While stuck in the snowstorm traffic jam at rush hour with my son, we started chatting about things he would be telling his kids. “When I was a kid, we paid for stuff with PAPER printed money”, “We listened to DIGITAL MUSIC”.
Then we laughed and he was telling me about seeing a Beatles album for sale in California when he was there on a band trip. He said it was expensive, $40!!!! I laughed and told him my $5 allowance would pay for a movie – $1.25 for Star Wars, lunch at A&W, and a record.
He asked if the record was vinyl.
umm…yes then I laughed. Records were vinyl and the needle was sharp. But sometimes you needed to put a penny on the arm to weigh it down to get the sound to work. He laughed and asked how I would take music with me in the car if this was before cassettes.
I thought about the time I received THIS for Christmas:
Orange and portable – ish. It took a billion D batteries or you could use the cord. I also received a selection of 8 track tapes for my enjoyment. I had The Carpenters, ABBA, and Shaun Cassidy – that’s right Da Doo Run Run.
I would crank my music and sing in front my mirror with my hair brush as the microphone. Over and over I would play my music until I would hear “THUMP THUMP THUMP” on the floor above me. My dad would yell “Turn it DOWN please” (we are Canadian – it never hurts to be polite) so I would turn it down. Then it didn’t look like I was singing so I would do something else while listening to it. Dad said he never minded the loud music it was the repetitious nature of my musical choices.
I still listen to music over and over until I know all the lyrics. Which is likely why I am AWESOME at music trivia or name that tune type games. Thinking back, 8 tracks sucked and I am glad Sony never made a 8track walkman.
The Top 8 reasons 8 tracks were stupid
- They were the size of a large sandwich. You needed a suitcase to haul them around.
- You couldn’t rewind them – or at least I couldn’t. I could only replay the entire track and not all the tunes on the track were good.
- If the tape pulled out – you were screwed.
- If you were lucky enough to have a player in your car, you had to have a suitcase full of music for your friends to choose from.
- Record stores would clear out old crappy 8 tracks for $1. My dad would buy these up and re-record over them. What my dad thought was crap, I thought was awesome. I would see a tape of some disco I wanted to listen to and he would have put the Limelighters or Glenn Yarbrough over top. Not cool when you are out with your friends.
- They never fit into your pocket.
- You needed a Head Cleaning tape and run it through your machine occasionally
- If you left your tape in the player for storage, you ran the risk of wow or flutter – it made the music slow in spots.
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I used to rebuild my 8 tracks. The biggest problem I had with them was the tape had to actually slide against itself causing it to leave faint imprints of other tracks on the ones to which one was listening. I agree the actual design was quite “goofy”. But I had a friend just before 8 tracks who had a “car phonograph” mounted under his dashboard. I played a stack of about five 45 rpm records on a spindle one after another.
A car Phonograph??? That is crazy!! I bet it would skip all the time π
Used to have an 8 track player in our County Squire station wagon with simulated wood paneling. Right below that was a CB radio that my mom used to disguise with a tissue box so you couldn’t see it π
HAHA a CB? That is AWESOME! My grandpa had a stationwagon like that – sans the CB – but it did have an 8track π
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