You never forget your first...

[Rain]

40 years ago almost to the day I bought Diary of a Madman, my very first LP - and my life was changed.

Since then, I have purchased more copies of that album than any other, in almost every format, the more recent being the Legacy Edition CD, 10 years ago, and again, coincidentally, almost to the day (11/27).

Tonight, I logged in to work and found a gift card in my inbox. My first thought was: vinyl. The second was: Diary of a Madman.

The O in OCD stands for Ozzy I guess.

[craigb]

This was my first "rock" album!

[Rain]

It's always strange to think that that first vinyl cost me approximately $13 back in the days. In 1983, the minimum wage was $4 back home. 

Besides the price, one could factor in the long walk to and from the mall in the freezing cold of the Canadian winter, the time spent browsing and choosing the record you wanted to spend all that money on, the anticipation, and everything that made getting a new album such a fantastic experience. You were committing to that album in many ways, often without the option of even hearing it before you purchased it. Back home, anyway...

40 years later, you can order the CD for the same price I paid the vinyl back then (less than an hour's wage in 2023) and have it delivered to your doorstep the next day.

Or you can just buy it for even less on iTunes - that is, if you're one of the few people who still buys music.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Rain

[Jeremy Oakes]

My first.

[Grem]

My first. Learned just about every song on there. Learned it on some strat type guitar. Don't remember the name. But the amp I had was a small Kalamazoo!!

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Grem

[bitman]

[Rain]

49 minutes ago, Grem said:

My first. Learned just about every song on there. Learned it on some strat type guitar. Don't remember the name. But the amp I had was a small Kalamazoo!!

 

Randy Rhoads set the bar pretty high, and I'm not particularly talented, so learning to play those songs properly was and remains a challenge. I was just looking at a video taken a few years ago - an attempts at playing the Over the Mountain solo (the solo that made me want to play electric guitar) and I cringe.  40 years later, and I'm not there yet. But I keep at it. I am getting closer to properly playing the Mr. Crowley solo too. 

Part of me does envy those kids on Instagram who seem to be able to play Vai and Malmsteen before the doctor's even done wiping the placenta off their face. Part of me is glad that I struggled so hard for every note and every little thing I've learned. That's how music becomes part of your soul. 

Anyway,  I went on to study classical guitar because of Rhoads - and I played the intro to Diary of a Madman for my audition. A few months later, I learned Leo Brouwer's Etude 6, and understood my guitar teacher's smile.

Ironically, I got the most mileage out of the pentatonic scale, which I picked up from the solo in I Don't Know on Blizzard of Ozz - that's the song that unlocked the whole blues thing for me. Suddenly, everything made sense. So I guess I owe Randy my love for the blues, too.

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Rain

[Shane_B.]

My first album was a Beatles album. I don't recall which one. My father gave me his record collection before I bought my own first album.

But I do recall the first 45that I bought. It was an EP iirc. It was Elvis with Hound Dog and 3 other songs on it I think. 45's were 97 cents each at K-Mart at the time.

For Christmas I always got Kiss and Beatles LP's. 

[Grem]

17 minutes ago, Rain said:

learning to play those songs properly was and remains a challenge.

 

17 minutes ago, Rain said:

40 years later, and I'm not there yet. But I keep at it.

I just learned the solo to  Page's "Stairway". And it's not like he plays it. At least it's not what the tab sheet is telling me to play. But I do make it sound real close. This is something I have always done, make it sound like the real thing. IDKWTF I was doing. All I knew was the band smiled when I got a hard solo to sound like the record!! (Living Color's "Cult")

Which brings me to this:

22 minutes ago, Rain said:

Part of me is glad that I struggled so hard for every note and every little thing I've learned. That's how music becomes part of your soul. 

Well said.

And I mean it was a struggle. Hours upon hours upon hours.... but it's there... in my soul!

24 minutes ago, Rain said:

those kids on Instagram who seem to be able to play Vai and Malmsteen before the doctor's even done wiping the placenta off their face.

