In Praise of the Lowly 8-Track

[Jahfin]

This is one format of music that will very likely never make any kind of significant comeback other than as a curiosity. I can't say I ever owned one but I did decide to hang on to some old tapes when going through things at my parents house a few years ago after my Mom had passed away. Some of the first rock n' roll I ever heard came over an older brother's Craig Powerplay via the 8-track tape player, including Led Zeppelin (see below). For many years later when listening to Led Zep II on vinyl or CD I kept expecting to hear that annoying ass "click-click" during the middle of Ramble On as the tune faded out and the tape changed tracks.

Anyone else here old enough to remember that most antiquated of musical formats, the lowly 8-track?

Led Zeppelin II still packaged in the original carton as it would have

appeared on record shelves way back when.

[Day Tripper]

Well, I'm not old enough, but my parents sure have plenty of them. I don't know if they have any Zeppelin (I should look) but I remember trying to play Dad's copy of Fandango by ZZ Top and they were yelling at me to be careful because the player would eat it.

I don't think it'll come back, not fond of it or the cassette tape. Seems like the only reason the 8-track caught on was because of its portability.

[dazedcat]

I'm old enough to remember them. I hated the fact that certain songs would "fade" out between tracks. There was nothing worse than that. But hey, in 1972 having an 8 track deck in a car was high living........

Man have times changed.

Regards;

[TypeO]

This is one format of music that will very likely never make any kind of significant comeback other than as a curiosity. I can't say I ever owned one but I did decide to hang on to some old tapes when going through things at my parents house a few years ago after my Mom had passed away. Some of the first rock n' roll I ever heard came over an older brother's Craig Powerplay via the 8-track tape player, including Led Zeppelin (see below). For many years later when listening to Led Zep II on vinyl or CD I kept expecting to hear that annoying ass "click-click" during the middle of Ramble On as the tune faded out and the tape changed tracks.

Anyone else here old enough to remember that most antiquated of musical formats, the lowly 8-track?

Led Zeppelin II still packaged in the original carton as it would have

appeared on record shelves way back when.

Craig Powerplay FTW!!!!

My buddy had one in his car, with Jensen speakers, and it rocked!

i became quite the 8-track repairman in my day.

You had to have a soft touch to pull out a length of tape, give it just enough of a tug to spin and re-tighten the reel to correct "dragging".

I even opened quite a few to properly route the tape back through the correct rollers - definitely near-brain surgery :lolo:

[lzfan715]

I certainly don't remember them. But I recently went camping with a friend and her family's camper is old and it had an 8-track player in it. I had to explainwhat it was and what an 8-track was. And the camper only got one station, it was a good one too. I fell asleep with Robert singing Babe I"m Gonna Leave you into my ear.

[Levee]

Some of my best memories are 8 track related, the smell of stale beer, french fries under the seat, working on mysteries without any clues........

[johnroxx]

My first stereo system was a Panasonic AM/FM/8-track. Bought it for around $60 with money I earned mowing lawns and pulling weeds for neighbors.

Some of the tapes I had were the Stones' Goat's Head Soup, Janis Joplin's Pearl, and Zappa's Just Another Band From LA...

;^)

[redeyedrichard]

I believe we used to have one...it was my dad's....but he lost it in the move to here about 16 years ago when I was four years old! Ah, those were the days.

[Rorer714]

I also had that Panasonic 8 track/ BSR turntable/tuner stereo.Had plenty of 8 tracks and I surely remember those fades and clicks.Also remember putting match books under them when they were just about worn out so that you could get a different angle on the "head'.What a pain in the ass those things were.

Had a blue one of these in 79

[coogeeboy]

I have been purchasing some original cassettes lately but the 8 track is another world away.

I remember my sisters boyfriend had one in his Holden in the late 70's & i was forever playing HELP by the Beatles.

Might get one for old times sake one of these days.

