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"I was thinking about how before the internet, or more specifically when I was really young, if you heard a song that you really liked on the radio or MTV, owning that song involved a really complicated series of hurdles like 1) hoping your mom would bring you to Caldor or Zayre's, and 2) hoping you somehow had $10, and 3) hoping against all odds that the record department wouldn't suck and they'd actually have the one LP you wanted in stock, for once, just for god damned once."
God forbid if it was scarred with a Parental Advisory sticker and mom would be like "No way," and the store wouldn't carry clean versions so your friend with way more lenient parents would have to tape it for you.
WOW now I feel old. I frequented record stores before Parental Advisory stickers were even an issue!
This article reminded me of telling my Dad to wait in the car "since I knew exactly what I wanted", then coming back saying "out of stock no big deal" when I had a fresh new copy of Pretty Hate Machine in my jacket pocket.
by and large, my Dad didn't really give a crap what I listened to, and much of my music he actually found to be interesting- but when I started getting into the heavy thrash, that's the point where his attitude changed and became openly hostile. I think maybe he was afraid that I'd come home one day with something like this tattooed on my back.
My parents didn't care what I listened to, as long as I played my music in my room and not on the family room stereo. Once they were out and I was listening to the Smiths downstairs. My dad came home and told me to turn off "that miserable moaner."
Oh god I remember painstakingly hunting down the the clean-version cassingles of stuff the "cool kids" were listening to that I was not allowed to purchase because of those goddamned Parental Advisories.
uh oh, i thin we may be related.
think. gah! that was for Bittersweet.
Still killing myself over "and C) FUCK YOU. TO THIS DAY." and trying to work it into as many conversations as possible.
I still feel very FUCK YOU. TO THIS DAY. about my middle school narcs. The librarian that told my mom what the Trainspotting VHS was about, which transformed her entire consciousness about my library usage? My friend from church's step dad who annotated our mostly overlapping punk rock collection? FUCK YOU. TO THIS DAY.
Taking away a man's Get Fresh Crew music is ground for the death penalty in my book.
grounds*
Or you had to try to tape the song off the radio, which always sounded terrible and the beginning of the song would be cut off. These kids don't know how good they have it!
I used to stay up late to record pre-recorded live shows off I think it was WLIR. Lousy tape of a lousy tape – now that's quality entertainment!
aw. me too. radio propped on the sill of the window furthest from my parents room.
My musical tastes were formed by what I could purchase at local garage sales. Get back, honky cat.
the worst was having to wait by the radio all day long, making sure there was a blank tape in the deck, ready to hit "record"… then you have to go do something else, you come back, and they're halfway into the song you were waiting for. GARRRH.
Unless you would get yourself up for Casey Kasem on the weekend and tape all top 40.
QUICK, FLIP IT OVER
I had a terrific mix tape in which Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do" was followed by Salt N Pepa's "None Of Your Business." I was a very eclectic pre-teen.
Do you know how many tapes I have labeled "Mandatory Metallica"? 98 Rock, Baltimore. (No, you don't want to know.)
Ask me about my tape that consists entirely of sketchily recorded versions of "Eternal Flame"!
Taping a song off the radio –man, I'm really starting to feel the generational divide when I think of that. I don't miss those days, because it was such a chore to catch the song right at the start (and usually with the dj blathering on). But I miss not caring about the quality of the recording. I was just chuffed to have a copy for myself!
One summer, my solomonic parents ruled that whenever there was music to be listened to-in the car, on the beach-the musical choosing would be divided evenly between me and my younger sister. And so, after one side of my beautifully crafted mix-tapery, out it would pop, in would go my sister's tape-45 minutes of "Get into the Groove" over and over and over, taped off the radio with varying levels of success. It would end, and in goes another masterpiece of mixery, before we're back to Madonna. All. fucking. summer.
Now I get weepy whenever I hear that song, because little sisters are great.
@Grant: I had at least 8 recorded-off-the-radio mixtapes that included Blink-182's "Dammit," none of which had the opening guitar riff because some jackass DJ wouldn't stop yapping. STFU, DJ!
(Also, yes, Blink-182. I'm not old, just cheap.)
I led off one mixtape with the "hilarious" Rice Rice Baby parody. Such mixtape also featured Nelson.
Not so sure I would call that eclectic.
ohhh, it was 1984 and that song was 'South Central Rain.'
This is the second Caldor reference on The Awl in as many days. That means something, even if I don't know what it is.
I remember records and miles and miles of vacuum cleaners.
I remember the acrid plastic smell wafting from the clothing section.
@bitter: Just like Lerner's used to smell.
Ah, Caldor. The pagan god of savings.
For me it was the small independent record store in town and the Jamesway I could ride my bike to, aside from the brief period of time that my sister was dating the manager of a Sam Goody where I could get a discount.
Fortunately my parents never objected to Parental Advisory stickers. Unfortunately, I had shitty taste in music as a kid. (Silverchair?? Really?!?)
Not to mention hoping against hope that the album had more than one good song. I remember spending half an hour at the record store (remember those?) debating the pros and cons of Appetite For Destruction versus Hysteria and which cassette would end up getting my $8.
Shoplift both and then buy pot with your bounty.
