Magic Jewball

So in the category of non-news (do I have a category of non-news? probably not), I’m listening to Whitesnake and pondering how just the first few notes of the first song can pull me right back to The Record Store. This is really the only time in my life I listened to actual metal, not that Whitesnake counts, I know. But I still remember how when a CD on the instore system would end there’d be the fight over what came next. Sometimes the CDs or cassettes would stack up next to the system in a “my choice then your choice” kind of way. And the way when you were nowhere near the front of the store the next CD up would be this great surprise, and more so then on the radio, because it would be a whole album and there was no flipping the station, you were stuck there.

Because of this, the first notes of so many albums will hit me in a “ah, so it’s this one!” kind of way. George Michael’s Faith is one of those records. Oh no, 45 minutes of George Michael! The Love & Rockets record, Earth Sun Moon, which I know so well that I always assumed I owned it but later realized it was lodged in my memory due to daily instore play. John Mellencamp’s Lonesome Jubilee – that was my manager’s favorite record. REM’s Document. Robert Plant’s Now and Zen. Achtung Baby. Even Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, and I tell you that if you could get a double album of Alternative/New Wave on the system, you had special skills.

But Whitesnake, oh Whitesnake. “A black cat moooans when he’s burning with the FEVER!” Good times.

Later this week, maybe next, I’ll be writing, as promised, about my favorite album of all time, the one that changed my life, literally. And I first heard it as an instore play… I was the one who opened it because I’d heard the song on the radio and liked it. But somehow I didn’t like the rest and I threw it in the defectives bin, which is where the “open stuff that gets sent back” went. From small beginnings… The record came out 20 years ago this Saturday. Where I first heard it is Baltimore and that’s where I’ll be (completely coincidentally, but it worked out well). This singer just released an album with a song called Baltimore on it. Serendipity. That’s not the name of the artist. But good band name.

Anyway, I meant to have that post be up Saturday, or Friday since my blog has not a single Saturday post, but I decided to wait to write it till I got home. Here are the first notes. When they’d come on the instore play, I knew someone was trying to butter up the boss (I was an assistant manager by then). It always worked.

First notes:
Whitesnake

Faith

Earth Sun Moon

Lonesome Jubilee

Document

Now and Zen

Achtung Baby

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me