Читать книгу Class of '79 - Chris Rooke - Страница 12

That 8-track cassette player was one of the best things I ever bought, together with the tapes to go with it. One day, shortly after buying the Mini, I wandered down to an infamous second-hand shop in Oxford, and there in the window was an 8-track tape player. An 8-track was a type of cassette, but it was much larger than a normal cassette, and instead of having the normal two sides on it, it had eight, which were selected by an array of buttons on the player.

I bought the 8-track for about £10 and was also offered some tapes to go with it. As it was an 8-track, none of us had any tapes that would fit it (we all used standard cassette tapes or vinyl) and so a good music selection was essential. By extreme good fortune, the person who had sold the 8-track to the shop was clearly an old ‘head’ and had recorded some of the best music ever onto the cassettes.

I bought three tapes for £1 each (I wish I’d bought more) and as well as having some music on that we already knew and loved, there was also a lot of great music on them that we’d never come across before, and those tapes helped introduce us to some great new bands. Without them, the holiday wouldn’t have been half so good.

There were artists and tracks on the tapes that we knew and loved: Bowie classics including tracks from Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and The Man who Sold the World, Free tracks including Wishing Well, My brother Jake and Soon I Will be Gone, Wishbone Ash tracks such as Blowin’ Free, Time Was and The King will come, Stevie Wonder tracks including Superstition,You are the Sunshine of my Life and I Believe. Not only were those great songs on the tapes, but we were also introduced to new music by such as King Crimson, especially tracks such as Epitaph and Moonchild, as well as songs by the legendary Jimi Hendrix, and in particular the wonderful track that remains my favourite Hendrix song to this day, May this be Love.

But above all, we were introduced to the music of Nick Drake. What revelation! The tapes included the stunning tracks Time has told me and River Man, but we quickly learned that by then he was already dead, having committed suicide due to poor record sales and a lack of recognition for his work. Sales during his lifetime totalled only about 4,000 for all three of his albums combined, due mainly to poor marketing - compare this with Tubular Bells that was released on the new Virgin label, headed by Richard Branson at around the same time. Once you hear his songs you’re hooked forever. A true genius who is only now achieving the recognition he deserves.