It's been a while since I've been able to do a Cheddar X but that's okay - it just means this is a rare and valuable cheese. This week's Cheddar is political in nature but Johnny did an excellent job of not making them leading questions. Here goes: more...

Posted by: Jim at 02:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Tell us about the first album you ever owned. What was it, was there a story behind it? How about the last album you acquired?

The very first music album (after the genuine kid stuff like Snoopy and the Red Baron and various Muppets records) was Dr. Hook: A little Bit More.

My Mom and I with my little brother were staying with my Aunt to help with my Uncle (who was failing rapidly). My Dad bought me the Dr.Hook album because my cousines told him that this was what the hip crowd wanted to listen to. It blew my mind completely and irrevocably. My mom overheard it the second day I had it in the house and she confiscated it. She said she was giving it back to my Dad, this music was too grown up for me.

Well it was way too late. In the short time that I had posession of that album I listened to it more than a dozen times straight through and a select few songs (When You're in Love With a Beautiful Woman, A Little Bit More and Sexy Eyes) dozens more. I got the boogy in my blood and it never left.

After that I bugged my older brother constantly for all of his funk. I begged, borrowed and stole my Dad's Bee-Gee's, Barry Manilow and Wayne Newton. I sat at the radio every Saturday morning with my Radio Shack tape recorder jacked in to record the best off of Casey's Top 40. It was the beginning of the end of my childhood.

The very last album I purchased for myself was Concrete Blonde y Los Illegals.

Johnette was spending too much time south of the border and it showed in the music. The hard driving riffs I loved and expected from Blonde weren't there. The sweet scratchy ululations of Napolitano were absent. The band had gone adrift and was faltering badly.

I lost faith in music with this album. I'd already been on a downward spiral and this was the capper. Since this CD in 1997 I haven't purchased a musical album. Don't cry for me, it hasn't been a sad parting, nor a total one. I listen to the radio occasionally in the car. I borrow CDs or MP3s sometimes when I'm curious about a song or artist. So far I haven't been seriously tempted to buy another CD.

What's your story? Give it to us in the comments here or post on your own blog and trackback to this post so we can follow along.

Posted by: Jim at 11:13 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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