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I swapped the WOTW cassette into my own player about ten minutes ago and discovered that the quality isn't nearly as bad as I had originally thought. It seems that the player I was trying them out on (the one I was sitting next to at the time) is find when you want to play CDs but crap for tapes. You'd think that would solve the problem of listening to it (ignoring the fact I still haven't found the second tape.) Unfortunately there are no free sockets anywhere near me so I have the tape turned up and playing two rooms away from me. Let's see how long my brother stays in bed now.

While I'm on the topic of sorting out cassette tapes, I think I may as well reminisce about some of the songs I found. Before I do, this requires some background information.



I practically lived with my English grandmother from I was three months old until she died when I was nine. She was my favourite person in the whole world. Among everythign else she did for me, she used to record cartoons off the TV and tape songs. I found two of the tapes last night. On it were "How Much Is That Doggy in The Window?" and "You're a pink toothbrush, I'm a blue toothbrush" as well as many other. They brought back memories of childhood but the one that really struck home was "Puff, The Magic Dragon" (Lyrics below) even if I did always have a growing up versus death argument about it in my head.





Puff, The Magic Dragon



Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff

And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff, oh



Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.



Together they would travel on boat with billowed sail

Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail

Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came

Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name, oh



Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.



A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys

Painted wings and giants's rings make way for other toys.

One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more

And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.



His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain

Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.

Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave

So, Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave, oh



Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.

Puff, the magic dragon, lived by the sea

And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.





By Peter Yarrow and Leonard Tipton On Peter, Paul & Mary's

MOVING, IN CONCERT, and 10 YEARS.

Copyright 1963 Pepamar Music.

I took a notion last night to listen to War Of The Worlds, the 1978 version. Obviously it's on cassette so I had to hunt through a cupboard full of literally hundreds of tapes. At the back were four-tracks and eight-tracks which, let's face it, are probably on someone's Antiques-Must-Haves list.



After pulling everything out of the cupboard it became clear that it wasn't going to be as easy to find as I hoped. I found Transformers and Ghostbusters story tapes as well as a few My Little Pony ones dating back to sometime in the seventies. Then there was the music tapes. A lot of sixities there and loads of stuff I didn't recognise. I even found a Top 40 recording from the early eighties, a few years before I was born.



Eventually I came across the two WOTW tapes. At least I thought I did. It turned out it was two boxes but only one tape so then began the search through every other box for the second tape.



We're really for choice with music media these days. We can listen to CDs, stick stuff on iPods and download mp3s from the net. I got my mp3 player for Christmas 2003 but until then I was using a walkman. Yes, a tape player. I had CDs but only a portable player, not a personal one, so if I wanted to listen to my music I had to record it onto tape.



At the time I didn't think the sound quality was too bad (even if I did warp one of the tapes so badly it ended up playing backwards) but I found them among the tapes last night and the quality was horrendous. I didn't realise how stretched they were.



By trial and error I hoped to find the tape I wanted because it appeared not to be the done thing to label tapes back then. *sighs* In some cases I could just about recognise the song (as long as it was from the eighties - I am an eighties child, never did get the hand of nineties pop. Bring on the metal) but most of the time the words didn't even sound English. You had to turn the volume up a fair bit to make out the words but that resulting in a persisent headache-causing hiss. The other major drawback about tapes is finding the song you want on them. It's not like it is with CDs when you can just skip forward to the song you want. All the fast-forwarding and rewinding are a nightmare in that respect.



After checking every tape I stuck on the WOTW cassette only to discover I had to strain my ears tomake out the words. I never did find the second tape but I think I might just go and buy the digitally remastered CD and enjoy the sound quality modern technology allows us.

The only time I am ever at peace anymore is when I am asleep. Sometimes I just wish I could go to sleep and never wake up again...



It was one of those nights. The kind that hypocracy runs up to you and starts beating you around the head with a big stick. I crave freedom so I'll leave now. I need to get away from this world. I need my peace. I need to sleep.