Nice story. :) I find it interesting when you say: "my musical tastes had developed in a decidedly non-Eagles direction". What do you mean? (Disclaimer: I love the Eagles, both the band and the football team.)
Love this. On the other side, as a parent with very young kids, I feel like this kind of misunderstanding happens all the time. If it results in them thinking I’m cooler than I am… what a win!
My first album was also connected to my mom. I think I was in third grade. My mom was taking my older sister for a shopping day, and she said she would step into a record store for me. I was decent enough at drawing, so I drew a little picture of the album cover to assist her. She said it really did the trick. For as much stuff as I have saved over the years, I truly lament not saving that one. The album? "Working Class Dog" by Rick Springfield.
My folks were even farther removed than Paul's from Pop Culture as I am 73. Their musical tastes ran towards Broadway musical soundtracks and Mantovani That is until the Beatles came along. Through my constant playing (and replaying) of their early LPs, my father especially became a fan. One of my defining memories is listening to The Beatles' Second Album with him on my record player. The miniature replica album cover I got with the '04 reissue is on my wall. Good times.
When I was a kid, my grandma gave me money for my birthday and asked what I was going to buy. I said a CD and she said something like "oh smart thinking getting a certificate of deposit." I tried to explain I meant a music CD but I don't think she understood.
Do you know if your mom was on the pop culture train when she was younger? Or did she hop off the train as she became an adult? It's hard for me to imagine what a teenager who is not plugged in to pop culture is like.
My mom has never cared about or understood pop culture. But you have to remember that she was born in 1924 (I was born in 1964, when she and my father were both 40 and had already had two other kids), so what we now think of as pop or youth culture didn’t yet exist during her teens. Teen culture is largely a postwar phenomenon, ushered in by television and, especially, Elvis. Mom never developed a feel for any of it and has always favored classical music, what we might loosely call “fancy museum art,” and the like.
You know, I own a fairly large amount of albums, and only now am I realizing how infrequently embossing is used on record covers. All I can think of off the top of my head is the Beatles' white album, the third Undertones album, and the first two Nervous Eaters albums (I'm sure I'll think of more later). Of course, my tastes might skew towards genres which tend to eschew embossing as unfashionable, so "Take It Easy" on putting stock in this statement.
I'm almost exactly a decade younger than Paul, so just old enough to have owned a few LPs but for my age cohort the defining music medium evolved from the cassette tape to the CD in adolescence. And for teenage guys in my cohort, that Eagles greatest hits album on CD was nearly a mandatory possession. I don't remember buying it, but every guy I knew owned it. Like, if you were hanging out at anyone's house, you could say, "Hey, put on the Eagles," and count on that album playing without any further explanation. I don't think stores handed out that album for free with the purchase of a boom box, but they might as well have, so ubiquitous was it. I don't think anyone I knew really loved the Eagles, but it was music teenagers could dig across lines of race and taste and for the most part it was music we and our parents could enjoy together. Even my parents were OK with listening to the Eagles. My dad was older than other kids' parents and decidedly into classical and jazz, but that Eagles album, he wouldn't leave the room if it was playing as he would if I was playing a current pop or rap album circa 1990. There wasn't a big overlap in the Venn diagram of music I liked and so did my friends and music I liked and so did dad, but that Eagles album was in the overlap slice. Dead Kennedys? Me and my friends, not dad. Simon & Garfunkle? Me and dad, not my friends.
My mom (she had me at almost 40) saw that infamous Oprah episode with Jello Biafra, Ice-T, and Tipper Gore. Afterwards, she read the lyrics in some of my Dead Kennedy's cassettes. She's pretty religious, so she didn't necessarily like some of the lyrics, but she was able to see how intelligent they were. She gave me a very meaningful thumbs-up.
I am about your age. I was introduced to the Eagles by my parents when I was young. I had the Greatest Hits album on CD, but one of my CD cases got stolen out of my car. But, I am a bit of a completist (is that a word?), so I solved that problem by just buying all of the Eagles studio albums instead.
Somewhat similar story: my Mom was notorious for waking me up with “Up and at ‘em!” For years I wondered, “who is Adam, and what does he have to do with anything?” I finally asked and was set straight.
Love how this captures the exact moment when excitement meets misunderstanding. That split second where the words lined up perfectly really gets at how much we want to share things with the people we care about, even when we know they won't quite get it the same way. I remeber trying to explain video games to my grandma once and just wanting her to see what made them cool. Sometimes the gap betwen the words matters less than the attempt.
Nice story. :) I find it interesting when you say: "my musical tastes had developed in a decidedly non-Eagles direction". What do you mean? (Disclaimer: I love the Eagles, both the band and the football team.)
Every time I see here or hear anything about The Eagles, I think about my favorite Eagles fan... the cab driver in The Big Lebowski. Too soon?
