A Perfect Collision

 

Mobile Music.  Making the 60's (and beyond) sound iconic.

   What I have experienced in my life of having a car that was older than I am, having parents of the World War II Generation, raiding my older Sister's record collection, etc. is that I tend to take an interest in things that are older than I am.  Granted I love the music I grew to love as an 80's teen.  But music from the 1960's and 1970's has always been there my whole life, even if it took me a while to realise that.  I think that having my first car, which was a 1967 Mustang at a pivotal point in time where popular music was changing.  As the early 1990's started to turn into the mid-90's, the musical scape I had grown up and was used to drastically changed.  Somewhere at this point I discovered a few artists from the 60's and 70's that I started to listen to more and more and it just took off from there...but this is not what this episode of "Moon in the Sky" is about.

     The basic element where the cool cars of the 1960's and the music went along for the ride I think is the basic AM Radio.  I think this piece of equipment was pretty common by this time and was begining to be found in more and more dashes of Detroit's creations.

The original Philco AM Radio from the 1967 Ford Mustang that I bought last Oct.  This Mustang has been previously featured on this blog.

     Funny story about the radio in the above photo.  This Mustang was bought by a man who was born in 1917.  When he bought this car in 1967 he was my age...(I feel so young still at 52), he was University educated, had a private pilots lic, was involved with his community, etc.  I have the gut feeling that this radio never blasted out songs by The Strawberry Alarm Clock, Procol Harum, or The Jefferson Airplane.  I have a feeling that big band music, Frank Sinatra, etc. got played on this radio?  "Theme to A Summer Place"...probably,  "Yellow Submarine"...odds are not in it's favour.  

     Update two days after the blog was first published...  My friend just contacted the son of the original owner of my '67 Mustang.  This man graduated University in 1967 and actually drove his Dad's new Mustang a lot.  There is a great posiibiltiy that The Strawberry Alarm Clock, Procol Harum  and The Jefferson Airplane was played on this AM Radio...  The odds are great that songs from the legendary Beatles 1967 Masterpiece "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" were played on this very radio during the Summer of Love...

A Ford ad from a 1967 "Hot Rod" Magazine.  

     So it is 1966 and you have cash and want something more than just an AM Radio?  Wouldn't it be great to listen to a complete Beatles album in your car?  Then the 8-Track Stereo Cartridge Tape System is what you are looking for!!!  

Brand-X Underdash 8-Track Player.

Selection of 1960's 8-Track Tapes.

Spiral Starecase ready to play.  

The 8-Track Tape Cartridge got it's roots in the earlier 4-Track Tape.  The two formats look similar, but there are differences that I will not go into in this blog.  The 1966 Ford Mustang (and I think Thunderbird and Lincoln models?) were the first cars to offer the 8-Track format.  The 8-Track Tape was popular from the mid-1960's and all through the 1970's.  I am just old enough to remember seeing 8-Track Tapes for sale as a child and an early teen in the early-mid 1980's when they finally lost the battle to the Cassette Tape.  

     I was going to bring up the Cassette Tape format, but this blog is going on long enough that it should be left to another day.  Ironically I think*. that the Cassette came out before the 8-Track, but was not perfected enough to compete until the sound quality could be improved.  Having said that...I have seen pre-recorded music on Cassette from the 1960's.  *Think being the key word, this info is just what I have heard.

   To end this blog I want to bring up one last thing...FM Radio.  As the 60's waned and the 1970's reared it's head, FM Radio was becoming more and more popular.  Auto companies offered AM/FM Radios in the mid-60's.  But there were alternatives if you just had an AM Radio or a AM/8-Track Radio.

FM Radio Receiver that was used in conjunction with an 8-Track Player.

Audiovox under dash FM Receiver.  I'm guessing this is later 1970's or early 1980's?

Ad from 1967 "Hot Rod" Magazine.  I have got to one for my Mustang!!!