Cheap Trick 8-Track Not So Cheap

July 14, 2009

Comments

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.

5 responses to “Cheap Trick 8-Track Not So Cheap”

Doug Miller

July 14, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Read about how they made those 8tracks here

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/07/ktswe_have_been_selling_and.php
Doug Mataconis

July 14, 2009 at 4:09 pm

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
PD Shaw

July 14, 2009 at 5:01 pm

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
Eric Florack

July 15, 2009 at 2:39 pm

Interesting, I guess, but apart from a few audiophiles who is going to buy something like this ?

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.