 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
209.4.40.100
This weekend I bought a Ktel collection (Edison Lighthouse anyone???) that I had owned when I was 11 or so(I still can remember most of the lyrics on that record to this day) It brought this topic to mind.At the age of about 6 (1966) is when I recall having my first record player. I spent a great deal of time with it. I recall some of the records I had. I had Capt.Kangaroo singing “Button up your Overcoat” Shirley Temple singing "Animal Crackers", and, of course, Peter and the Wolf.
I was given opera records by my parents but it did nothing for me then and it does nothing now.
My favorites were recorded accounts of the various space missions of the day. Gemini I believe. Those I would like to find, just for nostalgia.Anyone else?
Follow Ups:
Burt as in Burt and Ernie. This was a Sesame Street record I still have today. Timeless classics such as:The society of W lovers
Doing the Pigeon
Burt's SickAlso had Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson. Thoughs were great as well.
Then when i was 12 or 13 I got Led Zepplin III and Pink Floyd Ummagumma from the library and it was all down hill from there.
.
..
nt
I had lots of cowboy records (early 70's) my fave of which was Tex Ritter's blood on the saddle.Used to play it on a Phillips portable radio phonogram. I got one exactly the same off ebay recently, & it sounds horrid. Tracking is awful & the needle hops all over the place unless you blu-tak a huge weight over the stylus (same as when I was a kid!)
Amazingly despite this treatment, Tex plays fine, albeit crackly as hell, on my Linn.
Ed
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
You opened up a couple of side latches to find a turntable inside, with an on/off switch and tone control on the TT metal base. It had a detachable outboard stereo speaker with about 4 feet of speaker wire running back to the suitcase. I don't know who made it, but at age 9 I thought it was pretty cool at the time. The first record that I ever bought with my own money and played on it was "College Concert" by the Kingston Trio (still got it).
that you slid the record into and slosed the door. The music was diverse from early pop like Glen Miller, Bing Crosby etc./ some coutry music/ and actually a few classical excerpts including Wagner. But my favorite childhood record was called/ "How a Circus Learned To Smile" I must have played that record hundreds of times.
the great songs Jimmy Dean had out about the same time as the Johnny Horton tunes. "Big Bad John", "PT 109", and, of course, "I Won't Go Huntin' With You Jake (But I'll Go Chasin' Wimmin)".I really liked the latter even though, at the time, I didn't really know what it was all about when he sang about what those gals wore beneath them gingham gowns :^)
These records also got a real workout on my VM "Playtime."
Doug
...got from a friend of his at WCBM in Baltimore. I am not sure why he was able to get this particular record as he never got any others. I still have it and it is still playable; I suspect that the M97 tracks a different area of the groove then that old Astatic ceramic did. BTW, I had even used a couple of cut-down straight pins when we couldn't afford real "needles"; they did work.
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Not mention reminding me of some records I had and forgot(Cricket)
For me I did not again have a turntable of my own till just about 2
years ago. Friends,Party Houses, Roomates and Libraries. But none of my own. Could not afford it.All my listening was AM/FM. Good luck with that today.
But....During that period I was able to see some of the greatest bands ever close up and for just a few dollars. Can't do that now.$150.00 to squint at a Jumbotron...No thanks I'll take my VPI :-)
First use of a turntable was to place a flashlight on its rotating platter and daydream about careers in law enforcement and fire fighting.Craig
...the yellow 78s. All kinds of stuff on them, from stories in the Little Golden Book series to "Pony Boy" to military marches. Played on a small Zenith console: the mahogany top slid off to the side to reveal the phono and AM/SW radio inside.
My favorite Little Golden Record of all was Popeye singing "Never Play With Matches" b/w "Red and Green" I still know all of the lyrics.I also loved "Frosty the Snowman", "Jingle Bells" (this was on a black 45), "When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along", etc.
