The Year of the 8 Track: A Travelogue

Isn't that beautiful? To me, it's almost like porn. Don't get jealous, the 8 tracks in the picture on the left are mine. Mine! I've never been so happy!


A month or so ago, I decided to further explore this bit of analog science--like over a 1,500 albums didn't get me there enough. Still I remembered how 8 tracks sounded different and often better than their vinyl counterpart. Believe it or not, I'm still single.






Oops A' Daisy-Right after I was about to have a party, reality beckoned. Looks like I have to fix some tape! Here's a list of what I got...











The Best of Tavares
Barry Manilow-One Voice
Supertramp-Crime of the Century
Burt Bacharach-Make It Easy On Yourself
Rod Stewart-Foolish Behaviour
Linda Ronstadt-Living In The USA
Linda Ronstadt-Prisoner in Disguise
Linda Ronstandt-A Retrospective
Linda Ronstandt-Hasten Down the Wind
Linda Ronstandt-Prisoner of Disguise
Linda Ronstandt-Simple Dreams
Bonnie Raitt-The Glow
Kenny Rogers-Greatest Hits
Carly Simon-Hotcakes
Robert Palmer-Clues
Kim Carnes-Mistaken Identity
The Doobie Brothers-One Step Closer
Abba-Voulez Vous
Abba-s/t
Abba-The Album
Abba-Arrival
Michael Jackson-Off the Wall
The Carpenters-A Song For You
The Carpenters-The Singles (1969-1973)
Barry Manilow-If I Should Love Again
Saturday Night Fever-soundtrack
Earth Wind and Fire-Gratitude
Earth Wind and Fire-Spirit
Stevie Wonder-Greatest Hits Vol 2
Stevie Wonder-Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants
Gino Vannelli-Brother to Brother
The Rolling Stones-Tattoo You
Barbara Streisand-Guilty
Christopher Cross-s/t
Peaches and Herb-2 Hot
Bee Gees-Greatest
Stevie Nicks-Bella Donna


The Best of the Lot: The Doobie Brothers- One Step Closer- Sounds great, why I don't know...

Kind of Watching It DVD's: Twist Around the Clock/Don't Knock the Twist

i had the great luck of finding two classics. The best part? They were only 3.99, what a bargin!



Twist Around the Clock (1961)- The plot is simple, there isn't one just excuses to have people peddle their hits and in Chubby's case, shitty, non-hits. This movie, like the other, portrayed Checker as a will o' the wisp, barely there in his own life and celebrity. As an actor he makes Muhammad Ali seem like Sir Alec Guinness.

Sadly one could raise the specter of racism on this classic movie. Chubby is only seen on stage, near it or leaving it. Chubby has no story/plot. In this boneheaded film, the star is some talent executive is looking for twisting acts and of course the munificent Checker is his go to guy. Really excitin'! The "cast" here is wanting too. Here we get to see Dion lip-synch the always annoying "Runaround Sue" and whatever else he did. New York radio personality Clay Cole got to massacre a few non-hits and Chubby, well, he didn't do a heck of a lot--see picture on the upper left.

Rating: **





Don't Knock the Twist- (1962) Oddly enough this was more thought out and believable than the other one. This is basically the Deer Hunter of the twisting movies. The premise was a TV guy trying to assemble a Twisting TV show to help a network in the ratings. The dude also had a boring-ass girlfriend/clothing designer. He soon dropped kicked her ass for some young doxy he saw through a window, doing--The Twist!

Where was Chubby in all of this? On stage, where else. He again was the go-to guy, assembling the talent and inflicting yet another cachet of twisting songs on a thoroughly tired public. The most hilarious thing here is someone named Vic Dana did this dirge-like song, "Alter Boy" in the middle of a rocking set. Killjoy. Unlike the other shitting ass movie, Chubby actually was invited into someone's home and got to lie on the couch for a spell. Ain't that great?


Rating: ***


Alternative Ending: Checker does "Limbo Twist" politely excuses himself, comes back on stage with a musket, kills crowd. The End.