Wednesday 24 February 2010

Tape Hiss


I was cleaning out some "junk" on the weekend; and I came across an old "ghetto-blaster". When I got this thing at age 11 I thought it was the best. I'd load up 6 huge D Cells and rock the neighbourhood with some Van Halen and later some Guns and Roses. Now it was about to land in the church yard sale.
At one point I bought a mic for it and we'd record little comedy bits, or songs that we'd write and sing in sheds and basements.
I looked in the tape deck and could see that there was a casette still in it. I lost the adapter ages ago, but I loaded up some batteries, scrounged from flashlights, and pressed play. It was 60 full minutes of French, Sweaty and I playing and singing all kinds of songs. Every once in a while you can hear Bruce Fish just killing himself laughing. He said: "that's a good one" after every song.
We usually just sang funny songs: Falling Down in the Falls, Boot Circle Blues, and a crazy one called: Naked in an Alleyway. Most times we'd crack up halfway through the song.
The tape was full of hisses, crackles, and the heavy thuds and clicks of the record button being pressed down, but it was the best stuff I'd heard in a long while.

2 comments:

Square Corner said...

Really, really good. By the third sentence I said 'hey this is me. This is me when I was young!'Fine job. Always stay close to French and Fish.

Anonymous said...

OO,
I think I had a boom-box exactly the same as that. We might even had laid a few tracks about living in Derbyshire Lodge, Smithfalls whistle dogs and buying Hustler mags at late night corner stores. Memories remain like old furniture in dusty attics.

HP