The Beatles Part 1 is a "best of" compilation, and it didn't seem right to listen to it while I am still -- slowly, slowly -- listening my way through the canon of Beatles records.
With my characteristic decisiveness, it only took me a couple of months to set this tape aside and roll my d12 to determine the next next tape. Here goes.
Sixty-Four Words: Some jazz albums, or perhaps an intentionally selected mix of tracks, by John Coltrane. It’s earlier stuff, unobjectionable, mellow, and suitable for the kind of nightclub where men wear ties. It includes his cover of “My Favorite Things.” The tape seized up once, and on side two it makes a pathetic rhythmic moaning familiar to those of us who survived the cassette tape era. .
Disposition: Will retain, but will probably throw it out the next time it seizes up, or the time after that.
6 comments:
The Beatles (part I) looks like it's probably the tape of the first LP of the White Album (does it start w/ "Back in the USSR"?) If so, it's not a hits collection.
By golly you're right, it is the W.A. What's the story there?
Oh, that's funny. I guess no one ever went to the record store to buy the Beatles White Tape, so they had to change up the mimimalist look a bit. I can imagine it next to CORN FLAKES in the generic food aisle.
Tapes going bad are a little like socks with holes in the toe. It is hard to know when to ditch them, yet they always disappoint.
I used to have a White Album poster w/ those four portraits on it, and I think they were either on the inner gatefold, or the album sleeves. I agree w/ Mrs. 5000- "The White Tape" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
But can't a tape technically be an album? I refer to the official Google definition of album: "2. a collection of recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, or another medium."
I think that Ben is technically quite correct -- but have always felt a little bit of definitional creep of "album" towards LP vinyl.
What is, for instance, the cassette tape copy of "Revolver"? Is it a record? A little bit, but not really. Is it an album? Yes, but not entirely. Maybe this is why in the late 20th century, the "record" companies started talking about their new "releases."
Post a Comment