When I was a teen growing up in Tokyo in the 70's, the Walkman was invented and released by Sony. It was a revolution. It was our very own prehistoric iPod. Me and my friends would walk around with it attached to our belts, extra cassettes clanking in our bulging pockets.
My parents had a pretty extensive record collection - from Elton John and Cat Stevens to Average White Band and Linda Ronstadt. Once I had transfered all my favourites of their several hundred, I began to borrow from friends. I remember when I went to Frank's house - he was from Texas - and he had his very own collection. It's the first time I saw an Eagles album.
Sometimes kid's would swap - but records are a bit fragile and cumbersome and it was an hour's subway/train ride to and from school - so it wasn't that common.
I made a lot of tapes by recording songs off the radio - FEN - Far East Network - invariably missing out on the beginning and end of songs due to the DJs voice chiming in or his choice to fade out before the end of a tune.
A little later on a new enterprise became popular: record rental shops. For about 10% of the cost of buying a record you could rent it over night. Officially, it was for listening pleasure - but everyone would tape it, of course. A predecessor to downloading torrents. They also, let you listen to stuff in a booth in store - so it was a good way to discover new stuff. I discovered and became a fan of artists like: Genesis, Rush, yes, Stanley Clarke, Alan Parsons Project, Boz Scaggs and Herbie Hancock. Of course, I was a big fan of album cover artwork and would study the covers while the records were taping. It was a simpler time.
My parents had a pretty extensive record collection - from Elton John and Cat Stevens to Average White Band and Linda Ronstadt. Once I had transfered all my favourites of their several hundred, I began to borrow from friends. I remember when I went to Frank's house - he was from Texas - and he had his very own collection. It's the first time I saw an Eagles album.
Sometimes kid's would swap - but records are a bit fragile and cumbersome and it was an hour's subway/train ride to and from school - so it wasn't that common.
I made a lot of tapes by recording songs off the radio - FEN - Far East Network - invariably missing out on the beginning and end of songs due to the DJs voice chiming in or his choice to fade out before the end of a tune.
A little later on a new enterprise became popular: record rental shops. For about 10% of the cost of buying a record you could rent it over night. Officially, it was for listening pleasure - but everyone would tape it, of course. A predecessor to downloading torrents. They also, let you listen to stuff in a booth in store - so it was a good way to discover new stuff. I discovered and became a fan of artists like: Genesis, Rush, yes, Stanley Clarke, Alan Parsons Project, Boz Scaggs and Herbie Hancock. Of course, I was a big fan of album cover artwork and would study the covers while the records were taping. It was a simpler time.
RSS Feed
