When you were a sophomore...What were you rocking on cassette, 8-track, CD, or *gasp* iPod?*

I don't remember. Probably millennial music I guess...?

 

I had inherited my sister's old Monza hatchback with a 8-track player. I had a Hitachi home entertainment system that recorded. What exactly I began listening to as I started driving to school is lost to me. It was a year later that we started recording Clash albums - London Calling, Sandinista (Side 1&2) that just stayed on repeat for awhile. I'll say Elvis Costello, The Beatles were the early choices. Lots of NPR otherwise even back then.

 

1970-71 for me, so it was those soon-to-be classic rock cornerstones like Live at Leeds, Who's Next and Sticky Fingers. I remember getting Through the Past Darkly for Christmas in 1969, so 1970 was really a Stones year for me. In '71, some things like T.Rex and Alice Cooper began to infiltrate as well. It took another couple of years before I backtracked and discovered things like the Mott the Hoople, MC5 and Stooges.

 

Millenial seems to translate as 'forgettable' the way you put this!

 

1976 - the year I discovered weed and Ruuuuuuuuush!

 

It was '78/'79 for me and vinyl only. I was getting heavily into the Beatles and to a lesser extent Led Zeppelin, so "Hey Jude," "The Beatles," "Band on the Run," and "The Song Remains the Same" (which a friend lent me) were getting heavy rotation on our turntable when I could use it.

Also, I was still playing trumpet in the school band and listening to some Maynard Ferguson, particularly "Live at Jimmy's and "Chameleon."

I also made made my first purchases of new releases around that time - "Earth, Wind & Fire's Greatest Hits, Vol.1" and George Harrison's "Blow Away" single.

 

1992/93 in my case...and yes, that was when my friends and I discovered the merits of good hash and Progressive Rock music (not necessarily in that order, mind you.) A typical grade 11 day would find me more often than not with something like Seconds Out (Genesis), Signals (Rush) or Security (Peter Gabriel) in the ol' walkman. In those days, in high school, the two most common questions people would ask me were "What are you listening to?" or "Got any cigarettes?"

 

That would be 71'-72' for me. So were talking Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Yes, Humble Pie etc., Listened to 8 tracks in the car and vinyl at home. Concert tickets were less than $10 to see those bands and I saw most of em'!

 

Same year and same thing for me. Also along with being super into Panorama & Shake it Off (cassette), Candy-O (vinyl) I also loved Elliot Easton's solo album released that year on vinyl, Change/No Change.

I also was really digging into the Beatles that year including Abbey Road and the white album (vinyl) and Revolver (cassette). I was also starting to get into Wings stuff - Band on the Run and Wings Over America on vinyl.

I also was building a Led Zeppelin collection on cassette: Physical Graffiti, Houses of the Holy, II, IV, Coda.

Other albums I was into during that year...
Cheap Trick - Standing on the Edge - vinyl
Scorpions - World Wide Live - vinyl
Iron Maiden - Live After Death - vinyl
U2 - Wide Awake in America - vinyl
Van Halen - 5150 - cassette (recorded from my friend's copy)
Taking Heads - Stop Making Sense - vinyl

 

would have been 1979

Floyd, Uriah Heep, ELO, just getting into AC/DC, Van Halen was everywhere, Boston for sure. Intensely disliked Springsteen because everyone loved him.

 

The Cars, too. All the rage.

 

The Yes Album

Long Player – The Faces

Nantucket Sleighride – Mountain

Love it to Death – Alice Cooper

A Space in Time – Ten Years After

Electric Warrior – T. Rex

Look At Yourself – Uriah Heep

L.A. Woman – The Doors

In Rock -- Deep Purple


All on vinyl and cassette..no CDs or ipods yet.

 

the strokes - room on fire (listened to this album religiously for what it seemed like all of sophomore year)

 

1995-1996
A lot of Pink Floyd which I was just discovering. It was also the year that my dad got Steely Dan's Citizen box as a birthday present, so I was also really into Steely Dan. I didn't care at all for what was in the charts, that was all dance and rap.

 

In 1985, I had been born and raised on classic rock (Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd) and prog (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson), but I was starting to transition over to new wave and post-punk (The Jam, Xtc, Gang of Four, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Cure, New Order). Figures like Bowie and Gabriel seemed to bridge the gap a bit. I guess you could say that I wanted a sound of my own at that point, not just my older brothers' hand me downs.

 

1989-1990

Reign In Blood - Slayer
Ride The Lightning - Metallica
Classics - Triumph
Live at The El Mocambo - MacLean and MacLean
Glass Houses - Billy Joel
Ram It Down - Judas Priest

 

That would be 73-74 for me. Still listening to my mother's albums:
Lots of Jim Croce
BEATLES 2ND ALBUM and HEY JUDE
THE VENTURES PLAY THE CLASSICS
We had one of those K-Tel 4 album collections of hits

 

Raising Hell
Licensed to Ill
5150
Life's rich pageant

 

1979-1980

Styx - Grand Illusion
Blue Oyster Cult - Spectres
Lynyrd Skynyrd - One More from the Road

All long since weeded from my collection (replaced by REM, Husker Du, Minutemen, Clash, X, etc.)

 

ChangesBowie and The John Lennon Collection with this:

 

Ah, I forgot to mention formats - For me it was about 90% vinyl, 10% cassette tapes, all dubbed from LP's or the radio. I never bought commercially released cassettes and I never was really into 8-track. We had 8-track tapes in the early 70's but once I discovered that they faded out and in during a song I lost interest completely. I did not have an actual tape deck, I dubbed LP's from a friend's system and listened to the tapes on a portable cassette player. My at home listening was 100% vinyl except for a tape playing while I was going to sleep.

 

1994-95

Listened primarily to cds and lps, and occasionally cassettes. Lots of great music at the time from the likes of...

Nirvana
Pearl Jam
Alice in Chains
Soundgarden
Stone Temple Pilots
Weezer
Offspring
Green Day
Temple of the Dog
Van Halen
Suicidal Tendencies
Meat Puppets
Candlebox
House of Pain
Mad Season
Nine Inch Nails
Cypress Hill
Porno for Pyros
Smashing Pumpkins
Counting Crows
Live

I'm sure there was more. There was tons of great music at the time!

 

All vinyl:
Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride
Deep Purple - In Rock
Led Zeppelin - II
Steppenwolf - Monster
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Blue Cheer - Insideoutside
The Faces - First Step
Lord Sutch - and Heavy Friends (only for Bonham's drumming)

 

69-70
The Woodstock soundtrack album would loom large and those artists on it would all be important to me
LZ I is the other mind blowing album that would shape my future musical tastes.
Also
LIB
Let it Bleed
McCartney
S&G Bridge ...
CCR Willie and Cosmos
And plenty of 45s from Motown

 

Yes, I also liked Seatrain a lot. I bought the first album because I liked the cover artwork and it was on A&M Records, which had a really good track record, IMO.

I was certainly still listening to The Beatles, but not compulsively. They broke-up during a family trip to Spain. I was walking around the neighborhood of our hotel in Madrid and saw the headline: LOS BEATLES ESTAN MUERTOS.

Oh my god! How did they die?!? Was it a plane crash? A recording studio fire?!?

When I realized that the group had just broken up, I was greatly relieved.