Doug
beatles "yesterday", disney book and record story sets, some japanese animation and tv program stuff like Raideen, Kaman Raida, Robocon....some of those were on red see thru disks. anyone know any of those japn programs?
I had a Close and Play when I was really young. :-)
I don't remember what I was spinning at the time though.
My first 2 albums were a Surf and Drag Music compilation
record and Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida(sp?) by Iron Butterfly.
I had to wait until my Dad was at work to play it on
our big RCA TV/Stereo console. Afterwards I got my own
turntable which was an all in one Sears stereo...
The good old dayz..... :-)
Plain old portable record player from the 50s with the thick round plastic tonearm before the days of close n play.Tairy Fales told by Roy Atwell
The Weavers Around The World
Bing Crosby's 33 Favorites
Mitch Miller
Disney Records
I too remember a Danny Kaye record except this one was alive album of some stand-up stuff.
He was very gifted.I listened only on my parents' radiogram.
Live From Fresno
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
My first record player was a hand-me-down from my parents which I got when I was six. It was an RCA that only played 7" 45s. I got my Mom's old popular late '40s 7" plus kids 7" from my older brother (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Disney, etc.) When I was ten my Dad got a stereo system (Rek-o-Cut TT, Dynaco amp and preamp, and AR-2ax speakers). I inherited his old mono console with AM/FM radio and a mono turntable/changer. I played a few LPs on the console, but mainly listened to the classical FM channel (KFAC). For LPs, I primarily used Dad's system. I played it much more than he ever did.I started collecting LPs when I received two 12" LPs of classical music from an aunt as a 9th birthday present. My Dad had about 60 classical LPs (which I still have) which were sonic blockbusters of the time (RCA, Merc and Everest). I supplemented these with what I could afford to buy. My favorites were the Victory at Sea albums that I bought and my Dad's Shaded Dog RCAs: Pines/Fountains of Rome (1S/1S) and Saint-Saens 3rd (Munch/BSO 1S/2S).
Bought my first turntable, Garrard Zero 100, after college.
Queen "Night at the Opera" in late 1975. I remember having that suitcase type player. Had many 45's before that but after the 1st lp lp's was all that I bought. 2nd lp was Supertramp's "Crime of the Century" thanks to one of my sisters playing it on 8 track.3rd lp - Pink Floyd "Animals"
4th lp - Rolling Stones "Some Girls"1st real set-up was when I was 8, 1979. All Yamaha - Turntable, receiver and speakers.
Here it is 31 years and 2000+ lp's later. Wow, seems like yesterady.
Don
...and loved listening to the story of Johnny Appleseed.Also had the soundtrack for Bambi, Snow White, and some Sesame Street records.
Funny, because neither one of my parents were music-lovers. There was no stereo in the house, at least not one they listened to. I remember my father had a turntable on the bottom shelf of his credenza in the den. Some full-chassis sprung record-changer thing, I want to say DEC but that's a computer, with a broken silver aluminum tonearm. All I remember is he told me it wasn't a stereo, it was a quadrophonic system. There was this wicked amp/pre that went along with it - lots of silver knobs and four VU meters - though it, too, never saw power.
He also had this old Fisher with lots of sliding switched and what I recall now as some sort of built-in equalizer with push buttons and Fisher floorstanding speakers with that god-awful natty brown-with-goldtone-thread grille cloth.
As a teenager, I would crank The Kinks in my bedroom. My parents, especially my mother, would ask what I was listening to. When I answered The Kinks, they'd argue with me that it was the Beatles.
I recall having a small player as a kid and getting the shit shocked out of me one day (bad ground or something). We had a 78 of Teresa Brewer, that's all I can remember.Then came the mondo GE console with the Porta-Fi.
