'Mosaic' is one of my all-time favorite albums. Over the years, I've bought this album countless times, and in many formats, but the first time was in Brooklyn during the summer of 1963, which was a year after its initial release, and bought with money I received for my 16th birthday. Back then, I thought I was a real Beatnik "kitten" wore a black beret, with fake wayfarers and (unbeknownst to my parents), smoked Gitanes. Hippiedom was on the horizon.
To get this freeload, tell us about albums you bought when you were 16 years old that you still regularly listen to.
Hmmm 16 you say. Enter the way back machine to 1975. Native Dancer by Wayne Shorter is the easy aswer. Also, Southern Nights by the late, great Allen Toussaint.
ReplyDeleteHEY! GET OFF MY LAWN!
DeleteUncle Meat & Hot Rats (but now I listen to the box set)
ReplyDelete16. 1972. Uh...All The Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople. Harvest. I didn't buy Honky Chateau but my brother did, so that sorta counts.
ReplyDeleteEverything I've ever bought I still listen to, save for #3 below (and I still like a couple things on it). My 1st 3 albums, bought in one trip, were ELP's debut, Sabbath's Paranoid, and and T Rex's Zinc Alloy. I was 13 in '74.
ReplyDeleteC in California
The record was Trout Mask Replica by Cpt. Beefheart on the Straight-Label. I bought it at a secondhand store in excellent condition for 3 Deutsch-mark, today means 1,5 €...
ReplyDeleteHuey
Decade by Neil Young - bought it when I was still 16. I had to replace the vinyl after some years, as it was completely worn out and scratchy and finally purchhased the CD version at the end of the 80s. Still great!
ReplyDeleteWimp from Belgium
Turned 16 in 1972, the peak of my country rock/California sound period. Three from that year still in the regular rotation: Poco - Good Feelin' To Know, Bonnie Raitt - Give It Up and Jackson Browne - Jackson Browne (aka Saturate Before Using). More often still played from that year, however, is Crystal Silence, from Chick Corea and Gary Burton.
ReplyDeleteSo many. It was 1974. Pretzel Logic. Feats Don't Fail Me Now. Court & Spark. Paradise and Lunch. Apostrophe. Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends. All purchased in that year. There are more, but not sure I bought in that year.
ReplyDeleteBremble, is that your dog?
DeleteDoes your dog bite?
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXn2QVipK2o&ab_channel=hill35billy
Delete16? That'd be the Green Onions LP. And Mingus Oh yeah. Chess anthology The Blues Vol 2.
ReplyDeleteSubscribed! Thanks for carrying the torch Babs!
ReplyDeleteOhh muhgawd, I'm SO glad you're doing this!! (We'll miss Farq, tho, won't we. Hoping he'll tag in often!)
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to have a summer (1967, I was 14) pal whose sister was lucky enough to be dating (?) Al Kooper. He left a bunch of LPs at my pal's house, and that basically formed my taste for all time (for Al time?)... Among them: Velvet & Nico; Freak Out & Ab Free; 1st Dead LP; Doors 1st... et Al...
ReplyDeleteMy year 16 was 1969 - Santana, Tull's Stand Up, CSN, MC5, Stand!, Goodbye Cream (brought it to a girlfriend's house and listened to it so obsessively she broke up with me. It was worth it.)
Besides Beatles, Stones, Dylan, Zombies, Jefferson Airplane and too many others to list there are those I was turned onto by a jazz and blues loving friend. Those include LPs by Junior Wells, Roland Kirk, James Brown, Herbie Mann and Herbie Hancock.
ReplyDeleteI admire your initiative, Babs.
Lola versus Powerman and The Money-go-round Part One came out when I was sweet 16 and I still listen regularly. Nilsson Sings Newman was also released and remains in my Top 10 LPs of all time. Thanks, Babs.
ReplyDeleteWotta revoltin' development this is! Why, for two cents I'd ... I'd ...
ReplyDeleteWhen I was sixteen? Hot Rats, Ummagumma, Nashville Skyline, Uncle Meat, Rainbow In Curved Air, Songs From A Room, 20/20, Trout Mask Replica, Santana ... that's about my yearly disposable income right there.
DeleteBert Jansch first album. Bought second hand by mail order from COB records as were many others, but this has stood the test of time.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your new blog and my favourite record purloinded from the Babs Bargain Baseent has got to be Mosaic.
'Babs' Bargain Basement' was in contention for the name of this blog.
DeleteAs was "Babs' Box".
DeleteStill regularly listen to is the factor that winnows the list for me. Like an earlier comment, I still listen to most every record I bought back then (1970), but not on a regular basis. Three records still in frequent rotation 54 years after initial purchase include Charles Munch conducting the Orchestra of Paris in a program of Ravel (a neighbor's mother took me to the record store and clearly thought I was insane, repeatedly questioning my decision), The Grateful Dead's "Workingman's Dead" (I grew up in the SF Bay Area and was lucky enough to see them that year), and The John Handy Quintet's "Live In Monterey" which became my high school background study music and may explain my poor grades.
