1st Album you Ever Owned?

keegiam-
@millercarbon

Very enjoyable post! Have to agree "Nilsson Schmilsson" has stood the test of time better than "Yellow Brick Road." At least you had them both early on.

BTW I recall hearing way back then that pressed cardboard egg containers made a pretty good acoustical treatment for walls.

This is bordering on "true confessions."

Thanks. At 14, Nilsson would belt out "can’t live" and it would rip my little hormone charged body and heart apart. At that tender age however I had not the slightest appreciation of The Moonbeam Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OTyuLj9RpY no idea the phenomenal acoustic art of Coconut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsSuueEGQSM let alone the fascinating way Nilsson and everything is positioned center stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrUnYcPIvzM About the only other thing on there I couldn’t get enough of was the amazing drums of Jump Into the Fire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfjNpgZ4C5Q Now in my 60’s I would put that up against any hard rock. Any. Its a masterpiece. Back then it was just an adrenaline kick. Today I can appreciate the full-on mastery of technique that makes this such a kick-ass rocker. And audiophile classic. All at once. Amazing.

Yes egg crates are exactly what I had. The ones a dozen per layer. In checkerboard pattern in areas on the walls. Started experimenting and learning about acoustics at 13. Necessity was the mother of invention. Even today. When you are willing at 13 to swipe mom’s old egg cartons (what was she saving them for anyway???!) its not much of a step to using Safeway rubber bands on your cable elevators. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367

The system today is a little bit better. So is the vinyl. The sound of the Nilsson I am talking about now is a White Hot Stamper. https://better-records.com/products/nilssschmi_2005?_pos=1&_sid=691c0889b&_ss=r

At 10! Holy crap! All I could do at 10 was drool over dad's copy of Whipped Cream and Other Delights https://985thejewel.com/2019/09/12/meet-the-whipped-cream-lady-from-one-of-the-most-iconic-album-cov...Well okay drool may not be quite accurate but this is a family website!

Great question! Wish I could remember! First one I can remember clearly and for sure - and still have that copy - was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Being a double album it was pretty expensive for a kid with a paper route and so I had to wait for Christmas. Then playing it in my room, trying to get away with as much volume as I could. I was already an audiophile with acoustic treatment, guess you could say my bedroom was my first listening room.

But I really think the first one I owned was Nilsson Schmilsson. At least I can remember playing Without You and Jump Into the Fire over and over again, my preferred technique being to lay on the floor with the speakers on either side like headphones. Dang I was a resourceful little audiophile!

Actually, this is as much deduction as memory, but that probably was the first. Nilsson Schmilsson came out in 1971, when I was in Jr High and right about the time I bought my first stereo, a receiver/turntable combo, speakers bought separately, from Radio Shack. My bedroom was my listening room, complete with (I kid you not) acoustic panels.  

Great question because I still have and listen to both albums. Only now they are White Hot Stampers, and while I still enjoy Elton I now appreciate Nilsson way more than I ever did as a kid. Happy to say the same goes for a lot of my other music from my Jr High school days. DSOTM. So poor we were- and yet so rich.

Thanks for taking me back.