To The Extreme?

Anybody who has hung around me for any amount of time already knows of my taste in music. But, for those of you who don’t, I will give you a hint: if you start singing the chorus to ‘Elvira’ by the Oak Ridge Boys, I will have no choice but to chime in with, in my lowest possible voice: ‘Giddy Up, Oom Poppa, Omm Poppa, Mow Mow’

With this being said, you may be surprised to find out that the very first musical album I ever owned was not country. In fact, it’s something that makes me shake my head every time I think about it. I’ll give you a hint:

Yep, it was Vanilla Ice. However, in my defense I have to say that it was a gift.

I’m pretty sure I was in the fifth grade when I got this album. I remember not understanding a lot of the lyrics, which is good, because, as it turns out, most of the content is not appropriate for anybody under the age of eighty-seven.

Still, I listened to the album a good many times, as one of the songs on it, ‘Ice Ice Baby’, was all the rage at the time. Being young and impressionable, that particular song was forever burned into my brain. In fact, to this very day, I can still actually rap out parts of it if I, for some reason, have a burning desire to totally embarrass myself.

Luckily, this was the only rap album I’ve ever owned. Since then, my taste has developed towards the slow and depressing music I now hold so dear. (I will divulge, though, that I did own a Britney Spears CD once, but that was a white elephant gift I received at a work Christmas party back when I was an intern during college. I still remember about eighty guys crammed into my cube as we watched the enhanced portion of the CD on my computer.)

Luckily for me, though, since Vanilla Ice was my first tape, I still had a chance to make my first CD a good one. And I think I did: