Buying The Wrong Record First

I think Trout Mask winds up being most people's introduction to Captain Beefheart just because it's the famous album. I bought it around the age of 15 after I'd completed most of my Zappa collection and was at the "What's next?" stage. The odd thing is I actually found most of it fairly listenable from the get-go. Weird, but not impenetrable. There was just a lot of it.

 

X - See How We Are. Not a great starting point record for them.

 

This thread reminds me of a friend of mine who has a habit of hearing about a bands and just blindly buying whatever album he comes across in a record store. His first Can album? Flow Motion. First Guided by Voices album? Earthquake Glue.

 

I loved, and still do, perfect pop songs and I first started buying albums properly around 1981/2 when I was 10. My first Bowie album was "Heroes" and I think at the time I only liked Beauty And The Beast and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about the title track and hated side 2. I was a massive synth pop fan and I'd heard this was one of his electronic albums so it left me totally baffled it didn't sound like The Human League or Depeche Mode.

My first Kraftwerk was Computer World and I just thought 'Where are the proper songs?". again I liked Pocket Calculator but the rest left me cold.

Still I stuck with both and love and appreciate them now.

 

My first Black Sabbath album was Technical Ecstacy, purchased as a preadolescent in the early '80s. I knew this was a later album, but it was 50 cents or so at a school rummage sale and I figured it'd be as good a place to start as any, right? Wrong. Rectified this error not long after and got a copy of Paranoid - which still gets played to this day, whereas I haven't listened to Technical Ecstacy in well over 20 years.

 

The Dead's "Aoxomoxoa" instead of "Live Dead" (Skull And Roses).

 

Before I discovered and was saved by Punk I had a brief dalliance with hard rock music, didn't last long thankfully, only about six months. I bought a few albums, didn't have a clue what I was doing but they were the ones in the shop and were cheap (the reason why they were cheap became apparent), and they were all dreadful:

LZ - In Through The Out Door
Deep Purple - Stormbringer
Alice Cooper - Muscle of Love
Some dreadful album by the Scorpions as well I think

Punk was way more fun and exciting musically so I don't think that even if I had bought LZII, Machine Head and School's Out it would have made much difference but at least those would have been bearable.

Moral of the story...there's a reason certain albums are cheaper than others.

 

When I was about 12 I urgently wanted a Beatles album. I didn't know much about their album output and just went to one of the local shops. I came home with "Live at Star Club". Not what I expected...

 

The first Zep studio album I heard first (in its entirety) was ITTOD and I remain a Zep fan to this day.

 

I bet you were bopping along to "Shimmy Like Kate", though.....

 

These posts brought to mind a related question -- buying the wrong record second...i.e., what happens when you start with the album that has a big hit on it (like Kraftwerk's Computer World) but don't know where to go next.

I did this with (the) Verve. I started with Urban Hymns ('97), of course, in 1998, and loved it. But I took the rest in a weird order, and took years to put together a basic collection:

1. The Verve EP (a compilation of early singles from the '92-'93 period, in a psychedelic groove-based style) -- because it was the cheapest
2. "Gravity Grave" single ('92) -- because I wanted the live tracks
3. Richard Ashcroft's "A Song for the Lovers" solo single (2000) -- because it was new
4. A Storm in Heaven (first proper album, '93) -- because I had come to like the early stuff
5. No Come Down (early b-sides compilation, '94) -- ditto
6. A Northern Soul (second album, '95) -- because it was all that remained
7. Richard Ashcroft's Alone with Everybody album -- which I only got 7 years after buying the single, because the reunion album was coming

 

Shame, that's a great album .. and, even if you don't like their stadium bombast era, has 2 of their imperishably great late period songs in 'Art Lover' and 'Better Things'.

 

I realize now that I left out the best example from my own collection. Ladies and gentlemen, my first ever jazz album -- John Coltrane's Ascension:

 

It certainly isn't a bad album, but I'm probably the only Television fan who bought "Adventure" before "Marquee Moon."

 

Bought this on CD at age 16, as I knew I liked the Beach Boys hits and read that this was a 'classic' album... seemed like a no brainer! Didn't like it at all outside of 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'.. the summer the year after I bought a dirt cheap LP of the Beach Boys 1966 Greatest Hits album out of a charity shop and LOVED it .. every track a winner! From thereon I bought most of the other 60s and 70s Beach Boys albums and loved them too ,, eventually revisited Pet Sounds and got it .. but I needed the stepping stones of their other work to get there.. I would not recommend this as someone's first Beach Boys purchase.

 

Pet Sounds was my first Beach Boys album too. Loved it then and love it now.

 

That is certainly one of my favorites along with Diamond Dogs and Blackstar

 

Blimey. Talk about jumping in at the deep end!

 

I think my second JC album was Om! Didn't put me of though.

 

Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour. Not sure if any of their albums are a bad place to start, but I didn't even realize this wasn't a 'real' Beatles album until many years later. Didn't matter though, it started my journey and I still love it. The guys above that started the Star Club and Decca Auditions... now THOSE are a 'wrong' albums to start with.

The Who - Tommy. Soundtrack. 'nuff said.

The Jayhawks - Smile. Okay, I love this album now, but it took a while to grow on me and probably isn't the best representation of their style. Years later I bought Rainy Day Music and totally got it right away and that album began my true love of their music. It seems like every time I revisited Smile I discover something else to love though, and I wonder why it took me so long.

The Grass Roots - 14 Greatest Hits. Re-recordings of their hits. At least I recognized them as re-recordings right away.

Roy Orbison - In Dreams - Greatest Hits. I had this for years, and loved it, before I realized they were re-recordings. As a rule I totally dislike it when artists re-record their hits, but this is one example where it's actually pretty successful.

 

It's one of my dad's favorites too. But it's a unusual album to start off with. It's usually between Ziggy Stardust and Let's Dance for the most people.

 

i didn't like Ziggy at first. I got it after TMWSTW and thought it was too safe by comparison.

 

No way. I was with the Ramones from the beginning, and Road To Ruin is my favorite. It showed real growth with songwriting, the chemistry with their new drummer was solid and production was definitely stepped up without losing their edge.

I remember at the time thinking that the Ramones had figured out a way to evolve as a band and had a real future.

I do feel sorry for any Beefheart-curious folks who started with Trout Mask Replica. The man was a genius, and there's many great records of his to start with, but that's not the one.

 

aw man I can't think of a better introduction to some of those artists!

 

They're not bad but they're unusual.