Love this. On the other side, as a parent with very young kids, I feel like this kind of misunderstanding happens all the time. If it results in them thinking I’m cooler than I am… what a win!
My first album was also connected to my mom. I think I was in third grade. My mom was taking my older sister for a shopping day, and she said she would step into a record store for me. I was decent enough at drawing, so I drew a little picture of the album cover to assist her. She said it really did the trick. For as much stuff as I have saved over the years, I truly lament not saving that one. The album? "Working Class Dog" by Rick Springfield.
My folks were even farther removed than Paul's from Pop Culture as I am 73. Their musical tastes ran towards Broadway musical soundtracks and Mantovani That is until the Beatles came along. Through my constant playing (and replaying) of their early LPs, my father especially became a fan. One of my defining memories is listening to The Beatles' Second Album with him on my record player. The miniature replica album cover I got with the '04 reissue is on my wall. Good times.
When I was a kid, my grandma gave me money for my birthday and asked what I was going to buy. I said a CD and she said something like "oh smart thinking getting a certificate of deposit." I tried to explain I meant a music CD but I don't think she understood.
Do you know if your mom was on the pop culture train when she was younger? Or did she hop off the train as she became an adult? It's hard for me to imagine what a teenager who is not plugged in to pop culture is like.
My mom has never cared about or understood pop culture. But you have to remember that she was born in 1924 (I was born in 1964, when she and my father were both 40 and had already had two other kids), so what we now think of as pop or youth culture didn’t yet exist during her teens. Teen culture is largely a postwar phenomenon, ushered in by television and, especially, Elvis. Mom never developed a feel for any of it and has always favored classical music, what we might loosely call “fancy museum art,” and the like.
The first album I ever purchased myself, in the racks at Kmart!
You know, I own a fairly large amount of albums, and only now am I realizing how infrequently embossing is used on record covers. All I can think of off the top of my head is the Beatles' white album, the third Undertones album, and the first two Nervous Eaters albums (I'm sure I'll think of more later). Of course, my tastes might skew towards genres which tend to eschew embossing as unfashionable, so "Take It Easy" on putting stock in this statement.
I'm almost exactly a decade younger than Paul, so just old enough to have owned a few LPs but for my age cohort the defining music medium evolved from the cassette tape to the CD in adolescence. And for teenage guys in my cohort, that Eagles greatest hits album on CD was nearly a mandatory possession. I don't remember buying it, but every guy I knew owned it. Like, if you were hanging out at anyone's house, you could say, "Hey, put on the Eagles," and count on that album playing without any further explanation. I don't think stores handed out that album for free with the purchase of a boom box, but they might as well have, so ubiquitous was it. I don't think anyone I knew really loved the Eagles, but it was music teenagers could dig across lines of race and taste and for the most part it was music we and our parents could enjoy together. Even my parents were OK with listening to the Eagles. My dad was older than other kids' parents and decidedly into classical and jazz, but that Eagles album, he wouldn't leave the room if it was playing as he would if I was playing a current pop or rap album circa 1990. There wasn't a big overlap in the Venn diagram of music I liked and so did my friends and music I liked and so did dad, but that Eagles album was in the overlap slice. Dead Kennedys? Me and my friends, not dad. Simon & Garfunkle? Me and dad, not my friends.
My mom (she had me at almost 40) saw that infamous Oprah episode with Jello Biafra, Ice-T, and Tipper Gore. Afterwards, she read the lyrics in some of my Dead Kennedy's cassettes. She's pretty religious, so she didn't necessarily like some of the lyrics, but she was able to see how intelligent they were. She gave me a very meaningful thumbs-up.
I am about your age. I was introduced to the Eagles by my parents when I was young. I had the Greatest Hits album on CD, but one of my CD cases got stolen out of my car. But, I am a bit of a completist (is that a word?), so I solved that problem by just buying all of the Eagles studio albums instead.
Did anyone else get an email from Substack regarding a notice of data breach?
Somewhat similar story: my Mom was notorious for waking me up with “Up and at ‘em!” For years I wondered, “who is Adam, and what does he have to do with anything?” I finally asked and was set straight.
Hi Paul. Sorry to cross projects here, but any further word re Uni Watch’s future?
When I have more news to report, it will be announced on that site.
Thanks. It had just been a while since I saw anything new.
Love how this captures the exact moment when excitement meets misunderstanding. That split second where the words lined up perfectly really gets at how much we want to share things with the people we care about, even when we know they won't quite get it the same way. I remeber trying to explain video games to my grandma once and just wanting her to see what made them cool. Sometimes the gap betwen the words matters less than the attempt.
Your last sentence there is *so* insightful. Nicely stated!
Great story.
I only had this on CD. I had no idea the cover was ever embossed until today.
I tried to find a photo of the LP cover that makes the embossing more visible/evident/etc. but couldn't find one.