...with nothing more to buy, ever!

For some strange reason, while on my way home from work this afternoon, this popped into my head.  I'll never forget the first time I saw in some magazine "Get 7 tapes for ONE PENNY!" and then the fine print down below, stating that you had to buy one more at some price that was higher than a cat's back in the next year or they'd send Guido and Fat Tony after your kneecaps or something. 

I don't remember what I got the first time I enrolled in this - I think one of them was "Then And Now: The Best Of The Monkees".   I went through a pretty serious Monkees phase when I was younger.  I still love their music - "Pleasant Valley Sunday", even though not written by them, is one of my all time favorite songs!

I do, however, remember that once I got my first shipment of tapes, something was missing: there were no liner notes and no lyrics.  They had a picture of the album cover on the front, but then it was just blank on the inside.  What a ripoff!  Also, when the music industry started putting out the clear tapes, as opposed to white or beige, BMG - nope!  No clear tapes for Dave!  And I thought those were the coolest!  They had a certain smell to them, too - I'm not sure how to explain it, it was just some sort of plastic smell (not the toxic kind).  I still catch a whiff of it every once in a while in random places, and it always reminds me of those awesome clear tapes!  

I wanted my tapes to be the proper derned color, whether they were clear or white, plus I really wanted the liner notes - so I bought my one tape from BMG, cancelled the contract, then joined the Columbia House tape club, where I got 12 tapes for a penny!  What a bargain!  Of course now I had to buy 2 or 3 tapes at those same sky-high prices.

I still prefer CDs to mp3s now, because I want to be able to open up and read all about the album - who's in the band, where they recorded it, what other stories they have about it, what kind of other famous people they thanked, etc.   I really miss actual vinyl albums!  Those covers were the greatest!  Just think if the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers" were just released as an mp3 - you can't put a working zipper on a computer file!  By golly there was one on the vinyl album sleeve, though!  Album artwork is, unfortunately, becoming a lost art form - and a lot of those covers truly were art!  Just check out any of the stuff Hipgnosis did for Pink Floyd!

Anyway, I figured tonight I could have a little bit of both worlds:  I threw down a nice heavy slice of matte gel.  It'll be white right now (as you can see in the pic) but then it'll dry clear.  From BMG to Columbia House in one night!