Ah crap, not again!

For me, first it was the 45. I collected my favorite music, one at a time, on those nice round hunks of vinyl with colorful labels surrounded by black grooves of joy. When there was a price hike on 45's back in the seventies, I actually appeared on the local news on a "kid on the street" interview where I explained that my favorite record store was a bit pricey for me, and I would occasionally "cheat" on 'em by buying some of the more popular singles at Woolworth's.

When I got old enough to discover that singles came from albums (and yet not quite old enough to know where babies came from), I immediately launched into my LP collection. I remember buying the first KISS record in Washington DC with my Uncle Buck in tow. I hadn't seen the first KISS record back home in SC, so I figured it was a rarity. (Many years later, I got a much better idea about rare records, but hey, I was still a kid then, OK?)

And my precious 45's fell by the wayside.

The first CD I ever heard was Abacab by Genesis, in a stereo store on Two Notch Road across from Columbia Mall, back in the early 80's. There was no sound of the needle on vinyl, just a sudden blast from the speakers that, in my mind, was just like those old Maxell ads, blowing everything else away. For several years I still collected LPs, but I knew what was going to happen next - I'd get a CD player and tape my favorite albums so I could get the best recording and listen to them in my walkthing.

I was actually a little late to the game in purchasing a CD player, mainly because I had so many cassettes and LPs. I could borrow an LP from a friend, tape it and give it back, and still enjoy that music in my car or when I just wanted to slap on the headphones and drift away.

The first CD I bought was the soundtrack to the movie "Bird." I bought it before I even had a CD player. A friend of mine was giving his wife a CD player for Christmas but had no where to hide it. So, we carefully unboxed it and attached it to my stereo so she would think it was my CD player and have no clue that, once Christmas was near, it would go back into the box, get wrapped and sit under the tree for her. Having that CD player for about a month or so pretty much converted me, and I bought a CD player myself just after the holiday, as well as joining a mail-order CD club to start building my collection of CDs.

And my precious LP's fell by the wayside. Eventually, so did my cassettes, as CD players became ubiquitous in my house, my car, and as a walkthing for slapping on headphones and drifting away.

Today I still swap CDs with friends, and I also purchase digital downloads for listening on one of the four different mp3 players available to me (including the PC I'm using to access and write this blog). It's been some time since I bought a CD - actually, it was Christmas, and they were for my wife. Of course, there's all sorts of music available on the web, and I have a little collection of my favorite music sites that keep me tuned in to what's happening now. And don't forget those great streaming options as well! Hey, I've got a lot more space on my hard drive(s) than I do in my shelves for new music.

So I wasn't really shocked or surprised to read about the death of the CD this morning (thanks to a lovely link from the always interesting Largehearted Boy). I believe we've seen this coming for quite some time, but it was nice to read the write-up.

Ya think someone will let Dougie know?