ReplyDeleteI am OLD, so twas 1963 when I was 16. I guess James Brown - Live At The Apollo. Except that I didn't actually buy it but recorded it from my mate's LP onto my Philips 4 track reel to reel, which I probably took over to his place strapped to the luggage rack of my Lambretta. I still have the Philips machine, complete with the indentations where the luggage rack bit into the plastic case. I don't have the Lambretta though, but how how I wish ....
ReplyDeleteI'd like to thank everyone for their comments, while I'm learning to navigate Blogger.
ReplyDeleteGuest posts are more than welcome. You can email your submissions to me at beatnikbabs@geemaildotcom (you get the idea)
Here’s the Rudy Van Gelder edition of Art Blakey’s ‘Mosaic’
https://we.tl/t-khvpsEv3B5
1965 I was 16. Hope this counts, but being a renegade teenager I boosted all my records from Woolworths. The one I play the most still today is Take it Easy with the Walker Brothers.
ReplyDeleteHi Babs: Thanks so much for deciding to give this blog thing a chance. I look forward to seeing how things develop.
ReplyDeleteIn no particular order, these were bought at a shopping mall record store when I was 16 - usually on sale for USD $3.99.
1. Jethro Tull - "Thick As A Brick"
2. Neil Young - "Harvest"
3. Elton John - "Honky Chateau"
4. The Allman Brothers - "Eat A Peach"
5. Steely Dan - "Can't Buy A Thrill"
Does the reply work? That was my dog, and she did not bite Very sweet.
ReplyDeleteBlogger seems momentarily screwed. I can't add a comment to a previous comment, both here and on my own blog, Firefox and/or Opera. I can make new comments, though, so thanks to Sundar Pichai for that, at least.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was something I did while playing around in settings, and then spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what I did that disabled the reply function. Sundar better hope we never meet!
DeleteI cannot comment EVER as Google account on Firefox it screwed..go to Daddy Google browser (oweners of said blogger ) bingo all pretty...
DeleteTry Babs' workaround (comment over at th' IoF©). Worked like a charm or me.
Delete(I almost said "reacharound")
DeleteWill try half nelson followed by slamdunk that should fix it..
DeleteGood onya Babs! I've also toyed with the idea of starting a blob/blog but I'm basically a lazy slug in that regard, in most regards I suspect. Looks like the usual bunch of clowns will be contributing, which is a-okay by me. Consider yourself bookmarked.
ReplyDeleteRecuds I bought @16 and still listen to? Um...lots of cut outs Airto-Seeds on The Ground, Walter Bishop Jr-Coral Keys, etc. Full pricers: King Crimso's Starless and Bbl Blck, Dah Who-Quadroplegia, Peter Hammill/VdGG stuff, Henry Cow. What must my parents have thunk? Re: comments, Safari is my main browser but for that past 7/8 months I've had to use Chrome. One thing I've noticed here and on the slowly sinking FMF today is I'm unable to respond when one of youze clods say something particularly clever.
ReplyDeleteSeems to have been a momentary glitch, bog and platform-wide. I think Babs caused it with this furshlugginer new blog.
DeleteNo doubt. Hey, lookit me, I'm replyin' I don't git'it, never did.
DeleteWelcome here to me. Thank you Babs for continuing this strange journey.
ReplyDeleteMy musical interests didn’t really develop until I started college in 1975. The four groups that I listened to in high school that I still listen to today are the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Loving Spoonful & the Chad Mitchell Trio. I was exposed to the last group because that was one of my Dad’s favorites- as he had all their albums and played them incessantly.
ReplyDeleteBabs, looking forward to your new blog.
Gbrand
Great blog start Babs! When I was 16... 1974, so I guess anything by Dave Edmunds / Nick Lowe!
ReplyDeleteAt sixteen rock ruled in my world, and after buying Deep Purple, Made in Japan, I decided that live double albums were great. Camel, A Live Record, Steve Hillage, Live Herald and Jethro Tull, Bursting Out were all enjoyed and still get a spin every now and then. The Tull album I got after a live concert was broadcast on the BBC from MSG.
ReplyDeleteSixteeeeeen???? that's a long long way to go back. I guess... FMac's Rumors & also Tusk, Kansas' Two For the Show and Supertramp's Crime of the Century.
ReplyDeletethose first two Soft Machines still find their way to the phonograph periodically.
ReplyDeletethanks for doing this Babs ...
ReplyDeleteTurned 16 in 1972 in Kansas, Chicago II, Sly & the Family Stone Greatest Hits, Santana & Abraxas, Aqualung, Hair, Exile On Main Street. Tarkus, Abbey Road, In A Silent Way, Can't Buy A Thrill, Superfly, Shaft. Thanks Columbia record club. Still in rotation these days. And thanks Babs for the brand new blog. Let the good times roll!
ReplyDelete16? 1975 then...I don't think I had more than three LPs then Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies, Beatles - A Collection of Oldies, Pink Floyd - A Nice Pair double maybe...
ReplyDeleteCome on man. I'm a pensioner now - waiting for my left knee replacement this Friday - in a Turkish hospital, remeber 16? İ can't remember six days ago.......
