Then I got the small red box…
OK, I was going to let this one go, but the inner turmoil was becoming too much to bear as I hit the post button for yesterday’s
I’m not sure that the US Hunky Dory 8-track shown in the episode mentioned (see pic above) would have been made of red plastic.
Naturally, I have a large collection of Bowie 8-tracks, all the way back to the Mercury cartoon TMWSTW and the Decca curly-haired The World Of David Bowie, via Images on London, through the majority of the RCA years, right up to the EMI America 8-tracks of the 1980s, which I believe were the last to be made.
Anyway, credentials out of the way, I have to say I have not seen an American red RCA Bowie 8-track before now. I’m not saying such a thing doesn’t exist, but all of the USA RCA 8-tracks I have are white plastic in a red and white outer RCA cover…see example below.
I have a suspicion that it may be the loose cannon that is Canada that’s responsible for this red rogue anomaly. I have seen black and brown plastic Canadian Ziggy Stardust 8-tracks, so who knows what other maverick ideas they had? And they do seem to have a penchant for red plastic…Lodger anyone?
You may ask why I collect 8-track cartridges in the first place…and I might answer, “why not?”. Admittedly I can’t actually play them and they are about the worst format ever invented. But, so what…they look nice all stacked up together.
Also, if I ever get around to transferring them to CD it will be interesting to note the differences between these and more sensible formats.
One of the disadvantages of 8-track technology was that the tape had to have four sides of equal length to attain the continuos musical loop effect that was one of the supposed attractions of the thing.
At least the running order on Hunky Dory was the only thing altered for the full 8-track listening experience. Here it is…
Hunky Dory programs
1. Changes – Life On Mars? – Kooks
2. The Bewlay Brothers – Quicksand
3. Fill Your Heart – Andy Warhol – Queen Bitch
4. Song For Bob Dylan – Oh! You Pretty Things – Eight Line Poem
OK, so it may not be ideal to end the album with Eight Line Poem, but at least all the tracks are seemingly complete.
Spare a thought then for the listener of the Station To Station 8-track cartridge for example, who not only had to endure the title track in two parts, but would be lost in the astonishing beauty of Wild Is The Wind only to be rudely brought back to earth as the track fades half way through and then gives way to a clunk and a whirr as the machine lined up the heads for the next section? Here’s the Station To Station tracklisting…
Station To Station programs
1. Station To Station (Part 1)
2. Station To Station (Conclusion) – Word On A Wing – Wild Is The Wind (Part 1)
3. Wild Is The Wind (Conclusion) – Stay
4. TWC 15 (sic) – Golden Years
How did this format ever get off the ground? Well, it was one of the most popular formats of the early 70s, so somebody was buying these things in vast quantities.
As I say, there were sometimes differences between the content of an 8-track compared to the vinyl or cassette versions released at the same time. Lou Reed‘s Berlin is a great example of this.
Normally the album kicks off with Berlin and goes straight into Lady Day. But, in an attempt to get four sides of equal length, the 8-track version has a beautiful guitar and piano interlude lasting just one minute between Berlin and Lady Day. There’s no mention of this sweet surprise anywhere on the packaging.
No such problem with Metal Machine Music, which was an album comprised of four sides of exact equal length anyway.
To anybody still reading this drivel, do I need help?