Cheap Trick 8-Track Not So Cheap
Jason Kottke passes along word that Cheap Trick is making its most recent release, “The Latest,” available on 8-track. That’s pretty amusing. Less so: The $30 price tag.
I honestly had no idea that Cheap Trick, which was already past its heyday and was playing small venues like Jacksonville State University twenty years ago (indeed, my ROTC Rangers detachment worked security and setup for the show) was still around. It seems they’ve actually put out three albums this decade. Who knew?
While the labels stopped issuing 8-tracks more than twenty years ago (Wikipedia says Fleetwood Mac’s “Greatest Hits” in November 1988 was the last by a major label) limited releases as a gimmick are more common than I’d realized; which is to say, they exist.
About James Joyner
Read about how they made those 8tracks here
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/07/ktswe_have_been_selling_and.php
Helpful or Unhelpful:
0 
0
Interesting, I guess, but apart from a few audiophiles who is going to buy something like this ?
And I’m surprised as you are that Cheap Trick is still around. I remember seeing them in concern back in 1982 and they seemed to disappear after that
Helpful or Unhelpful:
0 
0
They still play pretty regularly around Illinois, which is where they’re from. A few years ago, the Illinois legislature declared April 1st of each year to be Cheap Trick Day.
Senate Resolution 255
Helpful or Unhelpful:
0 
0
Not so much an audiophile item as a collector’s item. Trust me when I tell you a cassette, which runs at half the tape to head speed of the 8 track (1 7/8ips vs 3 3/4ips) usually could outperform the 8 track for signal to noise, longevity, frequency response, speed accuracy and a host of other measurements.
Still, I can think of a few places where it works like crazy. Example: I still see a lot of collector cars (A buddy’s 71 Malibu leaps to mind) that still have the original am-fm-8 track in them. Such a thing would be perfect for that application, particularly at show and shine events.
Helpful or Unhelpful:
0 
0
[...] 8 track? Speaking of Joyner, he notes something that got by me here… Cheap Trick has issued a new album on 8 track tape. I knew they’d been releasing albums, but this one was interesting. I think I still have a [...]
Helpful or Unhelpful:
0 
0