Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Heart- Bad Animals




And we're off. The counter has been reset and the cassette is playing. But not before I hear that Dolby sound at the beginning.

Wow, instant warping. This is not good. The Wilson sisters sound demonic. I'm unsure what I should do. Take the tape out? I keep checking on it, but it's not breaking. There isn't a run of tape clogging up the machine. But wow, this is some seriously damaged tape.

Now the machine has stopped. I must admit I didn't see this problem coming. Again, I push play and it warbles along and stops.

I remember reading an interview with the guitar wizard from Boston, whose name escapes me, and he said something about sticky tape. How when he went in to listen to all of the demos he had done years before for Boston's third album, the tapes had deteriorated to a point that they had to be reconditioned in order to be listened to, which apparently was quite the tedious process. I fear this kind of damage has happened to the Wilson sisters.

I'm going to try to fast forward a bit and see if it makes a difference. Nope. It goes for a little while and stops. Or maybe this is that built in feature to stop before the next track. I guess not. Still barely playing for more than a second and stopping.

Hmmm....I just tried the other deck and it appears to be playing fine. Let's rewind and start over from the beginning. Dolby sound. Check. "Who Will You Run To" in all its keyboard laden glory. A little misstep and we're off.

Not so fast. This tape is seriously messed up. It keep varying in speed. And it's annoying, because I find myself genuinely interested in hearing this whole tape. Plus it makes me fear for the very idea behind this project. Are all of my tapes this screwed up? I guess I better digitize the few that can't be replaced.

In the case of Bad Animals, it's proving to be completely unlistenable. The tape has again shut off. But it's not breaking like those overloaded C-120's or my twice returned copy of the Rolling Stones Steel Wheels. I've never had a problem with a cassette like this. Then again I never tried to play one 23 years after purchase.

What can I remember about Heart's Bad Animals? It was the follow up to their self-titled record when the Wilson girls went all heavy metal and tried to out do Poison with their new image. They had huge hits with "What About Love?" and "Never, " but this one was a mellower album. The big hit was "Alone." Other than that I don't think it did very well.

What does the packaging tell us about it? Not much. We're clearly in the big hair 80's here. The insert folds out giving us a couple shots of the band, segregated by sex, and by extension importance. And the lyrics. A sample picked completely at random:

Leaving you was an endless fight
I was wrong and you were always right
But look what happened when I called your bluff
When the truth comes out you ain't so tough

Oh yeah, I remember that one. This tape occupied quite a bit of time in my Walkman during a trip to Lake Tahoe to visit my Grandma. Summer 1987. After that I don't think I ever played it again. And now, it looks like I never will again.




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