Someone has the domain http://8tracks.com/ and it's internet radio, not sure what the connection is to 8 tracks but now when I say I listen to 8 tracks I get some cred with the cool kids and vice versa. 

Is there a word for being nostalgic for something you were too young to enjoy when it first happened but had a revival that was fun and then years later once again having fun with the rehash of trend? Sort of post retro, If there is then I’m back with mid 90’s cocktail culture. Back in the day, (1994) I was big on Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Sinatra, Juan Esquivel, most car tapes, and records with titles like “Music to (fill in the blank) with”.  Just as the hippies had music centered around pot, this stuff is best listened to with a whiskey in a low ball glass just after sunset and why not? I never wanted to be one of those middle aged crisis types with convertible Mustangs, blasting Led Zeppelin on a crowed street and a Harley is even more cliché.  Cocktail culture is more fun since it’s not easy so it becomes almost elitist and with groups like MADD demonizing a simple gin rickey the rebellious spirit is just a fresh as a lime garnish on a mini plastic sword.

Look what was part of a free box in front of a yard sale, a literal 8 track tape bonanza. But as the old adage goes never look a gift  tape in the splice most of these carts are the type you lapse into a coma to, like Liberace, Ray Stevens when he’s not being humorous, and Johnny Mathis. The best of the lot was a copy of Dean Martin’s back up the Golddiggers (an while we’re on the subject did the Dingaling Sisters ever put any music out?), and a cool tape titled Merry Christmas Baby  Christmas Originals featuring Charles Brown & Lowell Fulson with a woman smoking a cigarette by a large wrapped gift on the cover. This was a compilation by the R & B soul label King with songs like Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, Christmas Eve Baby, Jingle Bell Hop and other happy ditties. Not as much fun as A John Waters Christmas CD but would be a nice companion, and the way tapes having been drying up in these parts I’d settle for an ELO greatest hits tape.

It may have been a coon’s age since I’ve found an 8 track tape in the wild but this weekend didn’t disappoint.  Saturday I scored  a still sealed Omni Entertainment  System,  I haven’t opened it but that’s going to happen soon  but what we’re looking at is a computer game that uses 8 track tapes as software that ask you questions and you ring in buy hitting the button on the control panel.  The fun part are the tapes that come with it, one of them is Pat Summerall  asking the NFL questions that probably sounds like a long Alcoa presents commercial. The other tape is Movie trivia with Vincent Price as the quiz master, this is exciting, Vincent Price could read a phone book and make it sound creepy. I just may have to play it on Halloween in a surreal haunted house to confuse trick or treaters . Eventually I’m going to see if I can play Devo on it since it seems like they were made for each other.

How’s this for a table top player? It’s a Sony-Matic TC-8 8 track player recorder that stores like one of those bulky 70s radios then pops open for tape insertion. It has the usual jacks on the back to plug into your receiver and even works with headphones. And like all 70s stereo equipment it weighs 50 pounds but since it has a handle on the back that makes it a portable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I probably paid too much for this one but even with that it’s a fun tape. It’s called Lenny & Squiggy presents Lenny & The Squigtones. It’s from one of those shows that come along every 20 years that get all warm and fuzzy about the past, in the 70s Happy Days & Laverne & Shirley romanticized the 50s, and in the 1990s That 70s Show took on the 70s, even now Portlandia is going deep in the 1990’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s full of lots of humor that that hasn’t dated that much unlike anything from Steve Martin back then, and while there is a fake Spinal Tap promo 8 track tape out there this tape could be described as the roots of that phony tape since it features Michael McKean and Nigel Tufnel and like all good things classic it is rumored that Peter Criss is the drummer. The live party atmosphere of it reminds me of the Briefcase Full Of Blues Blues Brothers tape which is a fake blues band so lots of masks in this posting.

I found yet another one of the tapes on the short list of must haves.  This one is the soundtrack of Dark Shadows. It’s like old school Goth with all the organs, bad poetry and black hair dye free. I wish I had a great story that all the cool kids had about rushing home after school to catch it and dressing up like Barnabas Collis for Halloween but it was too heady for me at the time and most of my TV time then was full of loud games shows like Gambit and The Jokers Wild. Musically, it reminds me of a Moody Blues cart where they break into poems between songs that sound real deep, I was weened on Claudine Longet's version of Shadows of The Night and the original version is here but I like Claudine’s exotic version better.  I hear it’s going to be made into a film which I don’t understand since devotes of the original show aren’t exactly the target demography for films so I hope there’s a senior discount when it's shown.

Check out the Yahoo music graphic on the upper right of their webpage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 8 track has always been a major fashion accesory, Madonna last week Ru Paul this week. I just might change the background to fabulous pink.

The all video music station here was running a Madonna marathon in honor of her half time show,  I watched it like I go through life- half paying attention then her video Deeper and Deeper was shown and there was a quick  flash of a nice collection of tapes from the 70’s. I got a screen grab today but only can identify The Boston one and a Capt and Tennille cart.  It’s been that kind of week since I hit an estate sale the previous week and found a copy of the scandalous 1992 Madonna Sex book with its Warholesque mylar silver bag. This book is fun because everyone in it is naked and the covers are made out of heavy metal plates. I’m surprised that we haven’t heard of any stories on how it saved anyone life when they were shot and the bullet was deflected from the shiny Kevlar cover.