Megadeth: Peace Sells...but Who's Buying?

Megadeth: Peace Sells...but Who's Buying?

1986

Combat/CapitalRecrods

Format I Own it On: Compact Disc

Track Listing:  1. Wake Up Dead  2. The Conjuring  3. Peace Sells  4. Devil's Island 5. Good Mourning/Black Friday  6. Bad Omen  7. I Ain't Superstitious  8. My Last Words

(Once again we're jumping ahead a little bit today (from the mid-A's all the way to M) to discuss Megadeth... (peencil))

Originally, I owned this album on cassette...

Then I bought it on CD, back when CD's used to come in those giant cardboard longboxes....They looked like this....

 I was a pretty big fan of the longbox...I know it was a colossal waste of packaging that undoubtedly did irreparable damage to the environment, and all...but  I used to carefully open them, take out the plastic CD cover, then cut out the front of the box and use them as mini-posters on my wall... I don't know what they were actually for. A possible theft deterrent since Cd's were so small and easy to steal compared to vinyl? I  also always kind of thought they were for perceived value...Think about it..., Going to a record store in the early 80's, it would probably be fairly easy to overlook Cd's since they were so small...Maybe they were a way to grab attention away from records...Who knows..

.Well, I could probably Google the answer, but that's just not sporting...

Anyway....I  can still recall the first time I bought the "Peace Sells" cassette...I had only previously heard "Wake Up Dead." on some heavy metal compilation tape, and knew I had to have it! I used to live in a microscopic village and people always look at me like I'm from Outer Space when I say this, but the place to buy tapes and Cd's in this town was at the local drug store...The Drug Store was the record shop unless you felt really ambitious and wanted to drive 200 miles to the closest actual record store (which I would routinely do, later in life when I got a car...). But yea, No car then, so I remember after school one day, right around 1990,  having my Mom and Dad drive me to the Drug Store because I found out they had a copy of this tape there. I used to save my lunch money all week and just use it to buy music (if someone had told me that when you're done with school you can get a job and make money and go to the record store everyday if you wanted to, I probably would have dropped out of school and done it immediately.)  I picked out the cassette,  and also saw they had a copy of Ozzy Osbourne's "the Ultimate Sin." Luckily, I had the money for both...



(Go ahead, marvel at the Ozzy-faced Dragon-Beast!)

So I remember going home, eating some pizza and listening to these tapes alone in my room. Then that night I woke up and puked everywhere...I had that type of stomach flu that you only really get back when you went to school...People with kids tell me this still happens to them, but I wouldn't really know...

So I got to stay home from school for like, a week, and the entire time I just lied in bed, only getting up to flip over the tape...

A week or two later I felt better and my life resumed, but an odd thing happened...Whenever I listened to either one of these albums, I would feel sick and queasy...like I wanted to throw up... I felt like Alex in A Clockwork Orange after they had given him the Ludovico Technique...

 I eventually listened to the Megadeth album enough to overcome this feeling, but I traded the Ozzy tape to my friend Josh and haven't heard it since. I wonder if it would still have the same effect on me.. I suspect it would, but probably for different reasons...

Anyway, I haven't heard Megadeth's "Peace Sells" since oh, let's say 1998, but I
found a used copy of this the other day and since I had promised to discuss Megadeth on this blog, I picked it up.
I was surprised to find I still remembered every word, every riff, every split second. Again, these records really bring back a ton of memories. Hanging out with friends, working on my own music, just being a nuisance to society in general...

My favorite part of this whole album? The opening lyrics to "The Conjuring." These still crack me up to this day:

"Welcome to our sanguinary sect of worship,
Feel at home in our black conventicle,
As we anathematise,
All of those who oppose us..."

My, my! Somebody spent $6.00 on $2.00 words! That about sums up that odd feeling of being a teenager. You''re trying as hard as hell to be scary and edgy but you pretty much end up a laughingstock...You're just completely out of your depth in the world...and the only way to stay sane  is saving up your lunch money to buy Megadeth tapes and locking yourself in your room with your heavy metal posters...

So while we're hanging out alone in our rooms, let's check out Megadeth's  "My Last Words."