I think I had a Sears turntable with two detachable speakers, that all folded up to make it easier to carry. I got it from my older brother as a hand me down when I was 8 or 9 (1964 or 1965). My mom and dad gave me a bunch of story LP's (like War of the Worlds, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To The Center Of The Earth) to listen to, then for Christmas 1965 I got my first music LP Beatles 65 and I was forever hooked both on the Beatles and music.Jeff
a
I think it all started with a 'Close-n-play' and a lot of 45's of kids songs...don't remember what, though 'Puff the Magic Dragon' seems to come to mind.Later, there was the big console stereo, a Philco. Our first color television, we weren't even allowed to touch the stereo parts until it was relegated to downstairs family room status years later.
Upon discovering the turntable, I started playing whatever I could find, except for the stuff my parents had stockpiled (Living Strings, etc.). I do recall playing both sides of a Johnny Horton 45 until it was pretty well played out - 'Sink the Bismarck,' on one side, 'The Battle of New Orleans,' on the other.
Somewhere along the same time, I got hold of a GE foldout stereo that had the hinged speakers on the ends...but by this time, cassettes had really begun to take over, so I didn't play much vinyl on it.
It wasn't until I was in High School, and working in a Radio Shack store, that I got a reasonable turntable. They were being closed out, since no one seemed to want them - the Lab 440, which was near the top of their line at the time. I think I paid less than $25 for it, and soon was hooked on vinyl...though at the time, more for economics than fidelity, since vinyl prices were lower than the new, and at the time, more desirable cassette editions of albums.
I used that turntable through the college years, and actually still have it today...it was boxed up for many years but I recently brought it back out as a back up to my primary table - still works and plays nicely.
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Had sink the bismark too. A hand me down from my mother/father. I will have to check to see what is on the flip side though.
"The Same Old Tale the Crow Told Me" and the "B" side of "Battle of New Orleans" is "All For the Love of a Girl".Doug
"Upon discovering the turntable, I started playing whatever I could find, except for the stuff my parents had stockpiled (Living Strings, etc.). I do recall playing both sides of a Johnny Horton 45 until it was pretty well played out - 'Sink the Bismarck,' on one side, 'The Battle of New Orleans,' on the other."This is funny because I remember it being almost a compulsion too. It was like there was a voice in your head that said "Find records and play them!" OK, maybe that voice is still there :^)
And, another two of my favorite songs from back then! It's suprising the number of younger people who know the opening refrain of "Battle of New Orleans"... In 1814 we took a little trip...
Doug
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I had a white walt disney that I played 45s from the late 70s, comic book records, "some" of my parents lps. I discovered Hey Nineteen when I was 11 on that little white box and have been a fan ever since. It did take me around 25 years to get back to vinyl though.
Not exactly a console, not exactly a porable either. Large wooden box with a lid, tube electronics. VM changer that never worked right.
We called it the "hi-fi."
My first records were "Lichtensteiner Polka," and the Colonel Bogey March from Bridge Over The River Kwai.
Later on, I graduated up to better quality music--"Theme From 'A Summer Place'," "The Monster Mash," and "Wheels," by the String-Alongs.
I still love the latter.
____________________________
Neck Deep in the Big Muddy and the Damned Fool Yells, "Push On!"
musta heard that Colonel Bogie a thousand times on that old VM. Until I was three or four, I remember one of my greatest joys was pressing that reject button on the front of the VM. Needless to say, this vexed the rest of the family quite a bit, although that wasn't why I did it. I just loved pushing the button, I'd do it just as often when nothing was playing.
Ours had a gold-painted metal grille on the front and there were three full-range speakers behind it.
The changer stopped working not long after we got it. It wouldn't drop records, but the tonearm would return at the end of the record and it would shut off.
I've been looking for info and a pic of that unit for the last several years, even bookmarked a webpage dedicated to VM stuff, but so far no dice.
____________________________
Neck Deep in the Big Muddy and the Damned Fool Yells, "Push On!"
