Yikes…
When I was about eight, Leo Sayer’s Endless Flight album was really popular. My older brother and sister had it on 8-Track and played it so many times that I still have it memorized.
Tonight I was in a nostalgic mood and typed it into Musicmatch…and there it was.
So…In the middle of “When I Need You” I totally expected the 8-Track player to turn down the sound, make an obnoxious CLICK as it switched tracks, then continue the song.
All the track changes on those old 1970s 8-Tracks are all imbedded in my head.
This ever happen to you?
BTW, if anyone gives me shit about listening to Leo Sayer right now, I’ll start posting detailed analyses of my daily bowel movements.
Yeah!
My friend Mark used to have the 8-track of The Sparks’ album “Propaganda”. It started off with the short song “Propaganda” and immediatedly edited to a track called “Reinforcements.” That’s how we learned the album.
Fast forward 25 years, and I found a mint copy of the vinyl on the net. It gets here, and it turns out that there has always been another song between “Propaganda” and “Reinforcements.” It throws off the whole feel of the album! The song order was changed to fit the track lengths on the tape.
I’m pretty sure I remember the fade out - click - fade in on at least one Bachman-Turner Overdrive album and maybe “Boston.” What a stupid idea!
P.S.: Leo Sayer did a song that absolutely kicks ass, that wasn’t on “Endless Flight.” Look up one called “Long Tall Glasses.” Yow!
They have a lot of albums of his available on Musicmatch, but not the one with this song.
There are so many bands I’ve only heard on 8-Track…Boz Skaggs…ELO…Steve Miller…probably more I’m not remembering.
Sometime around 1976 or 1977, I remember many trips with the German child prodigy Heintji warbling out of the 8-track deck in the car.
Heintji was this sacharrine little warbler. Lots of strings and a high voice that issued from beneath a ridiculous amount of reverb. The general effect was like something you’d expect in a David Lynch movie.
Anyway, he had this one super-maudlin song called Mama. Very boo-hoo-hoo.
I heard that song again about a month ago, after a few good decades. In polyphonic ringtone form. Youngish professional type in a cafe – who didn’t look deranged in the least, and didn’t seem embarrassed at all when it went off.
I can only imagine that he’s achieved some transcendent plane of irony beyond anything previously imagined by even the most dedicated hipsters.
After Gene Clark left the Byrds, I was bitter and found it hard to listen to Jim Mcquinn without the harmonies of Clark and Crosby. I picked-up the “Farther Along” 8-track and began to acclimate myself with the new Byrds. The best song on the cartridge is “Lazy Waters” and it is distributed between tracks 3 & 4. I now expect the song to STOP/CLICK/PAUSE play whenever I hear it.
I had an 8-track of Rush’s “2112” that did the pause-click right in the middle of the Grand Finale. Argh!
Last week I heard “I Love A Rainy Night” from Eddie Money and realized that the last time I had heard it was on my big sisters 8-track in the late '70’s. Man.
No, but this happens to me often with things I originally heard on vinyl…including some oddities like 3rd Bass’ “Gasface” and basically everything Warren Zevon ever recorded. Oh, and Dire Straits. I’d still rather listen to Dire Straits on vinyl.
Not 8-track (I never had one), but older songs occasionally pop up after long gaps.
On New Year’s Eve, for instance, I went to an act performing songs by Flanders and Swann. I hadn’t heard any of them in over 40 years, since I saw a TV special featuring them. It was wonderful.
(To those who don’t recognize the names, think of a British version of Tom Lehrer. Same brilliant lyrical style, though F&S are more whimsical. “Mud Mud, glorious mud.” “Have some Madeira M’Dear”)
Sorry, that was Eddie Rabbitt. Big difference!
That was on an early album of his called Just a Boy. “There was ham, ‘n’ there was turkey, there was caviar/And long tall glasses with wine up to hyarrr…”
In the early 70’s, I had an 8-track with the name “Leviathan” on the front. No idea where it came from, who it was or even what the song titles were. I vaguely remembered the front cover picture was something like an “Olde Worlde” map with a sea serpent coiling around it. This memory achieved epic proportions in my mind as the years went by. Occasionally, I’d remember this masterpiece and search the internet for any information I could find. (There are a LOT of literary references to “Leviathan”.) Finally I found a copy on a website specializing in re-issues and imports. I waited impatiently for my prize and when it arrived I was finally able to realise my dream of rediscovering one of the lost gems of my youth.
It’s okay, kind of a prog-rock thing like Flash or maybe Starcastle without the voice. :rolleyes: