What Music Did You Listen To In Your First Car? 

"hethoughtofcars" (hethoughtofcars) 06/22/2015 at 07:50 • Filed to: firstcars, vw, lald, liveandletdiecast, radiohead

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Does it hold up?

For me, it was the summer of 1996. I was working my first job, at a movie theatre as an “usher” (mostly janitor) and saving up the incredible sum of $600 to buy my first car. (I was making $4.25/hr). Later in life I would invest more purchasing my son’s stroller than I would on buying that first car. I knew virtually nothing about cars then but I was in love with those late 50s American cars and their fins reaching heights only the jet age could produce. I recall finding a ‘62 Lincoln Continental via a fuzzy black and white picture in the latest edition of Auto Trader magazine. It was blindingly white with seriously lush red carpet behind suicide doors, and an interior so large it reminded me of the couch in our living room.....of course it needed to be towed because something was terribly wrong with.... well, I don’t recall (the brakes? A slipping transmission? Maybe just the dreaded “ran when parked”?)

Here’s what I ended up with after my co-worker John indoctrinated me into the cult of the air-cooled:

1969 Beetle in gold. Windshield wipers had one speed - too slow, windows rolled down with a crank (unless they fell off first), brakes that failed after fording the shallowest of puddles, so much rust in the backseat under the battery that there were holes where you could see the asphalt beneath....

Yet it was mine. Outright. And I had an aftermarket CD player. 1996.....I was spinning these CDs without respite. Likely purchased at the local Circuit City for $10.88. (Where I would also work loading washing machines and big screen tvs into Ford Explorers or, occassionaly Honda Civics, before the decade was out. All while being encouraged during staff meetings to buy stock in such a promising company...)

3. Stereolab “Emperor Tomato Ketchup”

2. Pulp “This is Hardcore”

1. Radiohead “My Iron Lung” single

I played these albums to death. I can’t hear them today without being transported back to high school, moving to UCLA. the San Fernando valley, driving past Tim Burton’s house (according to a “star map”) and Joan Crawford’s where she wielded the wire hangers.... then the one Phil Hartman died in .... deep in the suburban valley after midnight.

Do they hold up? I think they genuinely do. They are all products of the 90s but not embarrassingly so. French techno-pop. Silly Brit-pop with Jarvis Cocker at his most ludicrously narcissistic/awesome. Radiohead with guitars. I still like them, hopefully not just through nostalgia but as art there is no need to cringe about. Then again we all have blind spots and rose-colored glasses (I remember my hand brushing against the knee of my very first girlfriend while we listened to Pulp as I shifted from 3rd to 4th and how visceral and exciting that felt. All while giving her a ride home from work that was not even remotely on my way....)

What did you listen to in your first car ad infinitum? Do you still think it’s music worth listening to?

Jeff Simmons is the Diecaster-in-Chief on fellow blog !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You should check it out.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:00

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I don’t have a first car yet, but I still remember the first song my dad played in our brand new MINI Cooper back in ‘03/’04. It was Dolly Parton’s Dumb Blonde from her Ultimate album. Good album that.

505Turbeaux > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:01

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and all of the above, especially that radiohead joint. Still one of my favorites

Rainbow > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:06

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My radio didn’t work. So... I listened to whatever the guy next to me at the stop light was listening to.

Of course, that only lasted so long; if I was sitting still for too long, the car would overheat and all of the coolant would boil over. “Too long” was only a minute or so, so I had to shut the car off at railroad crossings and just pull over preemptively if there was an accident or construction ahead.

But anyway, yeah. No music.

Mattbob > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:08

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oh Highschool... I listened to a lot of Manson, NIN, and Tool to and from school and work. I don’t know why I had so much anger back then. Tool is still awesome though, and the other two are good when the right mood hits.

traderQAMobileTestAutomationMobileBoostOn > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:13

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For me, this is a present tense question.

My favorite song is Chrysler - 5.7 Hemi V8

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:16

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My first car.. must’ve been in 2000.. I listened to Metallicas first five albums, plenty of Black Sabbath, old British punk like Sham 69 and the Cockney Rejects.. and I had a few Ska-compilations. I know I bought Satyricon - Rebel extravaganza in 2000..