#saythatsstealing
#scrollshutthefuckup
#sayyoukissyourmomwiththatmouth
#scrollIkissyourmomwiththatmouth
#sayyourmedsneedadjusting
#Iwasjustjokinsorryscrol
The first time I ever set foot in the Streetside in Westport (KC… about 1988? Well before the merger with Pennylane), I set eyes on the thrash metal bin and damn near had a seizure. I blew the entire contents of my wallet that day, so many tracks unheard.
Let's not even discuss the year(s) I decided I needed to own every single pressing available by 4AD Records.
you could do a lot worse than 4AD
yes, you could: Nettwerk.
I'm STILL listening to most of the things I own on 4AD. Just the other night: "Filgree & Shadow", which I still find creepy and magical in equal degree.
btw, if you ever need to clear an apartment of unwanted visitors, put this record on. Party's over!
I remember I had to play dumb when my dad pointed out a song called "F***ing in Rhythm & Sorrow" when we went to buy Life's Too Good at Bradlees.
I used to play dumb a lot when my mom would ask me about records. Now I say, "Really, mom? 'Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg,' and you're concerned about my taste?"
I used to go to Future Shop every Tuesday because they had the new releases on sale cheaper than anybody else.
I got Doc's Da Name 2000 there the first day it came out.
After my pentecostal cousins told me I was going to burn in hell for all eternity for listening to rock music, I dreamed I saw Satan hovering over my little turn table, no doubt slobbering over that Quiet Riot album. I'd like to see him try that with my iPod.
i thought jobs invented the ipod?
Also? MY VENUE OF CHOICE WAS THE RECORD DEPARTMENT AT PATHMARK! ME TOO!
sometimes i still kick myself over not buying this weird bootlegish metallica cassette that i saw there!
I bought Remain In Light from a Super Fresh. Sure it was a CD, and purchased with money won by betting on Barbaro, but I still consider it a major victory.
My earliest memory of buying an album was getting In Utero at a Sam Goody or somesuch when I was 7.
My mom let me get What's the Story Morning Glory with one of those Columbia House "Get 10 CDs for 1 Cent" stamps. I'm sure there was a catch, but I let her deal with it.
Dear lord. Mine, also 7, also Sam Goody, was the eponymously-named Shaun Cassidy album.
I remember purchasing the 45 of Jump and of course the Thriller album. Then a few years later, walking into a record store and asking the clerk if the single for Twist and Shout was by the same people who did the song in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
I can remember at least a couple of my first 10 ALBUMs for 1 cent — Glass Houses, REO Speedwagon, Asia, Beauty and the Beat. My mom made me send back every single monthly statement for the next 10 years, at least.
Seven and the Ragged Tiger. At Record World (cheaper than Sam Goody).
On one surreal and very bored teenage trip to WalMart, I decided to amuse my inner elitist by flipping through the LP bins, most of the contents of which were on closeout. I was completely non-plussed to discover that the "Rock/Pop" section was heavily populated with various Greg Kihn Band albums… they probably couldn't have given them away.
You people are so darn young. You know that pterodactyl in The Flintstones Fred used for a tonearm? Got it second hand from him. Used to crap on the turntable.
Shortly thereafter, though, I bought The Monkees, so it wasn't so bad.
I was into Benny Goodman back when everyone else was all Glenn Miller this and Glenn Miller that.
I was into Roger Miller whem everyone else was all Glen Campbell this and Glen Campbell that.
@KUO: My favorite tidbit about Glen Campbell and his disastrous realtionship with Tanya Tucker was that they had so much conflict they even fought while they were having sex together.
I was into Emmett Miller when everybody was all Jimmy Rogers this and
ugh. cannot un-see that.
OMG Zayres!
How about Mammoth Mart.
All I got was Clover. Le sigh.
Clover! I loved going there, because I'd always get one of those Superpretzels from one of those cabinets at the snack bar behind the checkouts.
I miss how guys used to make mix tapes for you taking care to choose songs that would convey their message to you. It took time, effort and thought. Plus, you got their handwritten songlist for the tape. I still have a few of those.
I made one for an older, really hot blonde girlfriend who dumped me so she could hook-up with a dude or several at her new job. It was a mix of mostly melancholy, embarrassingly sentimental Chet Baker songs.
If she did that to you she didn't deserve your sweet mix tape, Art!
(Plus, every mix HAS to have the embarrassingly sentimental song at least. You just have to hope Air Supply is not involved.)
Air Supply is totally grounds for dismissal!
I played my 45's on a Close and Play.
This comment was meant for another place.
My husband put "Last Goodbye" on a mix tape a couple of months into our relationship. I was so fucking confused for a while after that.
When I was in fifth grade, I stole a copy of Spandau Ballet's "True" from Clover. I have never admitted this before. I wish I could time-travel back and see myself, sweatily heading for the exit, with the cassette and its giant plastic anti-theft appendage stuck clumsily inside my white satin Sacred Heart School jacket.
THIEF!
Don't worry, the Catholic guilt has never left me.
If it was the Clover in Westmont, NJ I am going to scream with glee.
I was lucky, I lived very close to a Record & Tape Traders.
What, there wasn't a Curtis Mathes where you lived?
Just another tasty treat from the gang at Empire Records.
A Golden Earring reference without mentioning Radar Love. Looks like someone's been stepping into the Twilight Zone.