Re: Your best post-holiday music purchase memory

Listening the podcast ‘Hit Parade’ recently and they mention that Nirvana’s ‘never mind’ became a juggernaut post-Christmas. Parents weren’t aware of the album, but kids bought it with gift cards or gifted cash in early January.

My parents did try to buy me cassettes but were really clueless on my taste. They might buy me Bob Seger when I wanted Echo and the Bunnymen. They had no idea.

One year they did take my brother and I up to Canada (only an hour drive for us) for a post Christmas vacation on Boxing Day. Foreign country record stores in the early 80s!!

I bought the new GenX album ‘kiss me deadly’. I know it gets so-so reviews, but I love that lp— yes, probably largely due to the memory. Imagine hearing ‘Dancing with myself’ before it was a thing... and before billy idol claimed it as his own. I had that on constant rotation!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2021 07:24PM by Bip.

Around the same time as you must have driven up to visit our vast northern wastes, Bip, I remember buying U2's October and Squeeze's Argybargy with money received for Christmas from my grandmother. They both received heavy rotation on my bedroom stereo. In the 1990s, my local record store had a buy three cds, get one free special for Boxing Day. That soon became an annual pilgrimage.

I don't remember any specific music purchases made with Christmas cash or gift certificates, although undoubtedly, there have been a few.

My first record purchase was Elton John's Greatest Hits. According to Wikipedia, that album was released in February 1975. So I'm sure I must've bought it with birthday money.

Ah, but those gift certificates were tricky! They would be from some lame-o mall store with limited selection and mostly major label crud for sale. And sometimes you’d get them in difficult dollar amounts. Like the one I got for MusicPlus (plus what?!) for $10. Hmm. LPs cost around $7 in the mid-‘80s. So I picked Run-DMC’s “Kings of Rock.” (Much to my amazement they had a Bauhaus lp is stock; wasn’t a major fan, but could work as a fall-back if need be.)

Which left me with 2-3$. What
to do with that extra money? Buy a 45, I guess. And talk about a skimpy selection. Remember the mall/chain stores singles dept? Largely Top40, with a few golden oldies. Oh dear, well, let’s start flipping thru ‘em. Think I’ll pass on the Olivia Newton-John. And that “Lady in Red” song. What’s this, The Fat Boys? Ok, would make sense to get another record of this new “rap music” to go with my album. No masterpiece, but really “$3.95 all you can eat/I was stuffin my face to the funky beat” is pretty durned entertaining to a silly youngster.

I guess it isn't technically post-holiday, but for a couple years in the mid-90s my dad, sister & I would gift each other Tower Records gift certificates. Tower was open on Christmas day, so by early afternoon we'd all load into the car for a trip to Alexandria or Manassas. Some years my mom humored us & came along. There was an almost illicit thrill in browsing the near- deserted stores; I guess it felt like an indulgence to be able to pick the cds so soon & together--then onto the second unwrapping of the day, trying to get all stickers off. We'd play each other our new acquisitions later in the afternoon--remember my dad was thoroughly unimpressed by the Squirrel Nut Zippers album Perennial Favorites despite my enthusiasm. A goofy good time, though the only other album I specifically remember picking up on one of those trips was Herbie Hancock's The New Standard after hearing his cover of All Apologies playing on the loudspeakers.

I vividly remember several years of birthday money making indelible impressions in 1981 and 1982. I can remember most of the records bought [and where I bought them] even today. Christmas was a much lesser thing. I vaguely remember having some xmas money and going to Record City and hitting the cutouts where the main prize was the beautiful white-on-white US copy [embossed!] of "The Correct Use Of Soap." Which I stupidly got rid of when I got the UK CD 8 year later.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

My big sister bought me the first records I owned as Christmas presents, apart from a 20 Red Hot Hits album my parents bought me, but that was more because of a picture of a cool car on the cover. The only song I remember from that one is Sugar Sugar.
Big sis came up with:
B52s s/t (which ended up being my first ever gig in 1979)
Mi-Sex - Graffiti Crimes
Pussyfoot - The Way That You Do It (single)
Kate Bush - Hammer Horror (single)