Who was your first?

The Radio.biz Music Blog – Entry #3

We remember our firsts in life. Our first kiss. Our first love. Our first car. Our first home.

What about your first album?

If you’re a crazy music fan like me, you not only still have your first album, you have it framed and up on your wall. (BTW, I also have the second album that I ever bought framed and on my wall.)

It was the spring of 1979. I was 10 years old – soon to be 11.

I was in a bowling league on Saturday mornings at the College Bowl in Canton, Ohio. My Dad would drop me off in the morning on Saturdays and then come back a few hours later to pick me up after we had bowled our 3 games. I think we had teams? I think we had standings. I don’t really remember those details. I did win a trophy for coming in 3rd in a tournament at the end of the season.

But what I do remember is the day that I bought my first album.

The College Bowl was at the intersection of Market Avenue and 30th Street in Canton. Both were pretty busy thoroughfares.

Bowling was done for the day, and my Dad hadn’t arrived to pick me up yet.

Across 30th Street was a small strip center. And at the far left-hand side of that strip center was a small record shop.

I had some allowance money burning a hole in my pocket, and I needed some new music.

“The Logical Song” by Supertramp was all over the radio, and I wanted to get that record.

So, I dodged traffic across 30th Street, made it to the record store, and bought the album!

Breakfast In America was the sixth album from the British band Supertramp. It would become their best-selling album, going 4x Platinum.

I bought the record, dodged the traffic back to the College Bowl, and waited for my Dad to pick me up.

I’m not sure if I got in trouble or not. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to cross a street like 30th Street by myself.

Either way, I now owned this album, and I couldn’t wait to get home to listen to it.

The album opens with Gone Hollywood and wow, what an opener.

“I’m in this dumb motel near the Taco Bell without a hope in hell. I can’t believe that I’m still around.”

Cool lyrics.

I have family in Southern California and spent a lot of summer vacations in California and seeing 1970s Hollywood. And we ate at Taco Bell out there before it came to Ohio!

That song is followed by The Logical Song, then Goodbye Stranger, and then the title track.

Talk about an incredible group of four songs to begin an album. Just amazing.

And, if I’m being honest, I don’t really remember much else on this record. Yeah, Take The Long Way Home was also a hit, but those first four songs are really what I remember listening to over and over and over again.

The album definitely earned that spot on my wall. And the vinyl is still in great shape. It’s not my favorite album of all time, but it was, and always will be, my first. If you’re curious about my second album that I made reference to at the beginning of this blog, it was Billy Joel’s The Stranger.

So, who was your first?

Side note: If you’re bored sometime, look up the whole 9/11 Conspiracy Theory surrounding the cover of this record. Crazy!