Firm Grasp of History

I don't remember the first CD I ever bought with my own money. I think it was maybe Everclear's So Much for the Afterglow. I do know what it should have been, Electriclarryland. When I used to care more about music I was always irked by the fact that I couldn't point to Butthole Surfers as proof of me having above average musical tastes from the very beginning. Sure, they were no Wolf Parade, but they were better than Everclear and I think that liking them as a pre-teen would have impressed street press readers.

The reason I remember my original first CD plans is because I was actually very excited to be buying my first CD with my own money, and my brain was memorising things all over the place. My parents took me to the Myer Centre and I browsed through the racks to find it. I think I really enjoyed the song Pepper at the time. Also as a twelve year old the name Butthole Surfers was pretty funny. I think my parents thought I was after a comedy album and not the 50 minutes of alt rock psychedelia I could have had on that disc I found under "B" at the Virgin Music Megastore.

The reason I did not buy Electriclarryland is actually kind of funny. It was $30. I was prepared for this. Somewhere before arriving at the cash register, however, I discovered the same exact album on cassette was only $21.95. It was the same music, but I would save $8 which in 1996 money was actually closer to TWELVE DOLLARS in today's money. I believe this is the first documented event of me being a tightass.

In hindsight, the choice probably made sense as I didn't even own a CD player at the time and I did own a Walkman. Mum bought me a CD player in 1997 and I played Everclear on it a lot. In the years that followed I would have no hesitation in describing my musical tastes as "the same or similar to the band Everclear." If I had owned Electriclarryland on CD instead of tape would I have listened to it more? Would I have gone down an entirely different, life defining path in musical tastes? Could I have been more artistic, more philosophical? More abstract?

Who knows.

If I had bought the CD instead of the cassette, would I have gone down a totally different, life redefining path of not being stingy and currently be swamped with credit card debt and have no health insurance? Maybe.

I don't know what I did with that $8 I saved. I'm pretty sure I still have it.