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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

To buy Rock and Roll Children, go to http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/RockAndRollChildren.html

Also available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Froogle and on sale at Foyles Book Shop in London

This entry was posted on March 6, 2017 at 8:28 pm and is filed under 1980s, Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal and the 1980s, Music, Rock, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

45 Responses to “Great Albums That Were Lost in the Cassette Player”

  1. boppinsblog Says:
    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.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  2. J. Says:
    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.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  3. 1537 Says:
    March 6, 2017 at 11:22 pm

    In memoriam.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  4. 2loud2oldmusic Says:
    March 7, 2017 at 12:29 am

    I had a few do that, but. It as many as you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. keepsmealive Says:
    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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • 80smetalman Says:
      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%.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • mikeladano Says:
      March 7, 2017 at 11:53 pm

      Rattle & Hum was 72 minutes and reaaaally pushed the limits of what tapes could do!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • keepsmealive Says:
        March 8, 2017 at 10:07 pm

        That explains it. Except what about 90 minute recordables…

        Liked by 1 person

      • mikeladano Says:
        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.”

        Liked by 1 person

      • 80smetalman Says:
        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.

        Liked by 1 person

      • mikeladano Says:
        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.

        Liked by 1 person

      • boppinsblog Says:
        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.

        Liked by 1 person

      • mikeladano Says:
        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.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. DanicaPiche Says:
    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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. mikeladano Says:
    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.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. The Vintage Toy Advertiser Says:
    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 šŸ™‚

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • 80smetalman Says:
      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.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

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