As a gift for my fifth birthday, my cousin Kylie dubbed five cassettes which would influence my taste in music forever: Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, Van Halen’s 5150, Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms, Icehouse’s Man of Colours and John Farnham’s Whispering Jack. But the first album I ever purchased with my own money is so embarrassing I actually contemplated lying to you all just to avoid admitting it – even to myself. That album was “In God We Trust” by Christian rock band Stryper. What’s worse is that I still have it.It was all a part of my fascination with hair metal at the time. Maybe I was making up for the fact that I grew up with a crew cut. Who knows? But the list of artists was as impressive as it was tragic: Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Poison, Motley Crue, Skid Row… need I go on? I saw a TV advertisement for the Stryper album, and without knowing that they were Christian rock, decided that was the album I was going to spend my cash on.
The fascination, fortunately, didn’t extend beyond that album. Although I do remember nailing some wood together in the rough shape of a guitar when my age was still in single digits and painting it Stryper’s signature yellow and black. Sad, I know, but still one of the many happy memories I have of listening to hair bands in my youth. Hell, I still love listening to it when the mood strikes me, and the scary part is that I still know most of the words to the songs, even without hearing them for almost 20 years.
The record itself is still in pretty good condition - I haven’t played it (or any of my other vinyl recordings) in a long time because I don’t actually own a turntable. And why would I? I was part of the generation that moved from vinyl to cassette to CD, all within a matter of years.
And though the thought of hearing that familiar hiss and crackle of the Stryper album fills me with a mixture of fear and shame, the thought of throwing away my first album is even worse.
For Gizmodo’s week-long Listening Test (a tribute to all things audio), each writer will be sharing his/her first album. In other words, there will be many more to come.
daveg
April 16, 2009 at 5:16 PM
first glance at the image, I thought it was an augmented reality thing!…Stryper were way ahead of their time.
Report Permalinkthere
April 16, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Your first album was a christian rock band?
*implied face palm
You should have bought a acdc album but nooo you wanted “in god we trust”.
Report PermalinkGeoff
April 16, 2009 at 5:32 PM
Just pretend it was the Dead Kennedy’s “In God We Trust, Inc”. Far more street cred, and the covers are sort of similar (other than the word Stryker, of course).
Report PermalinkbAllzAck
April 16, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Van Halen album has “5150″ numbnuts, not 5140… “5150″ is police code for lunatic on the loose killing people!
Report PermalinkWolfgang
April 16, 2009 at 9:46 PM
5140…..? Do you mean 5150?
SACRILEGE!!
Report Permalinked v
April 17, 2009 at 5:28 AM
5140? 5150 was the best.
Report PermalinkNick Broughall
April 17, 2009 at 7:04 AM
@ ed v, @Wolfgang ad @bAllzAck – typo, people. Fixed!
Report PermalinkSeamus
April 19, 2009 at 12:55 AM
5150 ruled! Not sure if I should use ‘rules’ or ‘ruled’ there… but it’s definitely one of those things! My next-door neighbour was also a Stryper fan, so I got some of the fever without ever owning such devout hair metal personally.
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