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08/18/2007 Entry: "Happy Birthday, CD!"

Yes, it's slow at the office today, giving me time to post.

Well, yesterday was the birthday of the CD. In the article, people are sharing what their first CD was. Here's my story.

The first CD I ever heard was Santana's Greatest Hits. It was at Zayer's in Rockland. I was blown away how all those layers of percussion were so clear! Now, the rest of this chapter of Billy Rhythm's sordid past...

I had a friend who worked in a hardware store. His father was the manager at the store. And in that store was a CD player. It was an odd CD player. It was small, and supposed to be somewhat portable, but the battery pack was an optional accessory. Anyway, my friend, the employee at the store, decided he'd steal it, just to see if he could get it away from his father's watchful eye. So he did. Now, here's the odd part. He's got a hot CD player. (I should've mentioned this would have been about '87, so it's not like CD players were all over the place in Rockland ME.) It's from the store where he worked. His father is the manager of the store. He can't keep it. His Dad will surely notice the CD player is missing from the store, and now his son has a new CD player. Hmm... So, he gave it to me. Yes, I admit it. I received stolen property. I didn't take it, Mom, and I had no collusion in him taking it. He did it all on his own. I was just an afterthought.

OK, so now I've got a new, though hot, CD player. I have no CDs. I have no real money to buys CDs. But I did have enough for a CD single. And that was my first CD: a 3", three song CD single of Jimi Hendrix. It had "Hear My Train A Comin'" on it, as well as "Drivin' South" and the Beatles "Day Tripper." (Ironically, John Lennon was with Jimi that day, and sang back-up vocals on the song!) I bought it at Maine CD and Comics on Main Street. After that, we headed down to the local appliance/stereo store, where this friend's brother work. They had some CDs in there, so he gave me one. My second CD was The Manhattan Transfer's "Bop Do Wop."

Posted by Melanie @ 08/18/2007 10:22 PM EST

My first CD was a cardboard cased (like a mini-lp really) version of U2's "October." I paid 16.99 for it at Wild Rufus in 1985. Funny thing was ... I didn't own a CD player! My friend did! Oy vey, what a time.

Posted by Paddy @ 08/23/2007 11:23 PM EST