The Tape Remains The Same: (Circa 1984)

 

Mikey Ladano over at his Fantastic site covers a ton of stuff musically and he’s a great reviewer who at times dabbles in Movie Reviews but also  writes about his past which he has called Getting More Tale. 

Mikes one post titled #519: Mistakes I Made Fixing Broken Tapes totally brought back the time that my good pal of over 40 years Tbone bought the first 5 David Lee Roth fronted Van Halen releases  on cassette tape sealed for just under $20 back in 1984…

Lemme tell ya about…..

Too make a long story even longer ….January 1984 I lent Tbone my vinyl copy of VH’s 1984.  This was Tbones first Dabble with Halen and he liked what he heard! So much so he quickly purchased a copy  of 1984 for himself!

It wasn’t too much long after that T got the Halen Itch so one day over lunch at school he told me “I’m going to buy all the Halen albums TODAY!”

Whut? …

So after lunch we split from High School and off we headed to our local Shopping Mall which was and still is called Intercity. We parked and headed into Sears to cut over to the mall and head into A&A Records  so Tbone could drop some cash on Dave Halen!

But before and If Tbone’s good luck couldn’t get any better we came across two Bins stuffed with Cassette  Tapes  One Bin had basically a bunch of shit tapes marked for $2.99. The only one worth mentioning Ironically was an  Sammy Hagar Greatest Hits Tape called Cruisin And Boozin.  The next Bin was stuffed with a bunch of $9.99 cassette tapes (current rock at the time)like AC/DC /Def Leppard/Quiet Riot and bands of that ilk. The big score in the $9.99 Bin was that there was the first 5 Van Halen tapes sitting there waiting for Tbones hands to grab them up!

Tbone paused for a second took a look around and told me to watch for Sears staff sniffing around the area we were in.  Basically I was on “Watch” Duty. Alert T of any incoming Sears Staff  headed our way!

Next thing you know Tbone digs into the Cheapie Bin’s and pulls out a handful of Crap tapes all priced $2.99 and manage’s  to peel off  the stickers (quicker than a Monkey peeling a banana) and transfer them to the other bin where the Halen Tapes were all marked $9.99 and T than proceeded to place the $2.99 stickers over the $9.99 Stickers that were the VH cassette’s.

What a friggin Genius move before my eyes! TBone did this to all the Halen Tapes …

Let’s calculate this….(tax not included)

Full Price for 5 Van Halen Tapes at Sears back in 1984- $49.95

TBone’s Discount  Sticker Removal Times for 5 Van Halen Tapes in 1984-$14.95

Tbone even bought Hagars Tape for the actual price of $2.99..(Big Spender!)

Tbone spent $17.94! A savings of $34.96….for 6  sealed Cassette Tapes…..

Son of a Beeatch! I quickly did the Math on the Halen purchases and I DID pay at least $9.99 each for those Halen albums on Vinyl…..

In other words….

Deke’s 6 Van Halen albums on vinyl back in the early 80’s.  $9.99 Times 6=$59.94….

Tbone was like a Giddy Pig In Shit that Day and we blew off the afternoon classes and drove all over Tbay that afternoon and everyone heard Hang Em High blaring from Tbones car whether they wanted to hear it or  not!