So here’s the rundown on my eight-track library circa 1978:
The Yardbirds – Five Live Yardbirds
The Yardbirds – Greatest Hits
Carlos Santana and Alice Coltrane – Illuminations
The Beatles – Love Songs
The Beatles – Live at the Hollywood Bowl
The Beatles – Rock and Roll Music
The Beatles – Singles*
Todd Rundgren – Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren
Boston Pops – The Best of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
Various Artists – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (soundtrack)
The Beatles I got courtesy of my cousin, who transferred these albums from his vinyl collection to eight-track for a Christmas present one year.
The remainder were acquired in Kmart and various drugstore sale bins in and around Forest and Kenton, Ohio.
I listened to most of these albums A LOT. One bit of evidence of that is: I loaded up this Rundgren album and listened to it today, and knew almost all the words and every one of the vocal nuances. The piano songs and vocal style in particular were a huge influence on my writing at the time (1977-1979).
