King Of Rock

I was overjoyed to find the first 4 RUN-DMC albums in my mailbox yesterday, reissued with bonus material. I've got the first 3 on vinyl and cassette, but I had never owned Tougher Than Leather. I almost bought it at a store in Memphis, but I passed on it. Which is a small little story in itself. I was visiting Memphis with my mother and she decided to see if a little strip mall she used to like to visit was still around. So we drove down to Fraser. I noticed a little record store so naturally I told my mother I'd see her later. I walked in and the owner told me he had a few rock and roll records over in the corner. The store dealt primarily in hip-hop. I thanked him even though it was hip hop I was after. Raising Hell had been a huge favorite the year before and I was all set to get Run-DMC's latest. But the store also had Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation Of Millions... so the choice was hard. Eventually I settled on Public Enemy since I had heard more tracks off it. It became the tape of the summer when I got home. We'd blast that as we cruised around town with punks, nerds, and metalheads alike loving it. When I left the store that day in Memphis a teenage girl sitting on the curb of the sidewalk asked me what I bought in her daddy's store. When I told her Public Enemy, her eyes lit up and she said that was dope. Even so, I've always wondered what I missed out on by not buying Tougher Than Leather. A cursory listen last night tells me I still made the right choice even if the liner notes written by Chuck D. extoll Run-DMC's album over his own. With that said, I wish now I had had the money to buy both.