[Bong-Man]

I was the only kid in the neighborhood that had an 8 track recorder. I used to go to Radio Shack and buy blank 80 minute 8 tracks and make tapes for everyone in the neighborhood. Blank 8 tracks had this weird metal coating that would oxidize over time, and fill your player with black soot. Twas quite annoying. Had to have a matchbook handy at all times, because on many players the other tracks would bleed thru....unless you had a track adjuster.

When 8 tracks first became popular, there were a lot of bootlegs flying around. You could walk into K Mart and see bins of illegals from every artist imaginable. My first car, a '75 Caprice Classic, had a factory AM/8 track .

[Jahfin]

I'm remember the old folded matchbook cover trick very well, it added lots of extra life to many a copy of already well worn 8-tracks. I also recall the "bootlegs", well, maybe not how folks may think of them now but entire albums where Sabbath (or any other artist for that matter) may be covered by a group of studio musicians who weren't the original artists. I know of more than a few 8-tracks like this that were in my older brothers' collections. I'm sure at least one or two of them had 8-track recorders as well.

[Rorer714]

I was the only kid in the neighborhood that had an 8 track recorder. I used to go to Radio Shack and buy blank 80 minute 8 tracks and make tapes for everyone in the neighborhood. Blank 8 tracks had this weird metal coating that would oxidize over time, and fill your player with black soot. Twas quite annoying. Had to have a matchbook handy at all times, because on many players the other tracks would bleed thru....unless you had a track adjuster.

When 8 tracks first became popular, there were a lot of bootlegs flying around. You could walk into K Mart and see bins of illegals from every artist imaginable. My first car, a '75 Caprice Classic, had a factory AM/8 track .

My first car was a 73 Caprice Classic,that thing was a boat, but it would soar like jet.I put an 8 track in it because I had a load of them. I remember wishing that I could afford a cassette player.Only the rich kids had those and it also meant that I would have to buy cassettes of everything that I had on vinyl and/or 8 track.Those days were quite futile

[Jahfin]

[DewieCox]

http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/6/8/why-does-this-guy-still-have-sixty-thousand-8-track-tapes-video--2

This is my wife's old boss. One of the biggest collections in the world.

[Strider]

I never bought any 8-tracks because I HATED them!!! I HATED the fact that the song would be broken up in the middle...and the sound quality wasn't all that great. And portability? Big fucking deal! The cassette was already out and it was just as portable and convenient and even sounded better...AND it didn't cut Kashmir or Ramble On off in the middle.

I never understood why my friends had them...I would just make cassette copies from my vinyl albums if I wanted a portable version of an album. Or I would buy the factory cassette tape.

8-tracks coming back will the the 7th sign of the apocalypse.

[Jahfin]

I never bought any 8-tracks because I HATED them!!! I HATED the fact that the song would be broken up in the middle...and the sound quality wasn't all that great. And portability? Big fucking deal! The cassette was already out and it was just as portable and convenient and even sounded better...AND it didn't cut Kashmir or Ramble On off in the middle.

I never understood why my friends had them...I would just make cassette copies from my vinyl albums if I wanted a portable version of an album. Or I would buy the factory cassette tape.

I never owned any 8-tracks myself but back in the early to mid-70s almost everyone I knew had them. Some even had reel-to-reels.

8-tracks coming back will the the 7th sign of the apocalypse.

Cheap Trick did just that for their last record. The price? A measly $30.

[Strider]

Cheap Trick did just that for their last record. The price? A measly $30.

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

Reel-to-reels? NOW you're talking! I still have some old reels and a vintage 70's Teac Reel-to-Reel tape deck in storage.

[DavidZoso]

What is wild about the 8-tracks is when that is the format you had for so long and certain songs would fade out and change to the next channel and fade back in that when you heard the cassette- vinyl, or cd it was like a whole new world. haha

I still have all my 8-tracks in storage. The one that was really cool is the Pink Floyd-Animals with the extra bit with Snowy White playing a solo. Couldn't get it anywhere else for the longest but on the 8-track.

[TypeO]

OK, I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

My buddy had a Craig PowerPlay 8-track underdash that he wired directly to the fuse box.

(Yes, the same one I referenced in my earlier post from when this thread was started.)

What this means is that it would continue playing even if the car was off.