ReplyDelete16=1983, Living in Paris, we had a socialist government since 1981, who let us have private radio, before we had only state radio with a very limited range of music. French music wasn't that great at that time and maybe still now (French women are much more interesting...), so US music represented for me freedom and cool and that year I was listening to Spyro Gyra City Kids while smoking nice african weed. Yummy !
ReplyDeleteA stellar selection to launch your new blog, Babs. Thanks for taking up the foamy scepter and running with it! As to my music then and now, at 16 I was still mostly buying 45s and a few of the artists that come to mind include The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry; and I still listen to them all these days.
ReplyDeleteAlbums I still listen to that I bought in the mid 70's. I mainly bought singles back then but Ziggy would be one and the Beatles Blue and Red Doubles would be two others as would Rolled Gold by the Stones. I also spin up a double comp of old Decca obscurities called 'Hard Up Heroes' every now and then. Even then I was looking back to the previous era
ReplyDeleteAlbums, apart from being music in a concrete (well, vinyl) form, serve to act as life's milestones/landmarks. If I think about an album, I can remember my life around it. Hot Rats! Buying it at the record shop, the Dansette portable record player in my bedroom, my girlfriend Jane (God bless her departed soul) ...
ReplyDeleteAnd for many years the album was my base currency unit. I would always convert the price of anything into the number of albums it would buy, or fractions thereof. I should have added Colosseum's Valentyne Suite. Lifetime album right there.
A year later, it was Soft Machine Third that joined my precious collection in its gilt-finish wire rack. I'm playing that now, remembering a party I took it to, and the hostile reaction it received. I was genuinely baffled, because I thought it was wild and exciting and unique, and who wouldn't want to listen to that?
I'm listening to it now. What was great, is great.
Regarding FT3's reference to "the album as my base currency unit" - it reminded me of when I was in college, I had a friend who ran a small record store and he asked me if I wanted to work Saturdays because it was too busy for just him to handle (which he did alone during the week). Store stock was mostly vinyl (this was pre-CD's) but there was a long wall behind the counter filled with an impressive selection of bongs and other head shop paraphernalia. I was not an "on the books" employee - I was paid at the end of each Saturday by picking any 3 single vinyl albums in stock. This financial arrangement worked well for all concerned. It also helped expand my record collection. I still have the UNOPENED Beatles Abbey Road Picture Disc from working there. It was a great gig, one of my favorite jobs. I loved that the vinyl albums were literally my "base currency unit".
DeleteIn the early 1980’s I was buying a lot of secondhand vinyl records, I think single albums were £2/£2.50 and doubles £3/£3.50. One day a copy of Zappa in New York was in the shop, the handwritten sticker said ”Original, contains Punky’s Whips”, (I didn’t know that later copies had removed this track), however because of this I paid £5 for the album, seemed a fortune at the time. For context, gig tickets I have from that era vary from £3.50 for The Kinks and £4.00 for Slade.
DeleteMeanwhile back in the States, MCA wanted to raise the list price of new LP's from $8.98 to $9.98 in 1981, starting with Tom Petty's followup to Damn The Torpedoes, but Tom didn't back down.
DeleteAt age 16, I had a newspaper route and spent almost all my earnings on records. Would have given my left nut for a job in a record store! Instead I started a fanzine and got some records for free to review, which was pretty sweet.
Easy, the whole Paul is dead thing from back in the day Neal T
ReplyDeleteLondon Calling - The Clash..released in the UK in 79, still listen to it more than any other Clash album.
ReplyDeleteYou and I must be around the same age. There was an American sketch comedy show called "Fridays" (a ripoff of SNL). The Clash performed "London Calling" and The Jam played "Private Hell" on that show, and my record buying habits completely changed.
DeleteAn album I still listen to from that period is Machine Gun Etiquette (which was recorded at the same time and in the same studio as London Calling).
It's one of the greatest comeback albums from one of Britain's first punk bands (first single, first LP, first US tour). Nobody thought The Damned could write songs without Brian James. Nobody knew that Captain Sensible could play guitar like that. And they paid tribute to their roots with a great cover of the MC5's "Looking At You".
I think I was 16 when I got Lightnin' and Sonny for 22/6 from James Asman's second-hand rack in old Camomile Street.
ReplyDeleteLiner notes by Mack McCormack, unreadable on this download. There weren't many blues albums released in England by then, Tony Russell reckoned it was just over 100 in all. This one is great, and beautifully-recorded.
From this record I found out where Buddy Holly got the solo in That'll Be The Day.
Also Lightnin' puts new words to the Twist.
https://workupload.com/file/fdbNDKyzh5X
Big tanks 4 zis!!!
DeleteHmmm.... I'm not sure I can remember 16 that clearly. It was the year I bought Dylan's Self Portrait, but I can't say I listen to that "what is this shit" much, except for the outtakes Bob released a few years ago. I was still doing his back catalog at that time. Pretty sure I bought Blonde on Blonde in 1970... Finding Dylan in Mississippi was pretty damned difficult.
ReplyDeleteKing Crimson "Lizard" (still their best) and Zappa's "Chunga's Revenge."
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard anything from you in a while, Babs. Hope everything's OK.
ReplyDelete