FSM # 27: Remembering cassettes!
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Pr. the LP thread, I thought I’d create one on the main medium from MY childhood.
When I became seriously interested in music, after I had grown too old for children’s records, cassette was THE thing. LP was still around, of course (this is ca. the mid 80s), but cassettes – both blank tapes as well as originals – dominated.
My father had/has a huge LP collection, but he often borrowed LP’s from others too (mostly rock/pop) and made HiFi cassette copies. In the early 90’s, he donated all of these to me and much of that music shaped MY musical taste as well. I’m guessing there were some 100 cassettes or so.
Eventually, I also started making copies myself of things I borrowed — especially when CD’s were starting to take hold, and even after I got a CD player, ca. 1991/1992.
I think the first ever soundtrack I got was a cassette copy of the CD soundtrack to TWIN PEAKS, ca. 1990.
Cassettes — love em or hate em — were a huge part of my childhood and even teenage years, and when I didn’t listen to them on my HiFi cassette deck at home I chugged them along with my trusted Akai Super-Bass walkman.
Now they’re all stored in my parents’ attic somewhere; I don’t even know if they’re still playable.
What about you? Any memories?
Sure, still have a tape player that I haven’t used for years and a few MCs including a handful of original score MCs and some old audio dramas from my childhood. All already digitalized so not sure if they still work.
My first soundtrack was STAR WARS. On green cassette. Played on my mono speakered portable cassette player.
My least favourite media format by some margin.
The first two film soundtracks I ever had and listened to were on audio cassette tape. A copy of STAR WARS by John Williams and a copy of STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE by Jerry Goldsmith. Pretty much “standard”, no exotic “origin story” for me I guess, very “mainstream” within the film score community, but those two scores, copied from an original cassette tape (STAR WARS) and and original LP (STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE) were my first film scores and put me on the path.
Sure, still have a tape player that I haven’t used for years
Years ago, I updated my stereo system and I sold my old speakers, receiver, and CD player. However, I kept my tape deck. I bought it in 1997, a Technics dual deck, but even then I hardly ever used it. I made a few copies for my car/walkman, but that’s basically it. And for some reason, I could not separate myself from it. My thoughts were that I could easily replace an amp or a CD-player, but a vintage tape deck that’s in perfect condition and hardly worn (I bought it new in 1997, but it’s had only a few hours of runtime), now that’s something. It’s in a box in my garage… should I ever need to play cassette tapes again, I could hook it up to my current system an play cassettes. 🙂
There’s been some, admittedly minor, bands releasing new albums on cassette. I saw a guy walk out of the bookstore the other day with a stack of them. They have many new and old fans. My first music purchases were on cassette, even in the late 90s. CDs were for rich kids.
I used to laugh at that line from 30 Rock that “technology is cyclical.” Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
I should add that there has been some development since the original post in 2011. In 2020, my parents moved into an apartment, and in the process they threw away a lot of my old cassettes. But I fortunately managed to save some of them (see pictures below). Not that I’m going to play them very much, but they’re nice mementos to have. I actually didn’t own a cassette player when I “rescued” them. The old, trusted Akai walkman was long since lost, as was my HiFi cassette player from my youth. But I did find three walkmans (walkmen?) while tidying my late uncle’s house last year. I’m probably going to sell two of them, because I know they’re popular among hipsters, and keep the remaining for myself. Just in the small chance that I DO want to play them again.
A friend of mine runs a small indie electro label, and they release several albums on cassettes. So the scene that Sophie describes above is not that unusual; there’s still a market for these things.
The cassette survivors:
I have a soft spot for cassettes, even though I haven’t had the means to play any for decades. It’s mainly nostalgia for one cassette in particular; in the mid-70s, my father fitted a cassette player into his car, and I played ceaselessly the 1975 Morricone release called “Film Favourites” (crazily generic title).
It was my first exposure to such tracks as Companeros, Solange, Metello and Sacco & Vanzetti. Didn’t matter at all to me that the sound quality wasn’t high, as the car wasn’t especially quiet and refined either!
As a child I had some audio plays on cassette. But as soon as I started collecting music cassette was no option for buying original media. That was LP. Cassette then always was just a medium for recording, making my own mixtapes etc.