Wow! This is what I love about this kind of thread. You find almost unbelievable commonalities!"Lichtensteiner Polka" (the 45 was on London, I believe) and "March from the River Kwai and Colonel Bogey" (on Columbia by Mitch Miller and the Gang) were two of my favorite records! I played them over and over to the point of being teased about it by the rest of my family.
I still have "March" although it is really unplayable after having been ground to death on the various record players I mentioned in my post. Fortunately, I found a "Mitch's Greatest Hits" LP at the local SA recently in very good condition which has that song AND the flip side "Hey Little Baby" (which I liked just as much) on it. It is a little emotional listening to these songs again since my father passed away.
"Lichtensteiner Polka" was one of the ones that, somehow, got lost. I believe I have found it online in the past but haven't done anything yet to reacquire it.
Doug
I had two copies--one was left on a windowsill and it warped. The other copy was eventually broken by accident (my mom did it, not me!).
Colonel Bogey, if I recall, had a yellow Columbia label with "eyes" on it, something like the six-eye label. My younger brother broke that record over his head when he was a toddler.
____________________________
Neck Deep in the Big Muddy and the Damned Fool Yells, "Push On!"
"I had two copies--one was left on a windowsill and it warped. The other copy was eventually broken by accident (my mom did it, not me!)."Family members just don't always understand the crucial importance of records!
"Colonel Bogey, if I recall, had a yellow Columbia label with "eyes" on it, something like the six-eye label. My younger brother broke that record over his head when he was a toddler."
Exactly! A yellow Columbia 4 eye 45! The eyes are in four black "triangles" radiating out from the center to the label edge. Record number 4-41066.
Siblings!
Doug
but being older than most Inmates, mine were 78s. In the late '40s, at about age 6 or so, my folks began buying me album sets and playing them for me on our console player. My favorite was "The Nutcracker Suite" by Spike Jones. I soon learned to operate the console player myself. Also had a collection of Gene Autry (of course with "Back In The Saddle Again") and "Bozo Under The Sea" plus a few others. I also remember my favorite single, "Ghost Riders In The Sky" by Vaughn Monroe, but that was only from the radio.Then for Christmas when I was 12, I got my own record player. It was a Steelman portable (locking lid and handle) with a BSR changer and AM radio - this was 1954. This unit looked just like the one often shown in a drawing in Art Dudley's magazine, "Listener". Now I began buying 45s - Little Richard, Coasters, Del-Vikings, Gene Vincent, Elvis, Fats Domino, etc. The 78s are now lost but I have about 75 of the 45s and after cleaning them with a RCM, they sound amazingly good. By high school in the late '50s I began buying LPs. My musical tastes were changing beyond R and R so while I got Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Buddy Knox and a few others, I started buying folk such as Kingston Trio, Bud & Travis, and jazz with Brubeck, Miles, Cannonball, Jamal, etc.
...and it has been gone for over forty years. Although it didn't look very original when I got finished with it.
Dave
Later Gator,
Crank up your talking machine, grab a jar of your favorite "kick-back", sit down, relax, and let the good times roll.The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
a beige grille cloth across the front. Inset on the side was the AM tuning dial and control knobs. By the start of college, friends were beginning to assemble component stereo systems so to "improve" my Steelman, I wired in an outboard 10" full range driver mounted on an open baffle board.
since we're the same age. My very first records were 78s of "McNamara's Band" and "Sabre Dance". Had a Garrard changer, a little tubed amp (Eico?) and a University speaker - all hand-me-downs from Dad.
My first LP purchase was Woody Herman's "Road Band" on Capitol. I didn't dare play Elvis, the Crickets or Little Richard when Dad was around. I, too, became a big fan of the Kingston Trio (as well as Chad Mitchell a bit later) and knew every song by heart.Dad thought I was nuts but at least he tolerated THAT stuff.
"Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to" Mark Twain
Worked my ass off all year for the LP-12 all year. Bought a Winn Labs strain gauge a few years later.Music? Lot's of Joni Mitchell, The Doors, and late 60's rock. Lot's of Dad's be bop jazz LP's, too.
