In about 1981-7th grade-I got really into Rush and then the next year got off them and into ELP, Yes, King Crimson, etc. The reason was that that was the first readily available music I came across that wasn't on the radio and that no one I knew liked. I always had to be different. Anyway, in 1983, I was in the local record store in Auburn, Alabama, and I'd pretty much bought all the art-rock I could find, even getting into Be-bop Deluxe and Tangerine Dream and Yes solo albums. But I had $6.50 (the price of a Super Saver album) plus tax burning a hole in my pocket, so I asked the clerk for a recommendation-something completely different-and he pulled out this weird orange album: Talking Heads: 77. He said he'd give me my money back if I didn't like it, but he thought I would. I took it home and played it twice and just felt I wasn't ready for it. (Strange, since some of my old Maryland friends had made me some pre-MTV Madness tapes that I liked a lot-again, because no one in Auburn had heard of them, to my knowledge.) So I took it back the same day and got something lame instead, Yes's Tormato, the one (awful) Yes album I hadn't gotten yet. I ended up listening to it only once. I felt like there was a lesson to be learned and never bought an art-rock record again. A few months later--Christmas of '83--I bought a U2 record on the basis of the name and cover alone (it was Under a Blood Red Sky) and I was off: The Clash and R.E.M. and the rest followed shortly thereafter. And 77, too.
Michael Ribas
March 21, 2002
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