a persistent serial order and required manual intervention every half dozen songs or so. They were also subject to damage and a fairly predictable quality decline, and ran on high-maintenance equipment (e.g. needle replacement). We don't miss those any more than we miss the need for daily removal of horse manure from city streets.
But in-between that primitive time and the unfolding modern era, a sort of hybrid technology held sway. The music was digitized, but it was also on disc. Very strange, if you think about it, yet for a couple of decades it was in fact the norm. Many people today have a collection of the old things. Mine collects a lot of dust because it is mostly music from the 80s and 90s, and not the best music either. Just whatever I happened to be in the mood to buy while at the store with money in my pocket. Rather narrow constraints, those, when added up.
But some of them were gifts, and some of them are unique; and one of them has the distinction of being my first-ever compact disc. The first CD I ever bought was a good one, and I still listen to it once in awhile and am never disappointed. There is some true musicianship encoded thereupon.
Dire Straits: Brothers in ArmsWhat was your first CD?
13 comments:
I like CDs. I have a sort of my preciousssss relationship with them and can't switch to mp3s. I'd never buy an mp3 anyway. Too easy to steal.
The first CD I bought was probably Beaster by Sugar. I haven't listened to it in years but I probably should.
I was late to the game, and I think the first CD I bought was Two Against Nature by Steely Dan in 2000. I still buy them to listen to in the car. Sometimes I'll buy an mp3 for my iPod, but I use that only for the gym (i.e., not all that much!) - hubby says we're not allowed to steal them. I'm sure my daughters follow that rule too.
First CD: Graceland, Paul Simon.
I don't buy mp3s, but I download the free ones our ISP gives us every two months from the Apple store, and the kids get those. I borrow CDs from the public library to explore, and if I like something I'll still buy the CD. That's because my tastes are outside the usual online store range. It's also because the sound is just better. mp3s sound like crap, which is fine for people listening in traffic or on the street. They can't hear anything anyway. Try listening at home in the peace and quiet, though, and it's like they brought back the hand-held portable transistor radio and stations broadcasting defiantly on medium wave. Terrible. Decades of sound reproduction technology down the pan.
Yes, well, as in everything, it's all economics. Human hearing range, bandwidth, cost, what people will stand for versus what they will pay for, all that. I do prefer my CDs when using Beethoven's 3rd to abet my slow slip into madness. But for working music, MP3s are good enough for me. My ears are shot anyway, from certain concerts in the 70s and 80s and, of course, being an American, copious unsupervised use of firearms.
Sugar sounds all right to me. I missed them, as I missed Hüsker Dü, because at that time I was enslaved to radio and small children.
We have Two Against Nature, and listen to it sometimes.
We have Graceland too. I never listen to it, probably I developed a bad attitude about Paul Simon sort of building himself up with African musicians, but I'll be the first to admit I don't know what's really going on, it was just a feeling.
I first CD was Alice in Chains debut CD....and it still rocks!
I honestly can't remember what my first CD was, but Brother in Arms is fabulous. One of my favorites.
Don, I can provide you with some Husker Du if you feel the need. It still sounds great today.
Brothers in Arms sucks donkeys. Music for people who do not like music. Which is okay. I'm not saying those people should be exterminated or anything. Just severely beaten and kept under house arrest.
About 13 Christmases ago my first CD boombox came with The Beatles' White Album and Grateful Dead Europe '72. I still have both. Brothers in Arms is some mighty happy donkeys.
Believe it or not, the very first CD I ever bought was George Winston on the piano. It was much, much later that I bought Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine.
And now all I buy is country.
Old age is doing funny things to me.
:-)
First CD was The Police Message in a Box boxed set.
I think my first cassette tape was Springsteen's Born in the USA.
First record album was the Rankin and Bass recording of The Hobbit.
The first CD I ever bought was a recording of Massenet's "Werther." The really good one with von Stade and Carreras, back when he could still sing.
I am such the nerd.
LOVE Dire Straits. Can't have enough Knopfler. The first CDs I bought, circa 1988: Steve Winwood, Mike and the Mechanics. (First LP purchased with my own money: The Captain and Tennille)
How about 8-tracks? Every year, my mother would try to synchronize the Wizard of Oz 8-track with the movie when it was on TV. She was just before her time with home theater...
Hello from Michele's!
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