I have always been surrounded by music. My father had an 8 track tape player in his truck. He would alternate between the radio and a mix of older country, 1950’s rock, and “easy listening”. (KTDY in New Iberia still played easy listening songs/oldies on the radio, while KSMB was an album oriented rock station. My dad never listened to KSMB.)
I received a record player/8track tape player/radio for either a Christmas or my birthday (when you are born in early January, the dates run together). Although the unit remained in the living room, it was several months before I purchased my first three albums:
At the time, I had no idea what an album was, but I know I wanted a song off each album: Such as “Moving Out (Anthony’s Song)“, “Point of No Return“, and Come Sailing Away. (I felt buying 45’s was a waste of time, as you played one song and then had to do something with the record!)
Each song spoke to me differently at that age. I loved the car squealing on “moving out” but also the sentimentality of “Just the Way You Are” (although I have no idea what love really meant at the time), the idea of going to the end of the world as an explorer, although over the years, I found only “Come Sail Away” still emotionally resonates with me due to its nostalgic line of “Childhood Friends, and the Dreams We had”. Maybe that is because I remember talking music to my schoolmates at St. Cecilia in Broussard.
Music was (and I am sure remains) a hot topic in middle school. There were a few people who were clearly in the “Kiss” are musical gods camp, and others in the general rock (we all hated disco but listened to KSMB, so we were all rockers!) And what better time to learn about music, as 1977 remains one of the seminar years in pop music, but you don’t see the transitions when they are gradually unfolding around you!
Over the next ten years, I accumulated a lot of albums, mostly for my own listening pleasure, although I did DJ parties in high school and college. Eventually that came to an end, due to marriage and kids, but I count that as a small loss.
I still enjoy listening to albums versus singles. Although this is mostly on Spotify, the music experience, while still rewarding, does not require getting up to turn the album over!
And yes, I still play my first three “loves” on a regular basis.
