David Greenberger, What Was the First Album You Ever Bought?

“The first album I owned was given to me as a gift – ‘The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.’ It came in a box with an accompanying hardcover book. The movie it tied in with was out within the year prior. I still have the album.

The first one I bought was ‘Meet the Beatles.’

And I somehow feel I must divulge this as well – around the time of its release, I shoplifted the first Moby Grape album. It’s the one where one of the guys is giving the finger in the cover photo, and they subsequently airbrushed that out. I pulled this caper off at the Eckerd drugstore across the street from the Glenwood Elementary School in Erie, PA. My surprise at the ease of getting it out of the store led me to follow up that first theft with a couple more before giving it up. Shortly thereafter, I found out about a DJ from the local Top 40 station who was selling promo albums for a dollar each, and that’s where all my paper route money went from then on.”

Best known as the editor, publisher, etc. of the magnificent periodical The Duplex Planet, David Greenberger is also the former bassist with the Boston-based band Men & Volts and a monologist who has recently released four spoken word-with-music albums simultaneously: “Tell Me That Before,” “Never Give Up Study,” “OH, PA” and “How I Became Uncertain.” In addition, Greenberger is also a visual artist, and a collection of his recent drawings will be part of an upcoming two-person exhibition with the cut-paper artwork of Mary Gaynier at the Lake George Arts Project’s Courthouse Gallery. The exhibition opens on Saturday (November 12) with a reception from 4-6pm. The exhibit continues through Friday, December 16.