The year was 1977.

Anyway, we were going to see Sammy Hagar, Nazareth and Mahogany Rush.

On the way, we stopped to do a bunch (as in "too much") of "crystal T" (PCP) we had scored for the show.

We got... really high.

So high, in fact, that Rick, who owned the car, could not drive.

In fact, he wouldn't even go to the show.

He said we could take his car.

Understand, we were less than a mile from the venue (Orlando Jai-Alai Fronton).

I insisted on driving, since everyone was fucked up, I trusted MY driving better than any of those other guys.

I literally took 5 minutes to pull out of the side street and into traffic, because of my brutally impaired depth perception.

Not to mention we had Presence pounding at full volume.

So there we sat, every time I'd start to pull out, one of the other guys would scream "NO, DON'T", or suddenly yell "GO! GO!"

It certainly never occurred to any of us to turn the stereo down.

So we make it to the show, I parked on the side of the K-Mart parking lot under a parking lot street light that was next to the Fronton.

I won't go into any depth relating what an insanely twisted adventure making it through that show was while totally wrecked on PCP.

Most of our communication was hand gestures and making faces, as speech seemed beyond our utmost effort.

One of the coolest things I've ever seen, though, was Frank Marino's encore.

He blasted into a solo that kept intensifying and getting louder until he simply ripped the guitar off and dropped it on the stage and walked off.

The guitar continued ever-increasing feedback and other noise with a single tight spotlight on it for about 2 minutes.

We were freaking. the fuck. out.

It was incredible, and it seemed to keep getting louder.

Finally, when we thought we couldn't possibly take any more, Frank Marino returned on stage with a different guitar and began wailing over the noise of the first guitar, still on the stage.

It was, without a doubt, one of the most badassed solos/encores EVER.

Needless to say, with that being the final song of the night, we left in a state of absolute psychotic mega-amped overload adrenaline rush.

We were running down whole rows of cars across the hoods, screaming at the top of our lungs how fucking cool that was.

When we got back to the car, Rick was there waiting for us with the people we left him with.

He had recognized his car and waited until we came out.

Of course, he saw us approaching and was tripping out at how geeked up we were, and when we saw him we started screaming, again at the top of our lungs "Oh my God! RICK! YOU MISSED IT! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"

Finally, I dig the keys out of my pocket and open the door...

and Presence was still playing at full volume!

Obviously had been the entire time we were inside.

Right then, the realization hit us all at the same time.

We were so high we had gotten out of the car with the stereo playing at full volume.

Somehow, it never occurred to us - no one noticed.

Good times.

[Walter]

Too funny!

[Deborah J]

I remember having to push them into the player and sometimes hold them in place or jiggle it to hear the whole song.!! I had one in my first car and I wore out more 8 tracks then I can remember!!

TypeO, that was funny^^great story!!

[badgeholder]

Not only did my moms car have an 8-track player, our home stereo had one that recorded! So I was all excited to make custom tapes to cruise to when I first started driving. I also had a few "factory" tapes, Band of Gypsys, Who's Next, Monty Python (yes!) There is one tape I'd really like to hear, I actually took the home stereo to a band practice and recorded it - and this is the only known tape of that band. There it sits (along with a reel-to-reel with a similar story) while I wonder how I'm EVER going to hear it again. (Listen to us old farts, "in my day....." haha)

[Deborah J]

Not only did my moms car have an 8-track player, our home stereo had one that recorded! So I was all excited to make custom tapes to cruise to when I first started driving. I also had a few "factory" tapes, Band of Gypsys, Who's Next, Monty Python (yes!) There is one tape I'd really like to hear, I actually took the home stereo to a band practice and recorded it - and this is the only known tape of that band. There it sits (along with a reel-to-reel with a similar story) while I wonder how I'm EVER going to hear it again. (Listen to us old farts, "in my day....." haha)

Yes, but you know what...the 70's was a great time to be a teenager IMHO

[TypeO]

Yes, but you know what...the 70's was a great time to be a teenager IMHO

^^^ THIS. ^^^