Great Albums That Were Lost in the Cassette Player
For those who have been following me for awhile, you will know that back in the early 198os, I owned a lot of cassettes due to my very limited living space when I was in the marines. Even after I got out, while I began buying vinyl again, I still bought a good amount of cassettes. My logic at the time was you couldn’t play records in the car and I need my travelling music. While cassettes had the advantage of being very compact, you could fit one in your shirt pocket, they had the disadvantage of being susceptible of destructing. They could easily get mangled in the player and often times brake. I found this extremely frustrating. While the percentage of cassettes lost was small compared to the number I owned, it still upset me when I lost one to the machine. So, as an in between the years post, I will play homage to all the great albums that were mangled by a tape player.
The famous ammo cans . I thought this would be a good excuse to put this picture in the post.
Others that succumbed but I don’t have pictures for
Slayer- South of Heaven
The Dreggs- Unsung Heroes
The Who- recorded from the radio
Copperhead
There could be more but these are the ones I definitely remember. However, other cassettes weren’t mangled in the machine but wore out another way. When played they began to have a hiss sound on them. Eventually, this hiss got louder and present on more of the tape until it was unplayable. There was the odd tape where that started but it stopped and played normal again. Unfortunately, others didn’t so here is a tribute to those cassettes that were lost in this manner.
As you can see, many a great album fell victim to the dreaded tape player one way or the other. Thank God for CDs and more modern means of listening to music as I don’t have that problem anymore.
Next post: 1984
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80smetalman's Blog 
March 6, 2017 at 9:06 pm
I am one of the very few that still buy cassettes, and I still own thousands of them.
I still love this media.
The good thing about mangled cassettes are they are repairable, as opposed to cd’s and vinyl.
Also, they are cheaper these days in most cases to replace.
Thanks for the post and R.I.P the awesome cassettes that were lost.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:32 pm
Cassettes had their advantages in the day and I was able to repair quite a few of them. Still, at the time I mourned all those albums that were lost.
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March 6, 2017 at 9:14 pm
Lot of fine albums there. I trust the cassette player liked them so much that it wanted to soak up all the goodness of the music contained on the tape. Unfortunately, it didn’t know that meant mangling the actual tape.
I actually had a tape deck in the car not so long ago. It decided to keep a copy of Van Halen that I’d purchased for Ā£1.
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March 6, 2017 at 9:16 pm
Car stereo cassette decks are usually worse on tapes due to never being serviced and storing and playing tapes in hot and cold climates.
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March 6, 2017 at 9:29 pm
Damn. I wish I knew that.
Still, it was only a Ā£1 and I do have that Van Halen album on vinyl.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:36 pm
One of the last cassette purchases I made was U2- “Under a Blood Red Sky” which only cost me $1.
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March 6, 2017 at 9:32 pm
Yeah. A buck or less is pretty standard for a cassette as opposed to $20 or more for good vinyl.
I love both(admittedly vinyl more) but you can’t beat the cassette price.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:37 pm
True again but nowadays you can get CDs at a low price depending on things. Hell, if I didn’t only have company money on me a few weeks ago at work, I would have picked up Joe Satriani- “Surfing With the Aliens” for Ā£1 at a charity shop.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:35 pm
That’s true.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:34 pm
The last car I owned with a cassette deck was in 2007 which is why they’re up in the attic in those cans. Which Van Halen album was it? I would say I would be bummed if it was “II” but I did replace that one on vinyl. Maybe you have a point about the cassette players wanting to soak up all the great music contained there in.
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March 8, 2017 at 3:46 pm
It was the first one. Only about 3 tracks into an hourlong drive, too.
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March 8, 2017 at 8:08 pm
That’s a bummer on both counts.
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March 6, 2017 at 11:22 pm
In memoriam.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:38 pm
I lament the passing of all of them.
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March 7, 2017 at 12:29 am
I had a few do that, but. It as many as you.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:44 pm
It was a conspiracy against me, I’m convinced of it.
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March 7, 2017 at 3:43 am
Damn that’s a lot. In all my years of playing tapes (in my 32nd year now!) I’ve honestly only ever lost one tape to stretching from overplay, U2’s Rattle And Hum.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:42 pm
I’m convinced that all objects are programmed to go wrong if owned by me despite how much care I take of them. While I lost a lot of tapes, the casualty count was still less than 10%.
