Can you remember the 8 track?
I grew up surrounded by records. Even if there was no space in the house there was always room for more records.
It wasn't until I was a little older that I can remember seeing 8 tracks. My dad bought records. He never bought 8 tracks. We never had an 8 track player but my neighbors did. I remember sitting on the porch steps in the summer looking at my friend's older brother's 8-tracks. He had the Jackson 5 and Elvis Presley.
I was less than ten years old but I remember telling him that that was kiddie music. I preferred the sound of records and my Dad's Beatles Albums.
Somehow Elvis felt too mainstream to me, even for 1981. And the Jackson 5 just looked silly. Little did I know that the next year the Jackson 5's little brother's solo career would take off to become the king of pop.
There is one song I did thoroughly enjoy at that time and it was "The Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles. And seeing that today is also National Submarine day let's get back to where we once belonged:
Elvis Pic
Yellow Submarine Pic
Yellow Submarine Lyrics
In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines
So we sailed up to the sun
'Til we found a sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
And our friends are all aboard
Many more of them live next door
And the band begins to play
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
(Full speed ahead Mr. Parker, full speed ahead
Full speed ahead it is, Sergeant
Action station, action station
Aye, aye, sir, fire
Captain, captain)
As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need (has all we need)
Sky of blue (sky of blue) and sea of green (and sea of green)
In our yellow submarine (in our yellow, submarine, ha ha)
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in a yellow submarine
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
I remember 8 tracks all too well. My first stereo (when I got old enough to stop using my little transistor radio) had a record player and eight track player. I quickly grew to prefer albums. All to often the 8 track would cut to the next track in the middle of a song, to often one of the good ones.
I thought I was mr. cool when I got a little portable cassette player that I could plug into the auxillary jack. I remember using that thing to death, making my own tapes and playing them uninterrupted without that track crossover. Even made me some tapes from the Sunday countdown programs on the radio. :)
Thanks for sharing your story. I relate. I wasn't the only one who loved records. I used my dad's stereo but he was the one doing most of the recording sometimes when we didn't even know it. So much changed so fast from 79-89. But I guess I could say the same thing about any decade.