This is slightly unusual for an Author's Picks article but I did want to acknowledge that on March 6th 2021, Lou Ottens who was the inventor of the cassette tape passed away at the age of 94. Before I got into all of the compact disc technology in the late 1980s, I had been relying heavily on vinyl records and cassette tapes in the early years of my love for kayo kyoku.
As you can see above, these are just some of the tapes that I've had. I purchased these at the various record stores in Chinatown in downtown Toronto when I was a university student. It was quite the expensive hobby but the distance between U of T and those places made things simply too irresistible. And thanks to Ottens, my all-nighters were kept quite bearable since I was able to throw in those tapes into the gray tape recorder for repeat play; really needed that music to keep me up although the multiple cups of green tea also helped.
Without further ado then, I have some sample songs from some of the above tapes in my pink (or lavender) case.
Akiko Kobayashi -- Kokoro Midarete: Say It With Flowers （心みだれて）
Akina Nakamori -- Firestarter
Great commemorative post, J-Canuck! Cassette tapes are awesome (as long as they are legit, not pirated- which results in significant quality loss).
ReplyDeleteRIP Lou Ottens
Morning, Oliver and thanks! Yup, I'm very grateful for Ottens' magnum opus, although they can be a bit touchy at times. I've seen my fair share of pirated tapes at garage sales and the like.
DeleteI can't say I've seen pirated copies of genuine records in places I frequented. Bootlegs of concerts (or gigs as we called them) on the other hand... They were especially appreciated when they were from concerts that I actually attended, and wanted a memento of. The latter usually took the form of sending off blank CDs and cheques for P&P and getting back recorded CDs.
DeleteHello, Jim. I never came across bootlegs of concerts either on tape or CD format. However, I have seen pirated tapes from Hong Kong of Japanese singers and bands such as Anzen Chitai and Yoshie Kashiwabara either at those garage sales in Japan or even in Wah Yueh from time to time.
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