8/14/2023 0 Comments 8 track tape collection![]() ![]() ![]() And it takes lots of patience too, which I don’t possess. But cracking open an 8-track and replacing its parts is an art form, and it takes practice. The tape could be fixed diehard collectors often recondition cartridges and give them new life. Splices almost always break, and pinch rollers fill with gunk. The foam padding tends to rot and crumble away. My mystery “Beatles” cart was not playable. They were either used to transfer an entire album onto tape, or even better, a way to compile a group of favorite songs onto one recording, aka a “mixtape.” What was on the Beatles tape? Rubber Soul? Abbey Road? Was it a compilation of someone’s favorite Beatles tunes? In any case, I couldn’t wait to find out what songs hid inside. Ordinarily, blank 8-tracks served one of two purposes. Oftentimes, the person added some artwork in the margins, folk art of the times. Folks that took the time to record their own 8-tracks usually printed the tracklisting neatly on the front of the cart. Later, as the public moved on to cassettes, then CDs, a few hard-core devotees of the 8-track, like me, remained. Shortcomings aside, there is no disputing that 8-track tapes provided music fans with their first widely portable format. And since the spool of tape inside of those colorful carts played from the inside-out, there was no way to rewind them. When the tracks changed in the middle of your favorite song, well, that wasn’t exactly ideal. The format is wonderfully nostalgic to be sure, but problematic too. The relationship between old-school rock fans and the 8-track tape can be complicated. Related: “The 8-Track Guy Keeps On Truckin” ![]() “What do you want for the box?” I asked the guy from work that had invited me over to see if I’d be interested in taking it off his hands. Related: “The Easiest Way to Define Classic Rock” Scrawled on the spine in green letters was the word, “Beatles.” But one cart caught my eye, one of those homemade jobs recorded on a blank cart. There was the usual fare of Foghat, Styx, Rush, Clapton, and the like. As I moved the top layer of tapes this way and that, I noticed that the box contained the type of music I’d hoped. Bright red, orange, blue, and florescent green cartridges were scattered among the more common black or grey. When it was pulled out into the light, the contents looked more like the inside of a gumball machine than it did the music of a bygone era. The old box of 8-track tapes sat on the closet floor, untouched and unwanted for years. ![]()
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