Making Sense of 8 Tracks

I started buying Stereo 8 tapes a few years ago. Not out of nostalgia – I simply addressed one of many obsessions and acquired a 1973 Dodge Dart. My compulsive inclinations resulted in the purchase of tapes that my broken vintage car stereo could not play (I found that out after the fact). I therefore had no choice but to replace the stereo with new old-stock and that’s how it all started.

Now there is no need to re-write the history of Stereo 8 (for the moment) since other people have done a good job collecting and organizing all the useful and not-so-useful information. I recommend you start with 8 Track Heaven (there is always Wikipedia for those of you with busy schedules) … or you can just read-on.

The essential thing to know is than an 8-track cartridge hides a magnetic tape that loops around endlessly. The tape consists of 4 stereo tracks (a total of 8 tracks) that are parallel to each other.

A player reads one stereo track at a time until it has gone through the full length of the tape. A metal foil then signals the machine to move to the following stereo track. After a few track changes, the machine returns to the stereo track you started with. This continues on endlessly until you press stop or turn the ignition off.

The ¼ inch tape has to fit in the cartridge so its total length is such that you can only fit approximately 40 minutes of music on it (sometimes more). Divide that by four stereo tracks (programmes as they are also called) and that means you have to fit songs within four 10-minute segments. Now this is much more challenging than the two-sided cassettes most of us are familiar with (no need to refer to iPods and digital playlists here).

Interestingly, not all record labels tried to work around the constraints of the format. Quite often songs end up being split over two programmes. Sometimes there is a nice fade out followed by a click, which indicates a stereo track change, and a fade in that reintroduces the song. But generally, a song ends abruptly only to pick up just as abruptly where it stopped on the previous programme. Of course, records such as Pink Floyd’s Ummagumma and Can’s Soon Over Babaluma make this inevitable but there is no denying that a certain carelessness characterized the way with which labels packaged albums on 8-tracks.

I have to give credit to London Records for being creative with ZZ Top’s Tres Hombres. The label reorganized the song sequence so that not one song ends up being chopped in two. However, it’s not easy to take music meant to fit on LPs and have it sit nicely in four programmes. Elementary mathematical skills are necessary to determine all possible options and sometimes it’s necessary to have to repeat a song in order to fill-in extra time available on one programme. In the above case, Master of Sparks appears on programmes 1 and 3. In other cases, extra material is added without most of us realizing it.

Some labels, despite efforts to reorganize the material, failed to prevent song discontinuation. This is especially problematic when we are dealing with concept albums where the song sequence is central to the presentation and flow of the material. Establishing the right sequence is an integral part of making an album and I therefore cannot help but be surprised at the fact that “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide” finds itself right in the middle of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust while “Soul Love” is split up over programmes 1 and 2. The Pretty Things’ S.F Sorrow is also a victim of the format although Rare Earth (or possibly Motown) at least made sure the tape would begin and end with the right songs.

This raises interesting questions in terms of the incentives and processes which accompanied the massive production of 8-tracks during the seventies. I am going to end here for the moment but it seems that there are a number of angles that remain to be explored for those interested in Stereo 8 and the music industry.

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