As I write this, I'm listening to an 8-Track player. That's right, the guy with the MP3 collection is listening to Stevie Wonder's Innervisions and Styx' Equinox on 8-Track.
This was one format I completely missed. As a child, I owned a few records but the main format I collected was the cassette tape until CDs came into vogue in the late 80s. 8-Track's had already come and gone. It looked as if I was never going to experience this antiquated technology until it came up in a conversation with some colleagues last week. A friend of mind ended up lending me his dusty 'ol 8-Track player and couple of tapes so I could hear what I've missed.
Half way through Stevie Wonder's "Living Just Enough For The City" the volume began to drop as if the song had concluded. Then, a few seconds later, there was a rather loud clicking sound coming from the player before the volume began to rise again and the song resumed. To my readers who also missed the brief period of 8-Tracks, you read that correctly. Smack dab in the middle of a song everything may come to an abrupt end while the tape switches tracks. No wonder the 8-Track era was so brief. It turns out I didn't miss a thing.
