Getting mac-album-stories

[shackin'up]

Well, Talking about the reissues I felt the need to tell a personal story about I got my Tusk album back in '79. But that story was a bit off topic in that thread, so I deleted my post there and start a new one with it here. ( thanks for your reaction Christy!)

Do you like to share special moments about getting a Mac-release?

Well, this is mine.

Now, I think this is the moment to tell about how I got The Album back in '79...

I was almost 14 years old and in love with the Mac for two years at the moment Tusk came out. I was torturing the recordstore-guys for months and months asking about release-dates and it felt like ages until the day came that IT was there. I called all 4 recordstores of my hometown to ask if The Album came out that morning and only one said: wait a minute, I'm just opening the packages.... I waited for a minute....felt like half an hour...and he said, Yes! 29,95! ( dutch guilders ). I was a bit shocked at the price, but I had gathered money for months so I grabbed 30 piek and jumped on my bike with my heart pumping in overdrive. I was downtown in about 15 minutes and could not wait to go back home. I put down the money and he said... don't you wanna hear it? You asked me about this damn record a thousand times and you don't want to listen? So he unpacked the whole thing, while he was complaining about all the covers and that there was more paper than vinyl in there. I listened to over and over, which I loved immediately because of the warm sound and then The Ledge started and I did not know if I had to cry of disappointment or happiness because I felt both at the same time. This was so weird and different, but it was so great to hear that fantastic voice coming from everywhere I got a thick throat and I began to sweat. I said to the man, in a vibrating voice: this is so amazing, I have to listen to this at home. "Is it good?" he asked while putting The Album in it's perfect fitting plastic bag.
"don't know yet. Maybe IT's trash, maybe IT's brilliant. But I don't think IT is like Rumours."

I hung the bag on the the right side of my steer and rode home as fast as I could. At 75 % of my ride home, it happened. My right knee catched the bottom of the plastic bag and the above side of The Record hit my steer. I was riding the bike so hard that all those covers and Two Thick Vinyl Plates cracked. An angle of 90 degrees was hanging on my steer when Fell on the side walk of the street and scratched my elbow. It was bleeding but I did not see that until much later, my trousers were torn a little bit, too, but my eyes went blurry looking at that Perfect Hook in Plastic hanging on the steer.

I walked back to the record store crying. With no money left I put The Thing on the counter. The man looked at me: " did you have an accident? Are you alright?" I said with a thin voice: " yes, But Tusk is not...."

He looked at IT, packed a new one, gave it to me and said: "Let This Thing be brilliant damn it! Go home, boy, but don't rush!"

In the months afterwards, That Album unleashed IT's beauty to me. But until today, I'm regretting that I left the store without my broken album. Would have been a beautiful token of the turning point in my music- taste. Yes, the best selling band in the world got me interested in alternative-even underground- music, through Tusk. The best Album ever recorded by anyone.

gerald