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track one, song one

I'm reliving my youth, for better or worse.

Boston. I had this 8-track. Are any of you old enough to remember 8-tracks? Remember how the track would skip to the next in the middle of a song and you would here the click? Way to ruin the aesthetics!

8-tracks were clunky and awkward to carry around. And oh, how the melted so easily. Leave a Yes 8-track in your car for a few hours and you come back to a Dali painting.

I knew this Boston album from start to finish. They were the only band of their genre I enjoyed. That genre being high-pitched -lead-singers-with-semi-heavy-guitars-in-the-background. Journey. Kansas. You know the type.

Who the hell thought Steve Perry was cute? My god, he looked like a deranged girl. He reminded me of Kerry Anderson in my seventh grade class who had this It's Pat vibe going on - I only knew she was a girl because she was in my gym class. When Journey came around I remember thinking, Wow, Kerry Anderson is a rock star! But it was just Steve Perry, who I still think of to this day as a girly man.

My then-boyfriend's best friend (this is about 1981 or so) had a girlfriend who loved Journey. She wore white Capezio and Jorache jeans and she flipped her back when she talked to me. I got drunk once and punched her in the stomach. My then-boyfriend was heavily into the country music and macho-man genre of being so he though that was just fine. Come to think of it, she looked like Steve Perry, too. One time, I rubbed dirt on her white Capezios. Just because.

Oh yea. The Doors station is back again.

Ride the snake. To the lake. The ancient lake, baby.

Man, I must have been on a lot of drugs back then.

This will segue into my mescaline stories. After dinner.

Comments

Worst thing about 8-tracks (from a consumer, not record company) point of view: built-in obsolescence. The tape was wound on a single axle, and fed out from the middle, rubbing against itself and wearing through quickly even under perfect conditions.

Rubbing against yourself wears you out??
Damn.

You know, I've still got the Sex Pistols first album on 8-track. No 8-track player, tho my father still has, and listens, to his. Heh.

I totally loved Steve Perry and wanted him to sing to me all night long while I serviced him on my knees. Heh. I didn't think he was cute, either - but there was something about him!

I just dug a few 8-tracks I have in a milk crate of old shit I can't part with. I haven't seen them in years. Foghat, Mott the Hoople, Allman Brothers, Edgar Winter, Who, J Geils, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Mike Oldfield, Van Morrison and Randy Newman.

Shit. Whenever I listen to the Eagles "Best of My Love" I still hear that track skip.

First 8 track was BTO taken care of business which was the hit song when I worked a pizza joint outside Atlanta. Now that I dated myself, I still own over 200 vinels, you know records- and I even have a turntable that plays them.

Graduated in 1982!
"Don't Stop Believing, hold on to that feelleehen!"
"When the Lights Go Down In the City"
Loved Journey!
Now I have the CD--never had an 8-track. Casette tapes were the thing!!
Have all of Boston's CDs now. I could go on and on! Now I DO remember hearing Boston on my friends' 8-track!
Thanks for reviving memories of kinder, gentler times!:)

Kind of dates all of us that remember 8-tracks hu?

Heh. High school class of 1979. I ended up owning a few 8 tracks, and had a stereo that would play them. In fact, I still have that stereo, in storage, and the only part that still works right is the 8 track player.

What I really remember though is what a big deal it was for my older brother to have an 8 track player in one of his first cars. And how bizarre I always thought it was to breakup songs partway through.

I still have the first vinyl I ever bought, Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable", along with about 600 others. A turntable to play 'em on, which happens whenever I move or move the boxes from one closet to another.

I have a box of 8 tracks (Eagles, Doobie Bros, Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, etc.) and a dual 8 track/reel-to-reel player. All of Elvis on R-R, but Young Rascals my fave R-R.

Probably have 2,000 cassettes and CD's. My dear departed was an even more ardent music fan than I. We treated ourselves Christmas '98 with new tuner, cassette deck, 100 CD changer and Bose surround.

What do I listen to? MP3's (about 2,000) on this infernal machine!

8-tracks... Oh yeah...

My first Ozzy tape:
"I AM IRON MAN click-click..."

I still listen for that sound whenever I hear a Grand Funk Railroad song:
"I'm getting closer to click-click my hooome..."

I hated Steve Perry! Hated him and his sissy whiney voice with a passion! Matter of fact, I'm adding him to my "most annoying voices" list right now!

Steve Perry is the best thing that ever happened to rock n roll!
He is the most beautiful man in the world...all that dont agree are just plain jealous!
Missing' you Steve!

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