I had seen too many tapes destroyed. Even a damaged scratched LP I could still play to a certain degree. But having had tape salad in my tapedeck several times where I had to cut it out with a scissor cassette was a copy backup medium to have music when you are on the move.Gladly I rarely had these severe incidents but I only say “pencil” ;-). I think I only had some original soundtrack MCs because their were a bargain offer back then. I still have these originals (all digitized way in the days of CD-Rs):
– Martin Böttcher: Winnetou Melodien
– David Newman: Hoffa
– Patrick Doyle: Frankenstein
– Hans Zimmer: K2
– Marc Shaiman: A River Runs Through It
– Laurence Rosenthal: Peter The Great
– Mike Post: Hill Street Blues (The re-recording by Daniel Caine aka Derek Wadsworth)As a child I had some audio plays on cassette. But as soon as I started collecting music cassette was no option for buying original media. That was LP. Cassette then always was just a medium for recording, making my own mixtapes etc.
Yeah, same here, I never bought music on pre-recorded cassette tapes, but cassettes were my first audio medium. I used cassettes to record music, to make copies of LPs, to create radio plays, stories, to audio-tape movies from TV, and lots of things. I have lots of positive memories associated with audio cassettes, even though I don’t think I have any anymore.
mainly nostalgia for one cassette in particular; in the mid-70s, my father fitted a cassette player into his car
My dad had an 8-track player in the car but I never had any 8-track cassettes of soundtracks to play on it. (There musf have been 8-track cassette releases of soundtracks?) On our holiday trips it was always either Lina Martell or Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.:shudder:
Must have been at least Max Steiner’s A SUMMER’S PlACE released on 8-track. 🙂
THE OMEGA MAN is actually my first encounter with the format, as I had not known about 8-track tapes before seeing this movie.
I was an LP entry level.
The first two were T-Rex by T-Rex and A Day At The Races by Queen, given to me by my older brothers girlfriend (later wife).
I loved those albums and picked up a David Bowie Greatest Hits LP thereafter.
My first soundtrack LP was one of those cheap Star Wars knock-offs (Bruce Baxter plays Themes from Star Wars) but I got the legit 20th Century Fox Records 2LP set for my birthday soon after (I did have a 7′ single of Jaws Main and End Titles on MCA Records, which was my very first John Williams purchase).
Next came CE3K and Superman the Movie and the balloon went up.
I never bought pre-recorded tapes, but did use blank ones to tape stuff (unreleased scores) off the telly or LPs from others. I had absolutely loads of them.
And I started acquiring session tapes of unreleased scores when I got to know the Goldsmith Club clan.
I still have a smattering of tapes now, mainly stuff that still hasn’t been released in any form and I have about 4 Sony Walkmans in great condition (plus two cassette players within portable players/boomboxes), should I ever need to play them.Yes, didn’t you get some rare David Newman cassettes directly from the composer himself or something?
Yes I did.
I wrote him a letter bemoaning the fact I couldn’t go out and buy his score to The Mighty Ducks on CD – having just seen the film and loved it – cos it was all songs.
He sent me a box loaded with his unreleased scores on tape cassette.
I sent him a Thank You/Christmas Card a short time later and another box arrived soon after.
I was ecstatic.Sounds like glorious times! Btw, as just recently my local big supermarket sold walkmans including one blank cassette and classic earphones even. Of course those walkmans also had a digitize function and USB 😉
I’ve been quite lucky in my ‘writings to film composers’.
I’ve done it twice, to David Newman as noted above, and Cliff Eidelman, similar to The Mighty Ducks situ.
I’d just seen Leap Of Faith at the cinema and the music was absolutely gorgeous (albeit, only about 15 minutes of it in a film packed with Gospel music/songs).
I wrote to Cliff (via his agent) telling him how much I admired and followed his music (as I did with David Newman) and how frustrating that there wasn’t a Score Suite on the album.
He wrote a nice letter back, thanking me for my interest and appreciation and enclosing a tape, marked “For Kev, Best Wishes, Cliff” with his score cues from the film in fantastic sound.
They’ve remained two of my favourite film composers and the tapes are still prized possessions in my collection.It’s like those old days in Cannes, isn’t it, where you could stroll down the beach and randomly run into Jack Nicholson or John Lennon or whoever? More openness, yet more hassle at the same time. There was another kind of fan interaction in those days, where you had to go to the trouble of writing a letter. All analogue. And given the hassle, they could just as well include a few cassettes to send you.
Speaking of which, if you have some cool “meeting-composer-in-person-moments” to share, I’d love to hear about it in this thread.
They’ve remained two of my favourite film composers and the tapes are still prized possessions in my collection.
I just looked: Eidelman’s LEAP OF FACE seems to have a release by now but has Newsman’s MIGHTY DUCKS? Accoridung to soundtrackcollector seems not. I seem to have some files though… Maybe you should digitalize them by now 😉
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