the cassette took over. in the early 1970s, my new Boy Scout friend Eddie and i made a few comedic break-in tapes on his 3.5″ reel to reel — my first memory of “I Can See For Miles” by The Who — but by 1973, home recording had lurched away from creative exploration to obsessive piracy.
hunched over The Beatles A-Z broadcast on WNEW-FM, pausing to trim as much DJ blather and commercial content as humanly possible, i acquired the Fab’s entire catalog at no cost.
i have no memory of my first cassette player. it may have been similar to the barebones desktop unit i used many years later as a journalist to record interviews. at some point, i must have had a boom box, but again, i cannot describe it to you honestly.
what can i say? i was high all the time.
vinyl albums were of course still very important and revered, but cassettes — mixtapes — were the soundtrack to life outside.
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