Question of the week: your first album

It’s time for Question of the Week!

What was the first musical album you ever purchased? No wrong answers, obviously.

The idea for this week’s question arrived because over Easter weekend I helped someone set up a device for ripping LP records to MP3. This was in fact the first time I had ever attempted to use an LP record in any form, since by the time I became interested in purchasing music (more on that below) the LP era was well and truly over. Or is it? I thought it was amusing that vinyl outsold CDs in 2023 because vinyl is so much more cumbersome and fragile.

Anyway, the very first time I bought an album with my own money was probably later than most people. For some reason, I have a hard time understanding song lyrics, and it usually sounds like monotonous droning or warbling to my ear. (One of the few exceptions is Johnny Cash, who I can usually understand.) Because of that, I have never really connected with most popular music and gravitated towards the soundtracks of computer games and movies that I liked.

So the first soundtrack I deliberately purchased with my own money was part of a computer game collection. Specifically, the Quest For Glory collection in 1997, which came with a CD of the Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire soundtrack, which I wanted. I already had all the Quest For Glory games on CD or in some cases floppy disk, but I got the collection just so I could have the soundtrack CD. Twenty-seven years later, I listened to that soundtrack while working on WIZARD-THIEF today.

-JM