Tuesday, September 21, 2010: TWOfer Tuesday - The "My First CD's" Edition

In 1990, I bought a CD player just to hear "Something In The Way She Moves" by James Taylor on CD.

Truth. It was that one song alone that drove my purchase.

At the time I was working at the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles, a file clerk job I got through a friend. Up until then I'd been working my way through college at fast food joints, so I wasn't used to making good money. On my break between Junior College and State University, I got this opportunity for a real job, which I took. Suddenly I was making good money.

Of course, instead of stashing some of that extra income away, or even saving up and buying cash, I opted to get a credit card and put a very quality portable stereo and about 5 or 6 CDs on it, I can't remember exactly. The main one, obviously, was James Taylor's Greatest Hits.

I've never fully bought into that whole "vinyl is better" argument. I think that's probably true if you've got a decent turntable, an amplifier that really boosts the mid and lower tones, and some very good speakers or studio quality headphones. Then I can understand why people would think that way. But, at the time, all I had was one of those cheapie silver-coated plastic K-mart stereos with the clear cover over the turntable and twin cassette players built into the front. Remember those?

Say all you want about how vinyl is better, I guarantee you it's not when played through that system.

At the time I was going through a full-on folk music, fingerpicking guitar phase. My guitar heroes were not Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani, but Jim Croce, James Taylor, Leo Kottke and Simon & Garfunkel. I wanted to play like THOSE guys! I still do, actually.

So, I already had JT's GH's, but on cassette. Which was crap.

I remember the first CD one of my friends bought was the Beastie Boys first album. CD's were the wave of the future, they held such promise! Growing up listening to 8-Tracks, cassettes, and 45's (kids, ask your parents), hearing music through a CD player was a revelation. It was so clear, so crisp. None of that scratching, hissing, popping and skipping normally associated with vinyl records. God, why are we so nostalgic for such nonsense? It didn't register that CD's weren't as "warm" as records. What does that even mean? All I cared about was that sound, that gloriously clean sound. It was like watching an IMAX 3D movie after growing up watching movies on broadcast television.

I had to have one. I had to make the move to CD's.

I had built up a decent record collection up until that fateful day, but they all went out the window with that purchase. Maybe even literally, who knows. I honestly don't remember what I did with all my vinyl, whether or not I gave them away, sold them, threw them out, no clue.

On the day I bought that player and those CD's, I brought them back to my girlfriends place, and we laid on the floor and listened to music. I remember I bought JT, Anita Baker's Rapture (which I will include selections from in a future blog), Luther Vandross' Any Love (which is below) and, again, a couple more CD's which I don't remember off the top of my head. The sound of Taylor's opening guitar playing was exactly how it sounds in the posted clip; crisp, clean, clear, magic. I loved CD's from the first moment I heard them.

No, CD's are not perfect and in no way have they lived up to all the hype corporations were pushing on us back in the day when CD's first came out.

Now that I've thought about it, I guess what happened is less about the CD itself, but more about how I slowly learned to embrace technology. And, larger, to embrace change.

Recently I've been buying MP3 from Amazon.com. What a world we live in, eh? Music delivered right to your player. In comparison they are cheaper than 45's were back in the day, and of course I believe they sound better. But even I admit there are drawbacks.

An MP3 doesn't have cool Album Art you can stare at and deconstruct for hours on end. Truth is, I miss good Album Art. Also, I'll admit that I miss going to record stores, holding my purchases in my hand, looking at when everyone else is buying, gathering with friends there and seeing what the hot record of the moment is.

But go back to cassettes? 8-tracks? Vinyl through a crappy, K-Mart systems? Never.

Sure, I'm nostalgic for many things, but I like where we are, and I like where we are going. Call me crazy.

Like I said earlier, Anita Baker will be joining us on CSOTD later, but what else I remember from that first night lying on my girlfriends floor and listening to music, besides those opening notes from JT, was this song, this wonderful cover of Major Harris' classic, "Love Won't Let Me Wait".

Thinking about it, it's no wonder I can't remember what other CD's I bought that day, I don't either of us were paying attention to the playlist after this tune.

Enjoy. :)