Jack
I had a record player from a very young age (3, maybe). I had children's talking/story records, Disney records (Sleeping Beauty soundtrack, Mickey Mouse club), and some classical 78's -- Rubinstein playing Schumann's Kinderszenen and Falla Ritual Fire Dance. The Ritual Fire Dance completely thrilled and terrified me. There was a point in the music where I would get so frightened that I would have to take the needle off the record. Then I would play it again, just to scare myself one more time, and to see if I could be brave enough to listen all the way through.Another story: I had a talking record about firemen. The firemen respond to a fire call, and break the windows of the house to put out the fire. One day this got me so excited that I broke all the upstairs windows in the house with a golf club.
The power of vinyl!
The first record player I remember was a little plastic thing that you cranked to turn the platter. I must have only been about 2 1/2 years old. I remember that the base was kind of kidney bean shaped and the tonearm (with acoustic transducer) was a kind of oval or egg-shaped structure on the end of three long spindly plastic rods that converged to the pivot.It came with these little green records that were only about 4" diameter. My dad had to glue those three long rods back together after I broke them a few times. This would have been in about 1955.
Then I got one of those oval shaped electric players (still with the acoustic transducer) with some clowns and balloons painted around the outside. This must have been Christmas of 1955. I remember playing Little Golden Records on this.
In 1956, my dad hooked up an old Webster 78 rpm record changer to an even older '30s style console radio and I would stand on a chair or other platform to reach the changer and spend hours spinning records on that.
He had several albums from the '40s (Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Art Tatum, etc.) and he actually let me play these records even after I broke quite a few of them. I still have these 78s and treasure them (my dad passed away in 2003). I now, however, wish he would have been a little more restrictive so that most of them would be intact today. Some of them bear evidence of me trying to glue the pieces back together.
For Christmas of 1956, I got a VM "Playtime" record player with all four speeds and a fuzzy, light gray platter. This was the real deal to me then. My grandmother worked at a ballroom that had a jukebox and she would bring me 45s that had been removed to make room for the latest hits. I was in Heaven. I had many of the hit records of the late '50s including "Purple People Eater" mentioned earlier. I still have that one even though a lot of the others got lost through the years. It still puzzles me how I let those get away.
Later, in the '60s, I turned this player into a "component" system by building a separate box for the speaker and also for the amp (a little one tube [35L6GT] job.
Also in the '60s, we had a portable "Sonic" brand stereo player my dad bought and I would use that also and my parent's Sears console.
I've always loved rock and roll (thanks to those 45s Gram brought me) but also classical and any good music really.
That's enough, I guess. Thanks for triggering these wonderful memories of some of the best times in my life.
Doug
Oooo... Nice thread.I love posts like this. My first record player was one of those thingy's that you could carry around and it could play on both AC/DC power and included a little AM radio in it too.
Then I got one of those GE fold out mono record players, in gray in the fourth grade and I also got some records each year too. On my 7th birthday, I received several Walt Disney children's records, a couple of winnie the pooh records and such. I still have a bunch of those and some on the venerable Golden Records label. Then when I had surgery that year, someone from church gave me a bunch of Crickett 45's, one I still have. Chilly Willy and I forget the flip side but had Reuben, Reuben and My Little Tea Pot until a friend and I in about 5th grade scratched the bejeebers out of it in the rocks. :-)
Then got my first true stereo, one of those all in one jobs from Hitachi that included a cassette player/recorder, am/fm tuner and a BSR changer. Owned it for 7 years and burned out all but one light in the radio dial and finally "upgraded", if you will to a Sansui rack system that was of true components but cheap stuff, including a cheap assed DD table that had a huge wow from the rotating magnet dragging on one spot on the stator board. I still use the integrated as part of my PC system but that's all that remains.
