Vinyl of the Week - 13 September 2020

The Best of, Muddy Waters

Way back when I featured the first album I ever owned (Midnight Oil’s 10-1), I mentioned that it wasn’t the first album I bought with my own money. This week I thought I might tell that story. The year was 1988 and I was in my final year of high school, enjoying hanging out with my mates, parties each weekend and cruising around town with an older crowd who had their own cars. The album was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and the singles ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’, ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ and ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’ had been prominent on FM radio for quite awhile. The heavy guitars and outrageous stage presence of the 80’s hair bands was at its peak and we would hang out with a continual soundtrack of Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses, AC/DC and Def Leppard blasting in the background. I organised my copy on cassette tape for the princely sum of $9.99. (I worked at a service station after school and on weekends for $3 an hour so it was a very much a considered purchase). I still remember the day I got it. It was a Thursday night, late night shopping at the local shopping centre. As we liked to do, my mates and I assembled at the record store and spent the night looking at albums. After a couple of hours, I finally made my choice and handed over my hard-earned $10. Cassette in hand, I convinced my mate with the car that we should go for a drive and listen to my new purchase. The funny thing was, when he dropped me home and handed it back, a huge tangle of tape was hanging out!! I immediately went inside and carefully wound the tape back onto the reel but after that, there was always a wonky sounding bit in the first chorus of ‘Never Say Goodbye’! But I didn’t care. The album itself was a huge success for Bon Jovi and remains their biggest selling album, having gone platinum an incredible 12 times. The cover image was created with a black plastic bag sprayed with water and the title written in the droplets. When I listen to this now it instantly takes me back to that time in my life, arm out the window of my mates HQ Monaro, driving around town with the music blaring as loud as possible. Good times - DS