My First Cassette Tape

Although I loved the benefits of being a little kid, I sort of wish I was a little older to understand the magic of the year 1984. You had the Olympics in Los Angelos, a landslide presidential election, the entire Jackson family, including Michael, on tour, as well as some of the best 80's music being released:

* Born In The USA - Bruce Springsteen

* She's So Unusual - Cyndi Lauper

* 1984 - Van Halen

* Heartbeat City- The Cars

* Like A Virgin - Madonna

* Purple Rain - Prince

* Bananarama - Bananarama

* Suddenly - Billy Ocean

Not being old enough at the time to appreciate the above albums (although I loved Carribean Queen), I was 6 years old in the car with my parents when I heard that magical chorus...."you're out of touch, I'm out time....TIME...girl I'm outta my head when you're not around." From the layering of instruments to the beginning to the background vocals of John Oates, to strange lyrics I didn't understand like "manic moves and drowsy dreams", this song captured my imagination.I was 6 years old at the time and the melody blew my mind. After hearing the song's title was "Out Of Touch" I knew I needed it....again, I was 6 years old.

I begged and pleaded with my parents to get me the tape this song was on. I'm assuming they liked that they had a little kid who was appreciating music, as cheesy as it probably was, and so at some point that fall of 84', I received a cassette tape called "Big Bam Boom". The cover, as seen above, looked like a really bad tie dye job of a cover. Ironically enough, Daryll Hall plays more keyboards then anything and John Oates is the main guitar player so the cover makes a little sense. I always thought the person's face seen on the bottom left hand corner looked like she was straining while going to the bathroom.

I don't remember the whole tape but the first some had those chipmuck type vocals that blew my mind. Then came Out Of Touch which I must have played hundreds of times, rewinding it when it was over. I really didn't listen much to the rest of the tape other than those first two songs but over time I realized that there were some classic songs on there. "Method Of Modern Love" taught me to spell words oddly like "M-E-T-H-O-D O-F Melody". "Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid" had a great hook and "Possession Obsession" is a song's who's title I'll still quote today ("My buddy has a major case of possession obsession with that girl...I hope she doesn't call the cops")

I highly recommend checking it out.