Bear's Lair: May 2012

Monday, May 14, 2012

375 Elvis 8-track tapes

This is what 375 Elvis 8-tracks looks like,
the top of the big box. This collection that Elvis recorded for RCA plus up to 1987 when 8-tracks were laid to rest.

Here it is, enjoy.

This is the bottom of the big box

Here's some close up's

Here's some morebootlegs, tributes and impersonators.

Who could forget those crappy Pickwick carts.

Foreign issues and extras

Uber-rare RCA Record Club carts
check out the Boxcar issue of "Having Fun With Elvis On Stage".

Box sets

Who could forget Candlelite Music

Some more (extras) ....

Elvis 8-track flyer

# posted by Bear From Delaware @ Monday, May 14, 2012 2 comments

Friday, May 11, 2012

Welcome to my cave

Hi There,

Welcome to my cellar. Don't trip over that pile of vintage vinyl over there. It's all over the place.

My Name is Michael Arlt, my friends refer to me as "Bear", I've been collecting records since I was seven years old. My first LP is a copy of "The Monkees Greatest Hits" on Colgems that I still have. Not the same one but a copy I bought two years later when me and my siblings wore the original out. On that pile you will notice a original LOC "Elvis Christmas Album", King Creole, and a original 78 album for "Going My Way" which has sentimental value to me. That's only the tip of the iceberg.

# posted by Bear From Delaware @ Friday, May 11, 2012 0 comments

375 Elvis 8-track tapes - the preamble

To start off why I started collecting Elvis 8-tracks...

Back in the mid-80's my friend Liz was bringing me back Mr. T stuff from the flea market for a laugh since I like cheesy things. I have all sorts of Mr. T things like a Halloween costume, 3 different board games, puzzles, comic books, pencil cases, lunch boxes and the list goes on. I still have 2 huge U-Haul boxes of Mr. T stuff in the garage.
In the early 90's it all but dried up.

Me and Liz were talking about things that are cheezy and she surprised me with a velvet Elvis painting and a blanket. That Elvis blanket is killer, it's a 50's picture on a light blue backround with pink trim. A few weeks later, she brought me another velvet Elvis painting. A few days later she brought me a Elvis 8-track, (the most common of all Elvis tapes) "Elvis Twin-Pack" the sold on TV album with a jumpsuited Elvis on a blue backround on the front.
I thought to myself...THATS IT!

Beatles music sounds better on record
Martin Denny sounds better on reel to reel
Pink Floyd's music sounds better in quad
George Winston sounds better in digital
Elvis sounds the best on 8-track tape
he was made for that format, the post 1971 albums sound best.

I popped that tape in my old Panasonic player and basked in it's rechanneled stereo warmth and thought to myself "that's it" and a new quest has begun to find each of Elvis's albums on 8-track tape.

The post 1971 albums have a certain magic to them which is hard to explain. If you crank up the volume, turn off the lights and pop in the tape of "Raised On Rock" or the "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" album, you can picture Elvis and the TCB band right in your room. That image on the velvet Elvis painting comes to life flinging his cape singing Three Corn Patches, it's magical.

Me and a girlfriend were doing a A/B test between a mint 3S pressing of "From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee" and the 8-track tape.
The 8-track won hands down.

On the LP, Elvis was there along with the surface noise from the cheap vinyl RCA was using at the time, expecially after he died when RCA's pressing plants were going full tilt churning out Elvis product. I wondered if the workers at the pressing plant were throwing things like old army men, broken Tupperware containers, plastic fake flowers and Bic pens into the vinyl pellets to stretch them out (I wondered why those albums looked so streaky). On the 8-track he's in the room lifelike, you could her him breathe it's so magical. His versions of "The Last Farewell" and "Danny Boy" will move you to tears.

The movie soundtracks are beyond breathtaking.
A/B something like a original copy of "Girl Happy" with a 8-track, the 8-track has the magic. There's a certain aura in the air when you play the tape that you can feel which the LP doesn't have.

Again, the 8-track was invented for Elvis

Labels: Eight 8-track tapes

# posted by Bear From Delaware @ Friday, May 11, 2012 0 comments

My eight track collection part 1

Hi to you all

Sorry I've been away from the lair, things have been crazy here.
Today I'm showing my ginormus collection of 8-track tapes. Get ready for a nostalgic hernia.

This is one box of goodies, half off these I had since high school in the 70's.

Back in the day, Record Land in the Hollywood Fasion Center had the best selection of cut-outs, Russell and Pablo used to turn me on to all the good ones. Gris Gris on 8-track, I still wish I had my original of Trout Mask Replica.

I used to have a bunch more but I wound up donating them to Ranch Hope in New Jersey. Most of it was country stuff I got in trades, I think a couple of missing ones got in there by mistake, my Nick Drake tape is missing. In that pile are some post-1982 RCA and CRC carts. They made them up to 1988 when the major labels stopped at 1982.

I found those at a thrift in Stanton, those Partridge Family carts are unplayed in mint boxes. Those two Savoy tapes are too cool.

Clarence "Blowfly" Reid used to come into the store I ran and autographed his tape, he signed it as Blowfly but I wanted it signed as Clarence Reid so that's why he drew a dong on it. I scored the Beatles tape at the Thunderbird, I have the correct box for it. I forgot where I found the two James Brown tapes. That GRT Turtles tape has "Let The Cold Winds Blow" on it which was on the first album, a bonus.

Four Tracks anyone :)

The Exciting Wilson Picket - Frank Sinatra: I Remember Tommy

The Ventures In Space - Frank Sinatra: Strangers In The Night

I'm a big Sinatra fan and have a nice collection of his tapes, most I had from the day....