I bought The Gift when I was freshman in high school during a trip to Reno, NV. I played bass in the jazz band, and we were performing at the festival at UN Reno. A couple of other kids in the jazz band were bored after our morning performance and decided to ditch out of watching some of the other schools perform. We ran into some other kids from other schools with the same idea and one of them mentioned there was a record store a block from campus. Naturally, I was excited at the prospect of record shopping, so I walked across campus to this small little shop. They only had one record by The Jam- The Gift. I had already bought their earlier albums, like All Mod Cons and Setting sons, on CD, but I had yet to be able to find this album nor any of their stuff on vinyl. I was postively giddy.

Buying the record was easy, but hiding it the rest of the day was not. I didn't want to smash it, but I also didn't want my parents find out I skipped out to go record shopping. They found out that afternoon, any way. I didn't really care though, because I knew when I got home I could finally listen to it and dance in my room.

I wouldn't say The Gift is my favourite record by The Jam at the time, but it quickly became that. It's definitely the most danceable, and sort of acted as a gateway to Soul Music for me. That's emberassing to admit, but it's true.