Yeah no shzzt. There are some unbelievable stuff out there now. 

[DeeringAmps]

Stones baby, The Rolling Stones!

12x5, Out of Our Heads, or Rolling Stones Now, can’t remember which; but you know what they say “If you claim to remember the 60’s, you definitely weren’t there”…

t

[PhonoBrainer]

My first vinyl was fantastic. No, really!

Zoom in for the mega-stars of 1973 . . .

But before this, I had listened to my older sister's vinyl that she left at home when she went to college . . .

And if you put these two together, it leads me to my first proper rock album?

 

 

[Shane_B.]

12 minutes ago, Grem said:

just learned the solo to  Page's "Stairway". And it's not like he plays it. At least it's not what the tab sheet is telling me to play. But I do make it sound real close. This is something I have always done, make it sound like the real thing. IDKWTF I was doing. All I knew was the band smiled when I got a hard solo to sound like the record!! (Living Color's "Cult")

Which brings me to this:

38 minutes ago, Rain said:

Part of me is glad that I struggled so hard for every note and every little thing I've learned. That's how music becomes part of your soul. 

Well said.

And I mean it was a struggle. Hours upon hours upon hours.... but it's there... in my soul!

The lead to Hotel California is my "Stairway" moment. Back when I learned it I didnt have a DAW so there was no ripping and looping a section to slow it down, learn it, and practice it.

It took me years of playing it live to perfect it to sound as close to the original as I could with just me on a single guitar. There's multiole guitars in the original. Nobody even attempted that song in our area. We were the only band to do it.

One thing that stands out in my mind about it is, after I got to the point where I could play it live. We were at our first band practice attempting to do it all together and the singer said, "Man I can't sing it that high. We have to drop it a step and pick up the tempo a little.". I almost had a freaking heart attack and I had to learn it all over again in a different key and then play it faster.

It's one of those things that, like you guys said, it becomes part of you. I don't even know what I'm playing, it's instinct and muscle memory at this point. I could never tab it out or teach someone how to play it. I just know that when the break happens and it's my cue to go, I go no matter what anyone else is doing and they can come along for the ride.

I'm very proud of the fact that I can play that lead and it sounds as close to the original as it can with a single guitar.

[hockeyjx]

My first that I bought! I had some hand me downs, but this is the one I forked over my birthday money for!

[Grem]

1 hour ago, hockeyjx said:

the one I forked over my birthday money for!

And back then that's all the money I had!! Was no way to get more. Did I get an allowance? Nope. I got fed, clothed,  and a roof over my head! Back then I thought we was pooor. Then I learned that we were tight with cash. Then I grew up and realized what they sacrificed for us. 

But all the money I had went on music. I worked for other people to get the $15 to buy my first electric guitar and that Kalamazooo amp!! 
I did get the James Gang's first album too. Along with Steppenwolf. And Pink Floyd!! DSOTM & WYWH, and Ummagumma.

Oh and Yes "Tales From The Topographic Ocean" And Zappa "200 Motels!"

That was my record collection for a few years. 

[Old Joad]

Led Zeppelin Immigrant Song - 45. I heard the song (Hey, Hey What can I Do) and I thought it was awesome, it was on the B: side.

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Old Joad

[Grem]

2 hours ago, Old Joad said:

it was on the B: side.

Sometimes the B side was better than the other song.

I was gonna say like the "Walrus".... but "Hello Goodbye" was pretty dang good too!! Never will forget the first time I heard "The Walrus".... I was never the same after that.

[Bapu]

I don't know why it wasn't a Beatles album, but this was the first album I remember buying.

[Bapu]

BTW I still have it.

[paulo]

Posting in a thread about the thing that you've never forgotten and then forgetting to tell people the thing that he's never forgotten.......?

Bapu's funniest post ever!

[smallstonefan]

15 hours ago, craigb said:

This was my first "rock" album!

Mine too Craig! First concert also in 1977. ?