Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood Audio Cassette

There is no real blues without torture. And what Stevie Ray Vaughan went through in order to produce his stunning range of guitar sounds and expressions was a severe punishment in itself.

To optimise the tone, he would use incredibly heavy and thick strings, which were actually painful to play in a blues style – sometimes slicing into the tips of his fingers as he pushed them into wide bends. The pain was clearly visible on his face, and the guitar fingerboard literally convulsed with the power of his vibrato. This was a man for whom no agony was too great in the name of musical expression.

Tina Turner – “Tina Live in Europe” Audio Cassette

1985 Deutsche Grammophon “Walkman Classics” Chromuim Dioxide Cassette

In the previous post I cited portable players as instrumental in the increasing dominance of the audio cassette format during the early to mid 1980s. And here’s an exhibit to demonstrate just that. So great was the link between the sale of analogue cassettes and the Sony Walkman personal stereo system, that record company Polydor / Deutsche Grammophon went to the trouble and expense of licencing the Walkman brand from Sony for a series of classical tapes.