The quirky vibe of each Eight Track Museum is perfectly matched by Burnett’s outsized personality (when the Oxford English Dictionary decided to remove the entry for “Cassette Tape” in 2011, Burnett retaliated by banning the dictionary from his museum). “The eight-track was nothing less than revolutionary in the context of its time.”īurnett’s obsession with Stereo 8 tapes began after a chance encounter at a garage sale in the ’80s, and he’s never looked back. Located in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, Burnett’s original Eight Track Museum opened in 2011, offering visitors a peek at an often overlooked medium plus an archive of every audio recording format created since the earliest wax cylinders of the late 1800s. In October of this year, the second outpost of Burnett’s homage to the 8-track opened at the Orphic Gallery in Roxbury, New York, expanding the reach of his crusade for lesser known forms of audio recording. “They were visionaries,” he says.īut that hasn’t stopped Burnett from becoming the eight-track’s most vocal champion, amassing an incredible collection of Stereo 8 cartridges, and opening the world’s first museum devoted entirely to the format. I used to tear one in half, fold it twice and then wedge it between the tape and the inside edge of the player.Growing up in the 1970s, Bucks Burnett never even owned an eight-track tape: When his parents purchased their first post-LP stereo console, they went straight for a cassette player. As mentioned up thread, match book covers were an essential tool in the car to keep the tapes playing properly. Anyway, he wrote to Elektra to complain, and lo and behold, they sent him a 4-track tape which contained just the one track, Light My Fire, in its entirety, along with an apology from Bruce Botnick.Īlthough the technology was not robust enough for extended life in a car, it still brought a lot of hours of enjoyment. I don't know if it was split on two different program sides, or whether it was really just shortened to fit. All these years later, I can't remember what the edit was. However, he was very annoyed that Light My Fire was edited. One of his first tape purchases was the Doors debut. an acquaintance of mine from down the street scored an early home 4-track player. Whenever I listen to the album today, I still make this swap.Īnother story. Both songs are in the same key (A), and the way that the last note of the guitar on the former fades away and then is followed by the opening guitar notes of the latter is perfect. But on the 8-Track High Roller ended one of the four program sides, and then Taking Me Back led off the next program side. The track Taking Me Back then led off Side 2. On Cheap Trick's Heaven Tonight LP, the song High Roller was followed by the Side 1 closer Auf Wiedersehen. I will say that there was one track rearrangement that I still like to this day. A 10 year old with a Fischer-Price "My First Cassette Recorder" could have made a better edit. Pepper's on 8-track, they splice the reprise to add a few seconds to it to balance the time of all the programs, and it sounds like a deaf person made the edit. They were never meant to be a home audio staple. Remember, they were only supposed to be a portable way to play your music in cars. I read somewhere it was the only format, that because of it's design, became unusable with repeated plays. However when I recorded an 8-track and played them back on the same deck they sounded great.until the lubricant on the back of the tape wore off, the tapes stuck and had to be tossed. However, if your deck was misaligned by a silly millimeter, ya then things sounded off. Pre Dolby and chrome tapes I think they sounded better than cassettes, the double playing speed can't be a bad thing. When I recorded them for myself I would record right over the foil track changer and you could barely hear the change during playback. When I was buying commercial releases back in the day I always tried to avoid ones with a song split.
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