A LIFETIME WASTED

First "real" band I got into was Cheap Trick, so that's always been my dividing point between past and future.  Kiss was big at the time w/ all the kids who had older siblings, but they never impressed me.  Shortly after I got DREAM POLICE, Floyd came out with THE WALL, which was my next evolutionary step in music.  After that, things were kind of fast and furious.  Local cigar store hjad an awesome magazine selection, I was there all the time reading BILLBOARD and buying copies of TROUSER PRESS and CREEM.  Someone actually got me a subscription to CREEM at some point, bless their pointy head....

And, at some point, myself and a friend of mine sent our grubby little dollars into Ralph Records for their awesome sampler (the one w/ Yello and 3 tunes from THE COMMERCIAL ALBUM) after seeing their ad in the back of Rolling Stone.

I also think K-Tel put out their "new wave" collection ROCK 80 somewhere around then, and I remember seeing an episode of Donahue where Phil interviewed horrified parents about the west coast punk scene.  Lots of lyrics onscreen from Black Flag and Circle Jerks, no mention of the asshole LA cops beating kids.  I was impressed.  So, starting w/ DREAM POLICE, these are some of the albums from my first 5 or 6 years of musical debauchery that kept me going.  There were more, but these ones spring to mind immediately

(Keep in mind, it was way before the internet.  There were many bands that I read about that I had no way [esp. financially] of getting music by.   I had a junior high kid's funds, and it was a hick town.  The cigar store sold some records, and we had a Jamesway [think "K-Mart" for those of you unfamiliar with the name].  Other than that, it was a 25 minute drive to the mall, where only a fraction of what I needed could be found.)