Saturday 7 September 2013

Retroprogressive News etc.

Retroprogressives will be glad to note that today is International Cassette Store Day. Like vinyl, the cassette is not going away - nor is there any real reason why it should; it is, again like vinyl, a format with its own particular qualities and much to commend it. Which reminds me - I must replace my last Walkman, which finally packed up a few months ago...
  Meanwhile I learn from the local paper that a girl who works part-time in a Greggs bakery in Thornton Heath has caused a stir on The X Factor, singing Read All About It and One Night Only. The paper is moved to list some other songs that a Greggs employee might sing. They range from No Woman No Pie to Bohemian Bap-sody by way of Lady in Bread, Sausage Roll with It, Doughnut Look Back in Anger, Everything I Do I Do It for Choux, Ain't No Sunshine When She's Scone, Patsy Dutchie on the Left Hand Side and Total Eclipse of the Tart.
  No Bob Dylan songs included there, alas - no Like a Rolling Scone, nor If Not for Choux (nor even I Want Choux), not to mention One More Cup of Coffee and indeed Gotta Serve Somebody.

2 comments:

  1. The cassette is not going away as you say Nige, simply because for many of our age there are irreplaceable musical and other memories bound up on those horrible unreliable assemblages of brittle plastic, stretchable/tangleable tape and monsterously fiddly little screws. Its more a case as you noted that the means of listening is whats going away. I invested in a cassette to digital converter to capture the many many hours of improvisations and sound collages that I hadn't been able to find a walkman for and so hadn't heard in some 10 years. It really doesnt do a bad job but it does serve as a reminder what a nasty hissy format the cassette could be.

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  2. Well yes, much to be said against the cassette. You can still get Walkmen (Walkmans?) online - newly minted some of the them too...

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