#eight-track

Sun Ra Astro Black blue eight-track (1973)

Eight-tracks, of all formats ever created, became a joke by cultural and social census. Nowadays, you can think about the many ways you could listen to vinyl records or even cassettes with thousand-dollar antique stereo systems made of source components, pre-amps-, power amps-, and receivers. The discourse of fidelities, technical specs-, nostalgia factor, collections, and maybe having intricate conversations with the recordstore owner standing behind the counter (assuming she or he could be really bothered) means that vinyl and cassette culture have been looking good. Eight-tracks? Who ever talks about them in 2019? They died in the Eighties (with very rare exceptions) and all you hear of them still is how they’re stigmatized by the hippie or bell-bottom progeny. You heard about it in the Nineties and you’ll still hear about it now. Eight-track collectors don’t have the visibility or quantity of outlets that hip-hop, punks, and indie enthusiasts do who have it all for boomboxes, sampling, posting finds, buying and selling, showing off, equipment, and etcetera. At least, it’s what little I’m seeing. I could be wrong. With the format’s clunkiness, a higher vulnerability in wear-and-tear, and inconvenience, rest assured the eight-track is never coming back.

Trunkards #296. I, myself, was a virtuoso with the 8-Track.

Minnie Riperton: Perfect Angel beige eight-track (1974)

Hearing “Lovin’ You” on vinyl is total heaven. It fits within the timeframe of release and the format it was intended to listen on. The only thing that could even top that is Perfect Angel on a beige eight-track, which really makes it a memento of the times. If you ever had a feel for Seventies culture and / or your identity was made of it, you’d understand.