I have an 8-track cartridge in my freezer. It's been there for a long time. I never thought about it until I read Mr. Mendelowitz's thought provoking comments on the use of 8-tracks in 8-Tack Mind (Fall 1997 #93). I know there have been several occasions when friends visiting have spotted the 8-track in my freezer and have pulled it out asking me why it was there. My standard reply has been "I don't know". We laugh about it and then I put it back in the same place where it's been. I can't even remember the title. Insignificant. Still in shrinkwrap. Frost obscuring the label. But after reading the last issue of 8-Track Mind I began to reflect about it and now I have an idea how it got there.
First of all nothing special stood out about the tape so I was sure I didn't buy it. So, I concluded someone must have given it to me. I usually remember when someone gives me an 8-Track because the occasions are rare and usually it's a Sparks 9-Track which I wouldn't leave in the freezer. Then I remember having an 8-Track thrown at me when I saw the screening of "So Wrong Their Right" by Russ Forrester here in New York. That would explain why it was separate from my other 8-tracks. I would have come home from the movie and unloaded my pockets onto the kitchen table as usual. I don't usually have an 8-Track in my pocket but on this night I did. Then it sat on the table for some time because that's the way things work around my house. My next guess is that I came home from grocery shopping and dumped everything on the table as usual. If I don't have time put everything in it's proper place as is often the case I will quickly throw the perishable items immediately into the freezer. My theory is that I accidently picked up the 8-track since it was sealed in plastic and not too different from some box of frozen whatevers. Then in a moment it was in the freezer. Around my house things just stay in the freezer until you eat them. So it remained and still remains. How's that for the use of an 8 Track?
I have 3 blank 8-Tracks that I really, really like because of the design of the cartidge. I don't know much about evaluating the tape within other than to say they all play and whatever sounds are on or not on them sound perfectly fine to me. Enough said about the tape inside, I will now describe the outer package.
1. Sentry PROFESSIONAL 8-Track Recording Cartridge 80 minute Low Noise, High Output. The cartridge has a black case with a brightly colored pattern of 2 converging circles filled with brightly colored bands similiar to a target or two targets, one overlapping the other. A bit psychedelic but mild. The outer band is magenta then comes orange, then yellow, green and the bulls eye is blue. In a white oval placed over the centers of the targets is one of those brits that you see on travel brochures about London with the big black furry headdress, a red jacket holding a rifle over his shoulder. He' looks like he's marching. On the back is a handy label that has a little picture of the Brit in the oval and a white box with lines numbered 1 to 4. (2 lines for each number). Apparently it's made and assembled in the U.S.A. because it says "made and assembled in the U.S.A." There's also some sort of an email address printed - 80min.totaltime@33/4 i.p.s. The spine reads SENTRY 8-Track Recording Cartridge with a very large and prominent 80 and under it, very small, the word minutes and another oval with the British marching soldier.
2. Panasonic® 8-Track Cartridge Tape For Recording. Playing
time:20 min./100 ft. (31m).
The case is beige with black & white label. Over the black is the word
Panasonic in the classic style of the Panasonic Corporation which also flashes
against a black background on Times Square. The type is white so it stands
out against the black. There is a ® placed just over the "c"
in Panasonic which may have something to do with why Panasonic is a household
word compared to Sentry which doesn't have a registion mark. 8-Track Cartridge
Tape is in a dark green ink and below that, just as large, is For Recording
which is in orange. It's a very handsome color scheme. Below are 4 white
spaces separated by thin black lines. In the first space is a black circle
with the word Title inside. below that in the next space is a green circle
with Side 1 inside. The next space has an orange circle with Side 2 inside,
the next space has a green circle with Side 3 inside, and finally at the
bottom is another orange circle with Side 4 inside. So you see there is
a really good color thing going on. Very well designed. On the spine is
a smaller repeat of the title in white green and orange, along with a small
Made in Japan. There is no label on the back but the naked beige plastic
has a beautifully embedded impression that reads "STEREO CARTRIDGE
SA-80 Made in Japan." It leaves a very good impression when turning
it over.
3. Audition Blank 8-Track Cartridge.
This cartridge is bright bright orange. The label is off white, maybe it
used to be white. It's a square label so it lets lots of the orange plastic
show around it. It features a very large modern orange 40 prominently displayed.
It almost shouts at you. Then, above it and to the left, another 40, a
bit smaller and not quite as bright of orange color, and then above and
to the left of it another even smaller and lighter 40, and then one more
that almost reaches the upper left edge of the label. Each 40 gets smaller
and lighter so they seem to be fading out or maybe soaring off the upper
left edge of the label. I guess if the label was bigger it would go on and
on until at the end there would be just a tiny speck of a 40 in white on
the white background. But since the label is off white from age maybe would
would see the white 40. Who knows? Conversely I could imagine the effect
being perceived as a the little light 40 zooming down into the center of
the label and into your face because it ends up being really big and bright
orange. But not as bright as the orange plastic. A very good design. There
are some codes under the name Audition, some of which are faded beyond readability.
Audition is in a handwritten kind of typestyle contrasting with the rest
of the typography which is straight edged and modern. There is also some
necessary information in case you didn't know what all the 40's were about
such as 40 minutes total time @33/4 i.p.s. (or is that just the e mail address?)
Made in U.S.A. by Columbia Magnetics is printed fairly large along the bottom
of the label with a really simple but slick logo design that has a thin
outline of a box with a pattern inside that looks like it could be a TV
eye with pins sticking out of it. Or it could be a time tunnel with stickman
legs that's dancing and would fall over if the edges of the box weren't
there to hold him or her up. The spine just reads INDEX in the modern type,
printed in orange with 2 black lines on the off-white label which extends
to the back of the cartridge. On the back is the word CONTENTS with an orange
rectangle next to it. Under that are lines numbered 1 to 4. The numbers
are black and quite large with big black periods next to them in the modern
type style of the 40 on the front. They really stand out against all the
orange and off-white. Below is another orange rectangle with Woolworth and
the Woolco logos in white or off-white. There's a New York address, well
I guess it's an address although it only has New York, N.Y. and a zip code
10007. That's downtown, I wonder if that's the Woolworth buiding? Finnally
there's a message printed very very small in all caps that reads SATISFACTION
GUARANTEED REPLACEMENT MONEY REFUNDED. Makes me feel more confident about
the product. Since I got this tape used there is some very faint ball point
pen scribblings on the lines after the numbers which I expect weren't on
the packaging when it was new but fit the design very well anyway so I'll
mention them. After #1 is Bloody Mary Morning/It doesn't Seem Right/Bad
songs ain't Selling This Year/ Coat of Many Colors. After #2 is You Look
Like The Devil/ She Will ALways be With Me/ Sunny Side of The Street. After
#3 is Whisky River/ Travelin Man/, then some word I can't read at all, and
after #4 there is nothing written.
What I have been describing are the cartridges themselves. I haven't mentioned the cases or sleeves I guess they're called because the sleeves don't match the cartridges but they are really beautiful designed. Sometimes I buy an 8-Track for the sleeve and then I put the sleeve I like on cartidges I like best. Lately I have been paying special attention to the sleeves made for blank cartridges. Probably inspired by reading the 8-Track Mind. But I won't get into that now.