I can specifically remember my Uncle Bill purchasing the 45 of “Country Boy (You Got Your Feet In L.A.)” by Glen Campbell for me in 1976. I think we were at TG&Y.
I might have been five years old, but looking at the release date of the song, I was probably four. He and Dottie were babysitting me and my infant sister. My parents were absent. They had to be, because I remember putting it together that he was going to buy it for me, and worrying about what my dad would say. I can remember him saying “well, you just tell him you saw Bill.”
I can see, as plainly as I can see my fingers on the keyboard in front of me, the price tag on the taupe paper sleeve of that record. That 45 single—B-side “Record Collector’s Dream”; a fine song itself—cost $1.09.
That’s about $4.40 in 2014 dollars.
Just now I wanted to hear a good song I hadn’t heard in a long time. (It’s Paul Carrack‘s “I Live By the Groove,” if it matters.) In about 90 seconds, it was emanating from my speakers.
For $0.99 in 2014 dollars.
Wow.
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