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March 8, 2017 at 10:07 pm
That’s a decent ratio!
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March 7, 2017 at 11:53 pm
Rattle & Hum was 72 minutes and reaaaally pushed the limits of what tapes could do!
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March 8, 2017 at 10:07 pm
That explains it. Except what about 90 minute recordables…
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March 8, 2017 at 10:12 pm
They used different tape stock. Record companies used the cheapest possible tape available. If you bought a 90 minute Maxell, it was better quality.
That’s why in the 80’s people used to say “You can make a better tape than store bought, by just taping a CD.”
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March 9, 2017 at 7:43 am
That was true, I lost fewer ones that were recordable. Most of those were the three for a dollar ones that you bought at K-Mart. Sony tapes were very good.
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March 10, 2017 at 12:06 am
Sony tapes were good. I bought Maxell mostly, because that is what I had at the store. However I think the best sounding ones were the Sonys.
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March 10, 2017 at 5:34 pm
The sound thing is personal and depends on the machine used.
Some tapes recorded on a certain cassette player sond better when played back on that brand.
IE a cassette recorded on a Nakamichi deck may not sound as good when listened to on a Tandberg, or vice versa.
Sony ux pro, maxell XLII, and TDK SA were the go to’s back in the day, and still hold up well today.
I prefereef the Maxell, but it is a personal thing as any of the 3 mentioned are good.
The other rhing is the deck. Look for a 3 head deck as they make the best recordings and sound better on playback.
Mike, if you need help looking for a deck let me know.
I can find you an awesome deck that will simply amaze you for not that much cash.
Who knows, maybe you’ll even get back into tapes.
P.S. Some cassettes have bonus tracks.
In fact, the idea of a bonis track started with record companies trying to help sagging cassette tape sales, so you have them to thank.
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March 10, 2017 at 9:57 pm
Maybe one day! It would be cool to have a better tape deck but not an immediate priority.
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March 7, 2017 at 5:12 pm
I like your storage containers! It must be frustrating to lose all those great albums. Hopefully you’ve been able to make up for it.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:43 pm
Thanks, those cans are iconic! I have been able to replace them with more modern means.
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March 7, 2017 at 6:46 pm
They beat the ones I use to store stuff. š
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March 7, 2017 at 8:40 pm
What did you use?
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March 7, 2017 at 9:07 pm
I just have those common plastic storage bins, but they are purple!
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March 7, 2017 at 9:40 pm
Purple is ok as long as it a Deep shade of Purple.
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March 7, 2017 at 9:41 pm
Purple is fine as long as it is a Deep (shade of) Purple.
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March 8, 2017 at 10:06 pm
Oh yes
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March 8, 2017 at 8:09 pm
Purple eh? That must have looked cool.
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March 8, 2017 at 8:37 pm
Yes! š
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March 7, 2017 at 11:52 pm
SHEEIT! I’ve been waiting to see the ammo cans!!
That’s a lot of great stuff lost. Me, I dropped Kiss Dynasty into a thing of wallpaper glue.
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March 8, 2017 at 8:06 pm
That must have been really depressing. Fortunately, I have recovered most of them on more up to date means.
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March 8, 2017 at 11:01 pm
Yes me too. The only cassettes I have left that are irreplaceable are ones I made myself…
Speaking of which I think my tape deck died yesterday. š¦
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March 9, 2017 at 7:40 am
That’s a shame. I made a lot of tapes myself and I was quite upset when the one of The Who I recorded from a radio programme got eaten.
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March 10, 2017 at 12:07 am
Oh that sucks. I have a David Lee Roth bootleg tape (Toronto 1986) that I am praying I can still play.
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March 10, 2017 at 5:08 pm
Fingers crossed for you that Roth still plays.
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March 10, 2017 at 9:58 pm
It was great. I don’t know where it originated, but it sounded good enough for me.
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March 8, 2017 at 1:09 pm
RIP the lost tapes! I used to love cassettes as they were small and portable. A downside was having to rewind/FF to find a certain track. I still have a fair few of my old tapes and recently found my old Sony Walkman. Was a blast hooking up again to Led Zep, Judas Priest, Rainbow and an Arrested Development cassette I came across… then the batteries died š
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March 8, 2017 at 8:08 pm
That was another downside to cassettes although I did have a stereo with an automatic track finder on it. However, you had to be on the track before or after for it to work. You listened to some great albums there, quick time to get new batteries.
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