I have a cassette player for the first time in well over a decade. This thrills me more than you can imagine. I still have a large number of cassettes, even after going through and purging my collection years ago.
I had been thinking of picking up a portable CD/cassette player for a while, but either couldn’t find one at the electronics store, or if I did find one, it wasn’t at a price I thought was reasonable. So I hit up the thrift stores.
The first player I picked up seemed to work fine, but when I got it home the cassette player portion wouldn’t work – unless you physically held down the “play” button continuously. Well, that wasn’t going to do. I took it back and again commenced searching. A couple of days later at a different thrift store, I found another portable CD/cassette player. Only portable seemed a relative term.
This was much bigger than I had planned on purchasing, but it was the only one available. And it works.
The first cassette I played was a Wang Chung cassette – a “best of” compilation. I wanted to play something that I liked, but also something I didn’t want to be upset about losing if for some reason the cassette player decided to munch on the tape.
Here are a few of the cassettes I’ve played since obtaining my new electronic device (for less than $10):
Phantom, Rocker And Slick
Self-titled
This is Slim Jim Phantom and Lee Rocker from The Stray Cats after Brian Setzer left for a solo career teamed up with Earl Slick, who is perhaps most famous as David Bowie’s guitar player over the years. Pretty standard min-80s rock. Unremarkable, really, but a novelty to be sure and I simply like being able to hear it again (and I’ll probably never listen to it again, or for at least another decade).
Bonnie Raitt
Takin My Time
I have every album that she has released, most of them on cassette, including everything from her years at Warner Brothers. A great singer, songwriter and guitar player, she is an artist I am very glad to have a complete collection of. It’s nice to be able to listen to these older albums again.
The Allies
Emma Peel
A local band that only had the one hit, a song about being infatuated with the character from the television series “The Avengers” (not the super heroes, but the British 60’s quasi-secret agent romp). The other songs are alright, but the band could just never live up to that one song. Their cover of The Box Tops “The Letter” is actually better than the original.
Devo
Baby Doll single
The song appeared in the film Tape Heads in a very different version (in Swedish) but here we get four other versions as well as a cover of “Don’t Be Cruel” – and I never was able to find this on CD or vinyl, so on cassette it is. Sure, “Baby Doll” is available on the Total Devo album (which inspired the tattoo on my arm that appears as the banner image for this blog), but there are a couple of mixes here that aren’t. I’m that kind of music nerd.
Jane Wiedlin
Self titled
The first solo album by the Go-Go’s guitar player/singer/songwriter. And yes, it is autographed from when I met her, but that’s another story. As for this album, it’s just a slice of fun 80s guitar driven pop which I have a soft spot for.
Robin Zander
Self titled
What is it with all the self titled cassettes I’ve been listening to? So far the only solo album by the Cheap Trick frontman. I love Cheap Trick. Enough to pick up the solo album by this guy? Absolutely. And it’s good, too. A number of famous friends show up on here, including Mike Campbell, Dave Stewart, Stevie Nicks and others.