Led Zeppelin III – Audio Cassette

If you regress, reverse-chronologically through the 1970s, it’s all very trend-led until you rewind prior to the beginning of glam rock. Then you drop into a sort of crisis of direction in which a lot of the decade’s potential stars aren’t really sure where they’re going. You’ve reached the year 1970, and you’ll be hearing a lot of folk influence, as the overdriven blast of the late 1960s reaches its first “have we gone too far?” moment.

1970 ITT Polydor Musicassette Demonstrator

Since I began raiding the ‘junk boxes’ for old audio cassettes to photograph for this blog, I’ve been desperately hoping to find something from the 1960s. I came within a cat’s whisker today, with the discovery of this ITT Polydor Demonstration Musicassette, from 1970. I don’t know how this truly vintage artefact got into my family, but I suspect it had something to do with my Mother’s job in music education. The material pre-recorded onto the tape comes from a variety of 1960s acts, but it’s all ‘easy listening’ – a genre in which my Mom never showed any particular interest. I’m assuming, therefore, she received the cassette as some sort of free giveaway.