What were the first CDs you bought?
Posted by: Sloop John B on 07 October 2011
Presuming that for most of us CD was our second format.
First 2
All on the same day I bought my first CDP - Arcam Alpha:
I had just bought a sony CD player. There was a NAD in the shop but at the time I had only heard of Rotel and Sansui hifi brands, plus my sister had a Sony.
It was this, Factory FACD 144, "Domo Arigato" by The Durutti Column in 1985. It was, I believe, the first album to be released on CD only (although a version came out on vinyl very many years later) - Tony Wilson famously disliked vinyl, preferring the convenience, smallness and quietness of the new digital format.
I didn't have a CD player at the time (I didn't have one of my own until 1991 - a Nakamichi CD4) so I had to go round my brother-in-law's house and tape it on his Trio/Kenwood system. Not a great album - it was recorded live in Japan and is completely lacking in atmosphere.
The Symphony No. 6 was an analogue recording from 1971 and the Symphony No. 9 was a digital recording from November 1980. My first digital recording and transition into the new world of CD. This was Karl Böhm's first digital recording and his last as he died in August 1981. His first record contract, for Deutsche Grammophon, came in 1953 when he would have been around 60 years old.
At the time this was available in LP and cassette too. Now thirty years later, cassette is all but gone and CD seems to be on uncertain ground for many and now in my usual knack for timing, I am about to investigate and possibly return back into a vinyl world. I still value having something tangible in my hands or on the shelf giving me something interesting to read or art to look at. Music listening should still mostly be an event and involve some sort of focus or effort. One of the problems I have with this new streaming digital world is that it makes everything too easy and somehow the music just becomes another aspect of our busy lives. How many things can we do well at one time? The answer still is one.
After the Beethoven, I remember getting Vladimir Ashkenazy's recording of the Chopin Etude's on Decca. From here my goal was to be able to hear all the music of all my favourite composers so I started collecting this set one by one.
One benefit of CD was that it expanded and made available a vast amount of music. For a young person growing up today this is a given and a no brainer. Now, one can buy a complete set of any major composer for a low cost in minutes. Until about 5 years ago, individual classical CD's were still quite expensive.
Aida was the first opera I saw in a staged performance, and it sparked my passion for the genre. A year after the event my parents gave me this expensive present - I had to buy a stereo system for it which was more than worth it. Still is one of my favorites.
Cheers,
EJ
HMV at the top end of Oxford Street, junction with Tottenham Court Road - am guessing that it was 1986.
These were the first three, purchased together:
Couldn't find a smaller image
