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Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week we are off into the weeds once again, this time with Tim Durling as our guide. As the originator of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, he is ideally placed to tell us more about the 8 track tapes that have been released over the years by Yes and we discover a wealth of interesting facts about the much-maligned media format which, as you may remember, was the basis of the ill-fated Birotron Rick Wakeman championed and part-funded in the mid-late 70s.
We would be delighted to see photos of any Yes 8 track tapes you have in your collection so please do add those to the comments on the show notes for this week’s episode.
- Why were 8-track cartridges so popular?
- Did they sound any good?
- Did the format cause any problems for the transfer of records?
Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think below!
Facebook has just changed how pages work which means that I’ve had to establish a new place for us to post and discuss Yes-related happenings. It’s a new group entitled, rather creatively, YMP Discussion Group. For the moment it’s open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3216603008606331/
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- Jeffrey Crecelius and
- Wayne Hall
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Theme music
The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from: archive.org
15 replies on “Yes 8-Track Tapes with Tim Durling – 558”
What a trip down memory lane. 8-tracks were very popular in the 1970s. My mother had an 8-track player and she would replay her copy of Sonny and Cher’s greatest hits over and over. I was a loyal member of the Columbia House Record Club; first with 8-tracks, then vinyl, and finally CDs. At one point, I even had an 8-track play/record component on my stereo system, so that I could record my own copies of my vinyl records to play in the car (carefully curated to avoid letting a long song skip tracks). I had several Yes cartridges, along with many others of my favorites bands of that time.
Back in 2016 I shared a story, that appeared on this podcast, about my ill-fated 8-track collection and a Yes bootleg 8-track mystery that I was not able to solve until decades later. My story appears around the 9:50 mark:
I’ll bet this is the only current or recent podcast talking about 8 track tapes! I’m old enough to have had them in my car in the 70s, and had older friends who had them in the 60s forward at home or in their cars.
Here’s my “Fragile” 8 track tape.
Here’s my “Relayer” 8 track tape.
Here’s my “Tormato” 8 track.
Here’s my “Tormato” 8 track
Interesting. 8-tracks clearly passed me by at the time, somehow. I’ve been vaguely aware of them as collectors items over the years, and I see that you can actually buy second-hand players fairly easily. After listening to this episode I was slightly tempted to pick up a couple of cassettes for historical interest, but on further reflection I’m not sure I really see the point.
By the way, there’s one small error in my contribution on Trevor Horn’s memoire. It’s 24, not 25, songs that he uses as the cipher for his commentary. Regarding his vocal contribution to the, er, instrumental ‘Cinema’ on 90125: that’s in the background choral element, obviously. I had always assumed this was Anderson, Squire and Rabin, possibly with some overdubs. If Trevor really is on it (and I have no reason whatsoever to disbelieve him), we now have one confirmed song in Yes history with both Horn and Anderson on it! Presumably he decided not to join the a capella action on ‘Leave It’…
Ummm or did he leave it out, maybe there are lots of hidden TH on 90125?
The only 8 Track I own is the Fish Out Of Water, the album I collect most of. Still in the cellophane, which is a slightly torn. The track order is just the same as the album/cd..
Reverse side
Reverse side
I lived through the 8 track era and although they filled a gap in portable music for the car, I feel as an owner of one you kind if waitimed for the tape messing up, twisting and jamming. They were probably better suited to the mainstream music and not Prog with the length of the tracks but it was ok, just not a great product. I have a few and gave Kevin my Tormato one.
In line with our discussion from a few weeks ago, here is my Chromium 8-track.
Track list
As I remember 8 track was not much of a thing in the UK back in the 70’s as cassettes were better. However I really enjoyed the discussion as it was all about collecting. What I didn’t completely get was that Tim doesn’t have any means to play them yet you Kevin do!
I never had an eight-track player, but they certainly were available here in Australia. We even had our own mail-order record club which offered them. It was called World Record Club, but it was separate from the British club of the same name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Record_Club