Who Loves The Sun

Cool It Down -- Twin Fair, 8-Tracks and the missing CDs, that one's that really hurt...

I think back about all the CDs I used to own that were stolen, borrowed and never returned, disappeared after a party, you moved out-of-town and you traded them to me in exchange for your share of the utility bills, and the otherwise misappropriated. The ones that you remember most are the ones you really miss.

Of the first 2 cds I ever bought -- LL Cool J's "Bigger and Deffer" and B.A.D.'s awesome first record, "This is Big Audio Dynamite"-- only the BAD remains in my collection. Kinda sucks not to have the first 2 cds I ever owned. Not for nostalgic purposes, because they both rocked. I have the first ever record I purchased- 1975's (bought new in 1978) Aerosmith 'Toys in the Attic" (but then again, it might have been Joe Walsh's "But Seriously Folks" LP....). Good one... probably bought at Twin Fair or Cavages at the Boulevard Mall.

I don't have the first cassette tape I ever boughtm and know I don't have the first home-recorded cassette I ever made-- but I do remember it was The Beatle's blue LPs (didn't bother with the red one, for some reason..). I know I don't have the first 8-track tape I ever duped. Before moving all the way to cassettes at an early age, I did have a nice collection of 8-tracks when I was 14-15 years old including Steely Dan "Aja", Cheap Trick "Live at Budakon," Alice Cooper's "School's Out," and the first Boston & Foreigner records. Hey, I was 15 years old.

But I must bring this back to the misappropriated CDs of the past. The ones that really get me, are the CDs I have completely forgotten about. They are the ones that pop-up and make you say "damn, now I have to buy that for a second time...". I have one CD of the 2-CD set New Order "Substance" in my collection... that really burns me, someone stole one half of the collection. Loser. That second one was the good CD too! I am also missing-- and if YOU have them, please return them-- the Cure's "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me", "LA Woman" by The Doors and/or U2's "Joshua Tree"... I already replace the first two, so on second thought-- if you got 'em, keep 'em!

The real painful ones are the forgotten ones that sneak up on you like this: I recently read the 33-1/2 book about the "Velvet Underground and Nico" LP and decided to dig out the vinyl version so I could burn it to CD (for myself only, of course...). I haven't found it yet, but I know (hope) it is still in the record collection someplace. Then it hit me. I used to have the CD of VU's commercially-pleasing, hit-filled "Loaded" - quite a fine recording, I might say. It's gone... a long time ago. I forgot I even owned it, it has been gone for so long. I probably bought it 24 years ago and owned it for about 10 years of that time. I found a real beat-up and unplayable vinyl copy that wasn't mine to start with... I may have 'misappropriated' this one.... (not on purpose).

But when you have a bunch -- some may say, too much -- music like me, you can get a surprise once in a while. The exact opposite happens. I had a hankering for the live Kinks double LP "Two For The Road," and bammmmmmm-- there it was! Awesome. Then a few mysterious ones will creep in like Electroman's "KookaKook" 12" record... who's was this? Thanks!