# Two Watergate Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2017, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603 "2017-04-17T04:12:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/21 "2017-04-18T13:33:45Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > The 18+ minute gap was actually a live bootleg version of **Iron Butterfly** ’s _In A Gadda Da Vida._ > > Nixon erased it because he was afraid of Atlantic Records legal team. You beat me to it. I had just checked that _Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars_ lp was released that June and side 2 is 18.25 long - almost exactly the right length! Obviously Nixon had already played side 1 in private and after he played side 2 in the Oval Office, he feared being outed as a Bowie fan (quite alienating to his voter base back then) and deleted the relevant section of tape! ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/22 "2017-04-18T15:56:34Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My wife’s an attorney. Though she doesn’t practice criminal law. > > One of her sayings back in the day was “You can parlay a parking ticket into murder one if you try hard enough.” She’d certainly seen many a poor sap make his problems far bigger by doing exactly the wrong thing; doubling down or worse on a badly losing hand. Ironically, it was Richard Nixon, discussing the Alger Hiss case, who said that more often than not, you get them for the cover-up not the original crime. The cover-up becomes easier to prove. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/23 "2017-04-18T18:26:16Z")
> [@Meurglys](#): > > You beat me to it. I had just checked that _Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars_ lp was released that June and side 2 is 18.25 long - almost exactly the right length! Obviously Nixon had already played side 1 in private and after he played side 2 in the Oval Office, he feared being outed as a Bowie fan (quite alienating to his voter base back then) and deleted the relevant section of tape! Alice’s restaurant is ‎18:34 long. Arlo Guthrie is on record saying that it’s probably just a coincidence. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/24 "2017-04-18T18:31:18Z")
I thought it was established that Alice’s Restaurant is 18 1/2 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/25 "2017-04-18T18:47:50Z")
i used to work extensively with reel-to-reel tape machines in the late 70’s and thru the 80’s and its very possible to accidentally erase or record over a section of tape. those machines were the harley-davidson of recording equipment. meaning they were very finicky and you had to keep a close eye on them and maintain them regularly; they would sometimes change record levels from use to use and sometimes just not record for no apparent reason. the tape itself was also subject to failure, most often if it was used repeatedly it would get “worn out” spots that would no longer record or record poorly. i obviously have no idea what is in the 18.5 min gap; but the context of that particular tape, the conversations immediately prior and after the gap, however indicate that something important and possibly incriminating was indeed erased. mc ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/26 "2017-04-18T18:54:20Z")
Technology has advanced a lot since the Watergate days, one would think the audio would be recoverable even on an “erased” tape, provided that portion it wasn’t recorded over again. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/27 "2017-04-18T19:04:32Z")
“If I had a friend like Rose Mary Woods, How pleasant my life would be…” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/28 "2017-04-18T19:08:24Z")
What was actually on the tape was clearly spelled out in the movie _[Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_(film))_ ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/29 "2017-04-18T20:06:08Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > Technology has advanced a lot since the Watergate days, one would think the audio would be recoverable even on an “erased” tape, provided that portion it wasn’t recorded over again. It’s [been investigated](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/watergate-tape-gap-still-a-mystery/) and the National Archives are known to regularly review the possibility. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/30 "2017-04-19T10:30:03Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > I thought it was established that Alice’s Restaurant is 18 1/2 minutes. Yeah, but he had had 5 years to listen to that. Ziggy Stardust would have been hot off the presses and just in at his local record shop! ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/31 "2017-04-19T14:33:56Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > He should have just ran a bigass magnet over them. Nixon was famously inept with technology. (He was known to have chewed off the cap of a child-proof bottle of aspirin.) He was probably at his limit of knowledge and ability in erasing that segment. That it was done five to nine times indicates the level of his paranoia about it; anyone experienced with the gear would have stopped at two. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603/32 "2017-04-19T17:46:06Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > What was actually on the tape was clearly spelled out in the movie _[Dick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_(film))_ More like sung out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-watergate-questions/784603.md?page=1)