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My first LP was Jim Croce's "Life and Times," probably late 1973 (shortly after his untimely death), purchased at Bridlepath Pharmacy in West Hartford CT, because I didn't yet have access to a proper record store.

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My first bought album was a used copy of Fresh Cream by Cream. Followed by CSNY deja Vu

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Apr 6, 2022Liked by Ty Burr

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon in 1973 when I was about 16. I loved it, my parents hated it ... BONUS for the typical teenager!

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Apr 6, 2022·edited Apr 6, 2022Liked by Ty Burr

Superfly. Curtis Mayfield. At age 13 I heard the title track on the radio and had to have. Sorry, it was cassette though!

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So much to unpack, as the pundits say, in this massively fun and resonant Ty post. Here I'll just stick to the music part, which is my sweet spot, though I do love me some Turner.

First album purchased was Meet The Beatles; actually purchased 14 copies, 13 of which were for friends who shoved all that cash into my 14-year-old palms, while I waited in line on a chilly 1964 Saturday morning outside The Turntable in Louisville Kentucky. Great album, not their best (either Revolver or Rubber Soul claims that spot), but great memory, as I was in my first band, playing drums. In that moment I felt so energized as a budding musician. Everything was changing and anything was possible.

Have to quibble with the claim (is it yours, Ty, or one of the Byrds's?) that the guitar sounds on Byrds's Fifth Dimension were 'modeled on Coltrane.' I guess anyone can say they model their sound on whatever or whoever they want. But as someone who's listened to a lot of both artists, I don't hear Trane in all those open, 12-strings-and-more Byrds guitar chords, as cool as they are, especially on Eight Miles High. They sound more like they're modeled on Ravi Shankar, and ain't nothing wrong with that.

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My first album that I bought, myself was the Broadway Cast of Oklahoma. For a long time, I mostly bought musicals. Then, later, it was Folk Music.

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My first album was "Around the World with Three Dog Night" when I was about 12. I think it was my intro to live rock albums and I loved the banter and the crowd.

The first 45 I can remember playing repeatedly was "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks but I would have been 13 by then and I'm sure I owned 45s before that.

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Good choice , the Byrds. My first record - a 45 - was Jerry Lee - Great Balls of Fire. I was 5 years old in '57 and saw him throw a piano bench off the stage on American Bandstand. He had me with that. My first Album, a few years later, was Jimmy Driftwood's Songs of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, appealing no doubt to a 10 year old's obsession with the Civil War.

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When I was 9 mike life was The Beatles and my mom actually let me buy their second album, which I still have. My cousin took the 50 cents his mother gave him for a haircut and bought The Beatles’ first single. And he gave it to me! It is now on my wall.

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Oddly enough, the first LP I bought was one by Al Hirt! I was a trumpet player back then, and I loved his tone......as time went on, I realized true jazz artists viewed him the way we view Kenny G today, but I was a fan nonetheless.........a year or so later ( when I was 12) I woke up and realized I was playing trumpet not because I liked the instrument, but because I knew how, and not many did...so I picked up the guitar, and the damage was done. I'm happy to say the first few LP's I then bought were by the Byrds and Judy Collins. Because I learned the guitar, eventually I went on to open for the Byrds, I got to know Judy Collins a little, and so forth. I actually own an Ediphone, and have a number of wax cylinders that play on it. I still have a CD collection, and a turntable. But I very recently started placing the albums I released or produced on Spotify, simply so that they would live. Being a musical Luddite is not without its pleasures and its limitations.

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Oh yeah: thanks for that one ("Eight Miles High") -- had to crank it up! What harmonies! 3minutes 30 seconds of bliss...

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Ty Great stuff and I envy you your memory! Course I’m really old. I’m guessing it was 1964 either or both Electrifying Aretha Franklin or Little Anthony and the Imperials I’m on the Outside (Looking In). Beatles shortly after that.

That was a great Byrds Album! Still have it and another….I do recall a free Byrds concert, summer of ‘68 I think, in of all place a park in West Roxbury. 🤔so my memory bank is not totally fried.

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I also remember quietly taking a Ray Charles album and a couple Nat King Cole albums from my parents into my treasure trove…

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Apr 7, 2022·edited Apr 7, 2022Liked by Ty Burr

Cool column! First album was The Archies Greatest Hits. Hey, what can I say, i was 9 in the summer of '69. Your review of Apollo 10 1/2 had us watch it the other day and sure enough, The Archies were there. First single was either Winchester Cathedral or Riders in the Storm. First album that really hit home, though, was Queen II.

I wish I had older siblings to bring me into music. My wife had 2 quite older brothers so her tastes were way ahead of me at the time - Beatles, Beach Boys, etc.

Mr. Carmichael's SNL opener had me immediately wanting to watch his specials. Can't wait.

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First album was "Sam Cooke Sings the Blues," 1962

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My sister sold me S&G's Sounds of Silence and Bookends when I was 9 or 10, circa 1970. Her room was on the third floor and I would sit on the stairs and listen to her music. I adored Ruby Tuesday and the Byrds' version of Mr. Tambourine Man. So the first album I actually bought was probably Between the Buttons by the Stones. I managed to score a second-hand stereo when I was about 12 and that was a game-changer. I listened to a lot of WBCN in the early seventies so I was buying Bette Midler and more Stones, Byrds, and then the Beatles, once Rosemary Mahoney formally introduced me to them.

I became quite the record junkie. In high school I would often take the train into Cambridge to pour over the stacks at the Harvard Coop. I went in once wearing my English bobby cape and thought it would be so easy to walk out with albums stuck underneath. Not! I've have been busted in a heartbeat. "Dare to be true" flashed in my brain, as corny as that sounds, and I paid for them. That batch included Ella sings the Cole Porter songbook. What a great record.

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