The CD Thread: Still Listen On Disc, Don't Stream

[bodysnatcher]

My first cd was Weird Al’s “Off the Deep End”

[oasisfan35]

Oh man, yes — I still have some of my BMG/Columbia House discs! What a time it was waiting for major mail deliveries in those days pre-USPS tracking. I would send those order forms off and have no idea whether the discs would come in a week or eight months, and would live each day in hope, like that kid in the Christmas Story waiting for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, enduring one letdown after another until they finally arrived. I have a weirdly distinct memory of one such package containing a copy of “Ill Communication” arriving on a snow day from school, and playing it while bundled up outdoors with my neighborhood best friend, shooting at random stuff from his basement with a BB gun (which felt like an appropriately obnoxious way to break in a Beastie Boys CD).

No idea how I got all those orders past my parents. They surely would have vetoed any arrangement that had me committing to the purchase of half a dozen CD’s at $21 apiece, just so I could get a box of free ones in the mail.

100% coming in to this thread to mention this. As my copy of Under the Table and Dreaming notes 'Manufactured in USA for BMG Direct Marketing, Inc. Under License' on the disc and similar ugly labeling on the back. My mother sanctioned the selections, that was the only one I singularly chose and got in the end.

I was still pretty set in cassette world in '93 but it all pretty much changed after that.

[Kevin Davis]

Oh man, yes — I still have some of my BMG/Columbia House discs! What a time it was waiting for major mail deliveries in those days pre-USPS tracking. I would send those order forms off and have no idea whether the discs would come in a week or eight months, and would live each day in hope, like that kid in the Christmas Story waiting for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, enduring one letdown after another until they finally arrived. I have a weirdly distinct memory of one such package containing a copy of “Ill Communication” arriving on a snow day from school, and playing it while bundled up outdoors with my neighborhood best friend, shooting at random stuff from his basement with a BB gun (which felt like an appropriately obnoxious way to break in a Beastie Boys CD).

No idea how I got all those orders past my parents. They surely would have vetoed any arrangement that had me committing to the purchase of half a dozen CD’s at $21 apiece, just so I could get a box of free ones in the mail.

100% coming in to this thread to mention this. As my copy of Under the Table and Dreaming notes 'Manufactured in USA for BMG Direct Marketing, Inc. Under License' on the disc and similar ugly labeling on the back. My mother sanctioned the selections, that was the only one I singularly chose and got in the end.

I was still pretty set in cassette world in '93 but it all pretty much changed after that.

My parents made a brief and very inconsistent attempt to screen my incoming music purchases when I was 12-13. Eddie Vedder’s illegible chicken scratch lyric sheets were a true blessing in that regard.

Weirdly the only thing they really took issue with was Layne Staley saying “I’d feel better dead” in “Nutshell.”

[armogi]

Love this thread, so many great truths here, please keep them coming!

[Higgs]

One of the joys of being an older Gen Xer was the absolute zero interest my parents took in the media I consumed (and in truth most of the time what I did). No way was my Mum gonna spend any time reviewing my music purchases. That would mean bumping Kris Kristoffersen or Neil Diamond off the turntable! Not gonna happen.

[Buby]

lol Aiwa. I had a pretty sick tabletop stereo system in my room that was an Aiwa.

If we only knew then, what we know now. I would've take much better care of that Aiwa.
The turntable was shit, but everything else on it was

[coptheriotact]

My first cd was offspring - smash. The inside case /cd had this unique rubbery smell

I still wanted tapes cause I had my own tape deck in my room

I also remember swapping my smash cd for a plush hippo toy, then years later i rebought a new copy of smash hoping to re smell that smell but it didn’t have any smell

[contamination]

I stream, but I also buy cd's from time to time from flea markets. Here's my yesterday's discovery:


Nearly bought Midnight Vultures too for 4€, but the cd had a pretty big scratch so I decided not to get it.

The gym that I go to has a stereo system with a cd player now, so I usually take a cd with me, and if there's no-one there when I get in I put the cd on, and when others come in they are forced to listen to it (no one has protested so far and most of them wear earbuds anyway).

[bodysnatcher]

Imagine walking into the gym and having to exercise to Ryan Adams

[dad]

Imagine walking into the gym and having to exercise to Ryan Adams

dudes doing deadlifts to Come Pick Me Up.

[oasisfan35]

Imagine walking into the gym and having to exercise to Ryan Adams

dudes doing deadlifts to Come Pick Me Up.

No PRs were set that day.

[dad]

Imagine walking into the gym and having to exercise to Ryan Adams

dudes doing deadlifts to Come Pick Me Up.

No PRs were set that day.

because lots of tears.

[zeb]

My first CD was Living Colour's Biscuits EP. Oh boy did I love that band.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Same. I miss them

[contamination]

Imagine walking into the gym and having to exercise to Ryan Adams

Oh don't worry, I'd put on some Björk for you!

[zeb]

Björk has some bangers.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Picked up a couple Sinatra cds today. One Frank one Nancy

[Higgs]

My first CD was Living Colour's Biscuits EP. Oh boy did I love that band.

I remember a mate loaned this to me on CD years and years ago, not long after it was released. I taped Talking Loud and Saying Nothing onto a mix tape which I managed to then lose not much later. For like 5 years I went searching for that song again and could never find it until streaming rolled around and got big.

Great tune.

[zeb]

My first CD was Living Colour's Biscuits EP. Oh boy did I love that band.

I remember a mate loaned this to me on CD years and years ago, not long after it was released. I taped Talking Loud and Saying Nothing onto a mix tape which I managed to then lose not much later. For like 5 years I went searching for that song again and could never find it until streaming rolled around and got big.

Great tune.

A good cover of a great tune.

How much other Living Colour do you know, Higgs?

[B]

I was thinking of getting the CD of Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes Live at the Greek.
With the 2LP set you only get a "best of" from the show, and I can't afford 6LPs.
With the CDs, I get the whole show for less than the 2LP reissue.