Music - My First Album

Well, actually the first album I bought myself with my saved up allowance money. This photo prompt got me all sentimental.

I’m dating myself here, but I started being serious about music and buying albums pretty early because my brother, B, was so into it. He said you didn’t really know a musician from just their radio releases. You had to hear the whole album.

I can almost smell the incense burning in the little bitty hippy-ish music shop in downtown Columbia City. They sold jewerly and smoking supplies, too. The guys behind the counter had long hair and beards.

I pretty much stopped going to the old music store where I’d bought 45s. It sold sheet music and band instruments, and the prevailing scent was of dust. The owner gave music lessons in the back room, and I often heard students oomphing away on brass instruments in the background when I shopped there.

This album and so many others felt like dear friends to me through high school. I can’t quite get rid of them, even though the turntable’s boxed up in the garage now. I love CDs for their convenience and clarity, but the experience of buying an LP, finding great liner notes and lyrics printed inside, and even special inner sleeves like this one was a real treat. I moved the records into vinyl lined inner sleeves to cut down on static that drew dust, but I kept good sleeves like this one.