My first foray into pop music came when I got a small stack of 45's mof of them from the mid to late 60's. Shades of Blue's Happiness on the red Impact! label, something on the yellow and white Atco label that had a song called Chick, Chick(sp?) and an intrumental on the flip side and some others. Then some 45's at the GoodWill a short time later and one of those was the Doors on Electra doing Mosquito and It Slipped my Mind. Then in the mid 70's discovered top 40 AM radio and from there the 70's disco, pop and rock stuff and as they say, the rest is history.
it was a close 'n' play, and I would listen to "Pop Goes the Weasel" over and over again. Nobody told me about the 24 hr rule (though my mom was soon to invent one: boy was she sick of "Pop Goes the Weasel" after awhile). I loved the part where he sang "patience to wait for bye and bye" and stretched out that particular phrase. In my memory, the singer sounds alot like Walter Brennan. In actuality, I doubt it was; we were't that hip.
P
I remember my dad bought me a green and white vinyl covered little record grinder around '58 and the 45 of Purple People Eater. I'm sure I drove my folks bonkers playing it over and over...
Dave
Started buying records around that time. I was aroud 8 yrs old when I started buying 45's. I stll remember my first album somewhere around '62 or '63. The Beach Boys Live
I only use my gun whenever kindness fails
It seems that I always had a record player. My mother taught me how to read by holding up 45's. I would hear something on a resturant jukebox and my father would look at the record and eventually bring home the 45. The only way I could hear it at home was sit with my mother to identify it. I clearly remember Elvis, Connie Francis, and later early Motown. In Washington DC there was a record shop called Record City where Metro Center now resides. You could walk in there and there was an entire wall of just 45's alone. There was a guy there named Eddie who would play anything you wanted to hear whether you were going to buy or not. And they had everything. When my Dad would have to work on a Saturday he would leave me there all day. I was allowed three records a week as 45's were 3 for $2 then, picture sleeve or not. Every Christmas I received a new record player, a couple 45's and one or two albums.
I don't remember ever having any children's records. Washington DC had great top 40 radio. Played everything. Top 40 then as opposed to now, really had no format. It wasn't uncommon to hear Elvis, Beatles, James Brown, Motown, Memphis, you name it, on the same station. This was true up until the mid 1970's when record companies helped reformat radio and music into it's current constipated state.
I still have my 45 collection and one night a week I give up all the audiophile stuff and give them a spin on an Audio Technica Sound Burger hooked to a pair of AR Powered Partners. I think I'm like many people. Albums didn't really apply to me much until the late 1960's except for the Beatles and Stones. I love the Who but Sell Out was the first album that I could listen to all the way through without boredom setting in. I didn't really enjoy albums much unti Jimi Hendrix released Electric Ladyland. That's when the audio bug hit me too.
Thanks for a great thread!
One of these thingys.Then when I was maybe 5 or 6, the parents bought me a GE Wildcat stereo foldout. A couple of years later, it was a Zenith Allegro modular stereo with a cassette player, AM-FM tuner & BSR changer.
I got my first decent stereo when I was probably 12. A Dual 1225 turntable, Technics SA-110 receiver & Pioneer CTF-9191 cassette deck with a pair of Technics 2-way speakers.
Didn't really listen to a lot of kid's records. Mostly pop stuff that I would cringe at now. Although I did have Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" & "Tusk". Those were among my first forays into rock & roll.
Cheers,
Bobbo :-)
Yes! I had one of those too. Maybe two. I remember one theat was blue inside. Probably wore them out because I remember Uncle Pete garbage-picking me a new one every few months. I was about 6 or 7 when I got a big 90-pound Zenith with the detachable speakers, and not long after that, a Soundesign with a cassette, 8-track and clock. Dubious upgrade for sure.I listened to an odd mix of oldies, kids' records and whatever albums happened to be around. Maybe that accounts for my tastes today.
http://www.thedepartmentofrecords.com : your prime purveyors of hardcore phonography
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
