RIP Wheezer

It was bound to happen one day... we all saw it coming... but my ole' Sharp Double-Deck cassette recorder (aka, the "Wheezer" due to it's infamous excessive tape-hiss noise) has finally BIT THE DUST tonight...  (Actually it's technically a Wheezer II, but let's not confuse things by getting into THAT!!)

Yes...... It has ceased to be!...  It's expired and gone to meet it's maker!... Bereft of life, it rests in peace!... It's metabolic processes are now history!... It's kicked the bucket, shuffled off it's mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!!!...

THIS IS AN EX-WHEEZER!!!...  

Recording in the living room with Dan and Joe, 1995.

The very, very last cassette tape to MP3 transfer I was able to squeeze out of it was THIS... and already you can hear the death rattle. The hubs began to slip... the tape began to unravel... and in spite of my last ditch effort to clean the heads and oil all of it's accessible moving parts it was clearly the end. 

I'm going to miss the ole' gal - the other fellas and myself enjoyed hours of fun and hi-jinx kneeling down before her and recording Out Of Bodies songs, comedy bits, and what have you... and now, well, it feels like an END to an era...

Lloyd and recording in my attic bedroom, 1986.

I haven't even begun to think about what would I possibly get as a replacement cassette to MP3 transfer device... perhaps I shouldn't be thinking about that quite yet... perhaps it's too soon... I need to mourn a bit first!!... Rest In Pieces - - uh, I mean Rest In Peace, Wheezer... you will be missed...

Someone actually took the Wheezer before the
garbage trucks showed up...
perhaps it hasn't met it's end after all!