8 Track sighting, the GE Power Sound Loudmouth player on season 4 episode 10 of Portlandia, no use of the tape feature but the P.A. system still lives on.

 

Tapes can be found in the strangest places, Friday I went to a seafood restaurant that just went out of business filled with giant lobster tanks and lots of industrial pots and pans but in the corner were 20 tapes like Commander Cody, The Who and The Stones. I got them all for $2 and one of the workers said they’ve never seen one before and the other said they thought no one would buy them. But even more fun was I was told these use to be played in the eatery until it closed, that’s right a place in 2014 that still played 8 tracks, love it.

Also for the 2 other people reading this blog I’m looking for tapes from the band Pilot, they were a poppy Scottish band that have a Bay City Rollers vibe, I can pay cash.

And speaking of the Rock Alliance lightning stroked twice, sort of.  I found another one of their tapes titled Make Me Feel So Groovy, Rock Alliance purists may notice that is title is also the same one as one of their songs on their classic Flyin’ High tape, but the similarities don’t end there a look at the track listing shows that this tape is exactly the same on as the said tape with the only difference being the art work and more interestingly this band has switched labels so besides Misty the Rock Alliance is now on the Nice & Easy label.

 More importantly there is an address on it where this tape was manufactured in 1972 333 Park St in Troy Mich. I was excited about this and hoped that there might be some remnant of the factory but alas a Google search reveals that it’s a warehouse that can be had for $4 a square foot. If only this band was huge then we might have gotten the 8 track version of Abby Road.

Fate has thrown me another 8 track from the Straight to Bootleg band The Rock Alliance. This one is titled Homeward Bound and follows the same format as their other tapes 1/3 of the tracks have a R&B sound reminiscent of James Brown’s version of Night Train, also they cover a song or two from something popular at that time, this tape has a version of the S & G song I Am A Rock, finally the reason I’m such a fan of them is they also put on a few garage rock sounding songs that remind me of generic rock music that you hear on Gilligan’s Island before there’s an announcement that a hurricane is about to hit the island. I wonder how many others are out there? I still need Motorcycle Baby so the quest goes on.
 

Not a great score but what made my day was for the first time in at least 8 years is Goodwill is carrying 8 track tapes (see the price tag). Will this be a new trend? Was this a freak accident? Only time will tell but if I get any more Bobby Sherman tapes I'm going to invest in a Bobby Sherman lunch box to store them.

Last week I got the 8 track score of the summer. Summer may have just gotten underway but I’m willing to wager the entire Emerson, Lake & Palmer on 8 track that it won’t be topped.  Here’s a portion of the 142 8 track tapes from 2 large boxes, and unlike the usual bland Readers Digest Hits of America this collection could power a small FM classic rock radio station. Lots of Stones, Kinks, Elvis Costello, Beatles, some k-tel and even a few with the fun art boxes that rarely survive, I’ve already gone through a half a roll of sensing foil getting them in shape.

More interesting is they were obtained from a person who has been following this blog for 12 years and after nearly 15 years of writing about these tapes he’s the first person I’ve met with a connection to it, sad huh?  I only hope that one day I end up like the woman who ran The Bloody Board Buffy the Vampire Slayer board who posted nearly 40,000 posts and was the only member of the group https://encyclopediadramatica.es/The_Bloody_Board until she was found out and vanished. If obsession needs a patron saint it’s Jamie Masters.

I’ll be putting an 8 track player in the tiki room but am trying to find one with a tropical look to it as not to clash, these worlds rarely collide but I may be able to make it work with the brown earth tones that are prevalent in  wood grain consoles, let’s see where this goes.

Were’ rolling on to yard sale season and this week it warmed my heart that even 40 years later you can still find a Panasonic Pump player in the wild. This one was sitting in a cardboard whiskey box for a few decades and works very well, and seeing that it’s road trip season I was fortunate enough to find a fun 8 track travel pack by Sears. Sears was a major stereo player in the 70s and didn’t skimp on 8 tracks most of them are without pretence and built like a tank. These accessories are 3 unused 80 min blank tapes and a head cleaner housed in a handsome faux leather case.

 

 

I added another coveted Monkees 8 track tape “Changes” to the collection, I have 6 and need 3 more to go, The Monkees, the Soundtrack of Head, and Present, who has them? I’m only counting the originals on Cologems label for now, once I get the set I’ll go for that 80’s tape with That Was Then This is Now they put out through the 80’s revival.

I like the Colegem label, most of the recordings are from records and TV and if you’re lucky you’ll find the tape in its original plastic tub albeit More of The Monkees sports a flatpack that is also nonconventional. Sadly I only have one tub so I don’t get to see the cover art and have to settle for the red label. Also what sets them apart is instead of using traditional pressure pads these babies use those tense metal inserts with felt on the tips I wish this was the standard since the felt is an easy fix and the sound on these is pretty constant.

Still waiting on the roof and every day is use the wet dry vac for 40 mins and dump out 15 gallons of carpet soaked water, how was your week?

Talk about retro, this week I found a box of tapes that the guy at the yard sale I could have for free. This kind of stuff use to happen all the time but I can’t remember the last time I got an assortment for nothing, and unlike most of the gift tapes you don’t look in the pressure pad there were a few good ones here- Ventures, Soul Train, Elvis, Mama Cass, The Soundtrack from Hair and Boots Randolph (no comment). If this is the tip off for spring and summer sales I’m excited.

 

Also the junque store is getting a new roof and is half done, the only problem is half done means the tar has been removed this week and now it’s like a spaghetti colander with the relentless Pacific Northwest rains and like it or not the carpet is getting a shampoo along with the tables and chairs and classic rock albums too. 

Christmas has always been known for irritating carols and standards, and if you work in retail I can understand your pain. I on the hand have come to learn to enjoy a song or two and like it that these songs have an expiration date on them and often wish other holidays had soundtracks to them. Other than old lang syne and the Monster Mash holidays are pretty music free.

 

But in order to feel your pain in bad Christmas music from the bowels of the garage are these 3 gems, Christmas Hits For Dancing, Disco Noel and Merry Christmas from the Brady Bunch. The first 2 are interchangeable and I would wager that they are performed by the same studio band with one label being a subsidy of the other, all you need is 30 secs of the first song to know what the every other one sound like, generic disco beats with a woman singing Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. Only in the polyester 70’s could you imagine someone dancing like John Travolta under the tree to this on X-mas morning, I have a love hate relationship with that decade. The Brady Bunch is a TV family that sings like anyone’s family if they had a record deal. I only wish they got Alice to sing Jingle Bells with the Batman smells lyrics to make it interesting.