This week we have an item that was given to me by my daughter, a Panasonic Dymamite 8 Track Player! Here it is:
Mine is Detonator Red (the most popular color). It also came in Bomb Blue and Explosion Yellow. Actually, I've read that it also came in white and clear, but I haven't seen them.
This player came out in 1974, and was an instant hit. There were really only two controls, a volume dial and the plunger track changer. Mine works well and sounds pretty good. What I found intresting (and something I didn't notice for quite a while) is that it only plays mono. That makes perfect sense when you think about it. It only has one speaker!
As I mentioned my daughter, Jessica and son-in-law Josh gifted it to me a few years ago. She knows I like to collect various music reproduction items. I sometimes brag that if it was recorded, I can play it!
She found it in a second hand store. Although I never owned one as a kid, I really like it. I very recently looked up sold examples on eBay and by golly I like it even more! Working examples are going for about 250.00! Now I know she didn't pay anything close to that, so she must have gotten a killer deal.
Like Daddy, like daughter! That's my kid!
Needless to say, I'll never sell it. One doesn't sell a gift, especially a really cool one!
Until next time, keep searching for treasure! (and train your kid to also!)
Oh, wow, that is sweet! I can see why Detonator Red was the most popular.
ReplyDeleteThere was an 8-track player in Mom's car when we were ids, and those tapes were the soundtrack of so many car trips. ABBA, Kenny Rogers, The Mike Curb Congregation, Crystal Gayle, the Grease cast album, Debby Boone, the Village People... I could probably still sing them all from memory. Seeing it all written down makes me realize just how square and white bread we were!
Ah, but can you sing them and fade out and back in with the track changes?
DeleteThe 8 track that I wore out was Alan Parsons "I Robot." My mind still puts the "ka-chunk" in the appropriate places, lol.
I have cassettes of music I recorded from the radio in the early '80s. When I hear those songs now, I know exactly what song should come next and what the announcer is supposed to be saying over the intro, and it still throws me when that doesn't happen.
ReplyDeleteOur ranger on my first trip to Philmont Scout Ranch back in '84 had driven out to New Mexico from Austin with a friend whose car's 8-track was stuck on one track...with a cassette stuck in the player...and the track was just one long Prince album cut (wish I could remember the song). As you know there are some stretches of Texas and New Mexico where there just aren't any FM stations, and it was an excruciating experience for a couple of college students who I guess hadn't learned yet that cars will operate just fine without turning on the sound system.
Cool find. Your daughter rocks.
Thank you, Chuck! And yes, she does!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure the stuck 8 track story is from one of the levels of Hell. It hurts to just read it!