Mobile Music Hieroglyphs
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Artist:
First off, here's hoping everyone had a great holiday season - however you celebrate. While I did not neccesarily intend to step away from MOG for this long, the travels and visitors and celebratory gatherings stretched from hours to days to weeks...not only did I step away from MOG, but pretty much music period. Oh well, over and done...howdy, how are ya?
I've been formulating this post for a month or so, and no Egyptians were harmed...yadda...yadda...(here we go!)
Let your [insert favorite portable music device name here] remind of the incredible shrinkage of media. like a man swimming in a springtime pond, the big 10" slab of vinyl has shrunk to fit on the head of a pin. What used to take cabinets and cases for a modest amount of cherished tunes, now slips in the pants pocket - so easily overlooked that there's a legion of young teens cursing their mothers every wash day over their waterlogged player's demise.
In the middle of the last century, Phillips, RCA and Chrysler forged the first ill-fated attempts at mobile music; designing "vibration resistant" turntables to mount under your auto dashboard. I can't recall ever seeing one of these units anywhere, so they must not have been too popular. Probably good for make out sessions at Inspiration Point, if Dad would let you take the "fancy" car.
Even employing the all-knowing presence of an entertainer the calibre of Lawrence Welk didn't stir enough interest!
The next step in mobile audio did catch fire...the 8 track tape. With the advent of this format, the kids had a durable and simple format for the road.
...for the uninitiated, the 8 track tape was an endless loop housed in a plastic cartridge. The 1/4" tape held 4 seperate stereo audio tracks. The tape was fed from the center of the coil and rewound on the outside of the reel. A small strip of foil caused the player to switch tracks. Once you understood how they functioned, you could amaze your friends by "fixing" a tape that had pulled the loop out of the housing by giving a strong pull in the feed direction. The larger circumference of the take-up side would cause it to spin faster and "magically" pull the extended tape back into its proper place!
My first car was a '65 Impala Super Sport. It had vinyl bucket seats and the "sporty" feature of the automatic transmission shift between the seats on the floor! (mine had a feature not pictured here - rear fenders half eaten away by rust)
The 8 track player had to be installed the very first week, to be followed in short order the the "reverb simulator".
Once the tunes were selectable, it seemed the car became a virtual party-on-wheels...from speeding over hills to try and drag the tailpipe to make sparks to the numerous bottles of Boones farm wine(?) and pre-mixed screwdivers, the world was my drunken oyster!!
Over time, my collection of 8 track tapes grew and grew, and was soon large enough to fill a 24 count box!! Never the one to succumb to conventional "radio wisdom", my 8 track choices were more goverened by the interesting things I could find in the numerous discount bins. It was a goldmine.
Radio Shack 8 track commercial
The Kinks - Top of the Pops
The Kinks - This Time Tomorrow
Captain Beefheart - Peaches
Nazz - Under the Ice
Nazz - Hello, It's Me
Todd Rundgren - Who's That Man?
T. Rex - Mad Donna
T. Rex - Rapids
You kids and your fancy mp3s...here's a little playlist for ya.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (13)
This post is only mising a pic of an old mn swinging a cane. ;)
next post for that one Dale :~]
"Hey, you kids! Get away from my 8-track!" I can see it all now.
All that japery aside, Happy New Year, scot! And welcome back. Oh yeah. Many thanks for this post, if only for reminding me about the ab-so-lute-ly asskickingly smokin' Nazz track "Under the Ice."
Thanks for the history lesson Scott. I missed the 8-track boat, but was able to experience their offspring, the cassette tape. Did 8-tracks ever allow you to record on them or was the mix-tape born with the invention of the cassette recorder?
By my count there are 9 tracks..not too shaby! Well done. Happy New Year young fella. I was always intrigued by the car turntable..that needs to come back in new models of deluxe Gremlins.
well, that was worth the wait! So. what kinda engine was haulin that mobile party around?
no, no Mikey...I'll share. In fact, it would be quite amusing watching the whippersnappers look for the headphone jack.
Yeah, that's about as heavy as they got, but worth the weight!
About a year later Democlez, I had the very first 8 track recorder in town. A real 'beaut from Longines Symphonette, not only did it expand the road tunes to the vinyl library - I learned how to edit the 8 tracks by shortening them and removing the foil channel switcher to make sound effects tapes for the band I hung with...ahh, what fun!
spin em, Cody counter!
a 327, as I recall harem-super. In its extended demise, the engine blew and my Dad rebuilt it...never would run right. Sold it to a girlfriend's Mom, who seduced a local mechanic into taking a look. He found a warped intake manifold, and I had to spend the next few years watching it tool around town. bah.
I got to car audio late, having a Concord FM/cassette unit installed in my clunky 1981 Dodge Omni. (Previously, "car audio" meant "that audio disaster, AM radio.") I'd moved from open reel tapes to cassettes, bypassing 4- or 8-track, since LPs played on the all-component stereo system sounded much better. (Too much wow and flutter in those dry lubricated endless loop tapes.) Plus, I wasn't a skirt chaser, or much of a date, either. MP3s and digital music players also arrived after Y2K, since I was more interested in by-then-somewhat-better-mastered music CDs. So much for not being a party animal.
I still have some 8 track tapes buried in my dad's old army locker which now serves as my TV stand. One is Queen's 'A Night At The Opera', another is The Steve Miller Band 'Book Of Dreams', Elton John's 'Capt. Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy', and Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumors'. I may have a few more but those are the ones I recall. Ah, what sweet memories!(as you can see my tastes were pretty top 40 back then. My how that's changed since)
Aiea, a long forgotten bit of history that i ran across prepping this post - the cassette actually pre-dates the 8 track, available since the mid-60s!! I had one of them Omnis in the 80s too...its last journey was in taking down a three-point buck - and I still have them antlers!!!
yeah? but, back then 8MW, the "top 40" was awash with riveting talent (and I had younger ears...). I can still listen to any of those you mention with no objection...I even have the Queen right in front of me...hit it, lads!
"I'm in Love with My Car"
The screwdrivers were Tango and your party on wheels probably included Thunderbird, Mad Dog (MD) 20/20 and Wild Irish Rose.
Cool post man. Reminded me of my Fisher-Price portable record player from the 60's.
Thx for that track. I need to get that album on my 'puter stat!