And yeah, I listen to the same stuff today pretty much, perhaps less punk and more Black Metal these days though, but Sabbath and Metallica will always be with me I guess.

X37.9XXS > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:16

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First car

Since the radio was AM, it was the following

Now, being 17, and having my own 1951 Hudson Hornet convertible, how could they NOT hold up

GhostZ > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:26

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I think it has more to do with me being an angsty post-9/11 teen than the popular product of the time, but it’s still poignant and good 10 years later.

georgechristensen > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:26

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Still got the same CD I’d listen to in my mother’s Commodore. We Major was my jam.

Ash78, voting early and often > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:47

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Fall 1994, a 1995 VW Golf (black with limo tint, dubbed The Mirthmobile because of the popularity of Wayne’s World and the fact that most of my peers had never seen a hatchback before). Thanks to Crutchfield, I had a half-decent head unit with a...CD PLAYER!!

In no particular order:

Pearl Jam - Ten and Vs.

RHCP- Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Nirvana - Nevermind and In Utero

Korn - self-titled

Radiohead - The Bends

Counting Crows - August and Everything After (usually alone so I wouldn’t be dubbed “a homo”. Amazing record.)

Dr Dre - The Chronic.

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies and Dirt

OPPOsaurus WRX > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 08:49

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I think Filter may have been the first song played in the car the first time I drove by myself

Jagvar > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 09:07

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It was 2000, and I listened to “Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood” in my ’99 Galant over and over. It was the only CD I had for awhile there.

Sn210 > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 09:29

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My 311, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, and Weezer CD’s got heavy rotation in my Jeep. Then I got a CD player with an aux jack so I could play my 32 gig iPod through the speakers!!! I replaced the CD player in my jeep like 3-4 times... The first was an upgrade, then that was vandalized, then that replacement got wet (it's a Jeep thing) then that one got stolen! It ended up with the original CD player I started with.

Tohru > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 09:32

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I can tell you exactly what album and song I was listening to when I totaled my first car.

traderQAMobileTestAutomationMobileBoostOn > X37.9XXS 06/22/2015 at 09:35

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When did you own that? I would do some strange things to have that as my first car today.

X37.9XXS > traderQAMobileTestAutomationMobileBoostOn 06/22/2015 at 09:38

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1965-1967

Sold it April of 1967

tromoly > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 09:43

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My Rambler had the factory radio delete plate, there was no music played. And it was glorious.

philipilihp > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 09:46

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Oh man that was 2005... Nasty-ass Saturn SL2. I had a bit of a Korean phase back then, so unfortunately K-pop was part of it, and Weezer’s blue album.

Roundbadge > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 09:52

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In my first car, I listened to:

King’s X: forget which album it was

Ministry: both Psalm 69 and The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste

Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Fear of a Black Planet

Anthrax: Attack of the Killer B’s, and Persistence of Time

This would’ve been the summer of 1992, a 1981 Honda Accord LX 5-spd hatch. As a white suburbanite, I was just coming out of my hip hop phase. The tape player eventually jammed with my Public Enemy “Fear of” album in it. I sold it for $400 the following February because it was a pile, and I had just bought an ‘86 Civic Si.

I still listen to Anthrax on occasion...but that’s pretty much it from this list. I’d actually kind of like to listen to those Ministry albums again though.

crowmolly > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 10:02

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Whole album. It holds up just fine IMO

Birddog > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 10:04

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My “first” car came in the summer of 1990. It was a 73 Chevelle Deluxe with a mild 350 and glasspacks.

I bought a George Thorogood and the Destroyers tape that I pretty much wore out.

Yes, George is still worth listening to today.

Tinfoil Hat in a thunderstorm, now with added diecast > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 10:25

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revrseat70 > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 11:52

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I’m in my mid-twenties (having lived in both downtown DC and suburbs all over the country), so I listened to Linkin Park, Breaking Benjamin, Nirvana, Chevelle, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Crossfade, as well as classic rock and some rap like Tech N9ne, Gorilla Zoe, Lil Wayne, Dr Dre, and others. All the rock can still be heard to this day, in my third car. All the rap is gone

tylinol > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 12:59

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No radio, but I’d say the music I listened to has held up pretty well!

AthomSfere > hethoughtofcars 06/22/2015 at 22:44

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Radiohead will always be awesome!