sixth albums of 1982:

Blondie’s “The Hunter” Springsteen’s “Nebraska” (which is an album I LOVE, but likely would not have loved in 1982 had I heard it). John Cougar’s “American Fool”

Also in 1982, Sonic Youth and REM released debut albums, a factoid that, strangely, does not make me feel old. I’m pretty sure I must have been nine or ten when I first heard Prince’s 1999 (his 5th album released in Oct. of 1982). The teenage daughter of my parents’ friends brought the album with her when they visited us for a week. She let me listen to it, probably so I would stop bugging her. Every time I hear the VU song “rock and roll,” I think of the kid version of me hooked up to my parents stereo via enormous ear phones and the earth shattering, life changing, aural experience that was Darling Nikki.

I can’t imagine being anything but non-plussed by “The One I Love” at age 9. I was still passively listening to my mom’s Willie Nelson in 1975-’76, probably (I really couldn’t tell you), but when I started listening to pop and rock a year or two later, I was all about the shiny candy: “I Want You to Want Me,” “One Way or Another,” “Roxanne”–and plenty of high-struttin’ disco! I did like “Sultans of Swing,” though–I thought that one was deep. I remember when “Miss You” came out, and I thought, “Oh, the Rolling Stones–they’re old.” Psh–not as old as they are now, dude!

I would like to play your “band on their 7th album when I was 9″ game, but I can’t face the research, or the beckoning maw of aging-out depression.