Day 102: 8-track Cartridges!

During the first year after we had moved to this house, my parents bought a stereo for the family room, which had an 8-track player/recorder. Before this, if I had wanted to make my own tapes of my records or record something off the radio or TV, I would have to hold a microphone next to the speaker and be very quiet. You still could not tape directly off the TV, but the stereo also had a cassette player/recorder, so you could make 8 track tapes of the contents of cassette tapes, and vice versa, until the cassette player broke down in the late seventies.

I didn't have either type of tape player in my first two cars, but I got this 8 track player for Christmas when I was about 14:

You would punch the thing on top to go to the next "track". The album or blank tape was divided into four programs, with about three songs on each. Most stereos would play the programs in sequence but on the portable player if you did not punch the top it would repeat whatever program it was on endlessly. I would have my favorite "paths"; songs I would skip or repeat...

Here is my 8-track tape case:

I guess it's not in the greatest shape!

Let's take a look inside...

 This was the first pre-recorded 8-track I ever bought. As you can see, it was in the cut-out bin, though I certainly don't know why! It reminds me of riding in the above the cab bed in a borrowed camper on a cross-country road trip.

I didn't buy too many 8-tracks; vinyl was still better quality and of course tapes lacked the liner notes. These were all from the cut-out bin, or found used in thrift shops.

But I had a lot of compilations I recorded myself:

LA bands: The Zippers, 20/20, The Simpletones, The Bags, The Flyboys, Levi and the Rockats... I think these were all taped off Rodney Bingenheimer's show.

 I would tape a lot of songs off the Flo and Eddie show, but I only taped three whole (three-hour) programs with guests: Todd Rundgren, Marc Bolan and Keith Moon. For a long time I feared for Todd's life! But I guess jinxes don't always come in threes... Here's part of the Keith Moon night.

That's Patrik Fitzgerald. I would have taped a bunch of singles to play in the car.

Beep beep!

Here's some stuff I transferred from cassette;  the Human Hands' and Mau-Maus songs were from local shows and the four last songs were a demo by my pen friend turned boyfriend Mick's band Crash Course in Liverpool.

Here's Marc Bolan on Flo & Eddie. And Ambrosia?! Eegads! I did not find the Todd on Flo & Eddie tape; I believe it got mangled, which is a shame. When he was DJing he played "Roger" by Sparks and that was the first time I heard them.

 This was probably just Dwight's first album; and the audio of Todd's appearance on In Concert. Who could guess that years later I could just conjure it up on YouTube?

Lubricated polyester!

I believe this was the first compilation tape I ever made. "St" for stereo! I am fairly sure someone with the initials DW is bound to comment on my playlist.

 Beep beep beep!

 We went from 40 minutes recording time to 80, and in the latter days, 90! Then my stereo recorder broke down and I bought a ghetto blaster... I did have one more stereo with an 8-track player, but not a recorder. The last time I played any of these tapes was in 1989 when someone lent me their car for a couple weeks. Maybe I left Halfnelson (yes, that was one of my cut-out bin finds) in the player, cause I did not find it with the other tapes. When I pulled out my yellow player I was crossing my fingers, hoping I had not left any batteries in it when I last used it in 1980 or so. But of course I did. Oh well.

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