Clipping details
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| Title: | Musicians talk tape |
| Notes: | Interview with Rick about his in-car cassette player |
| Year: | 1973 |
| Country: | UK |
| Publication: | |
| Author: |
Musicians talk tape
THIS MONTH: Rick Parfitt OF STATUS QUO
EQUIPMENT: A Philips N2607 car stereo cassette player. This can be mounted on its own bracket under the dashboard or direct on the transmission tunnel. It takes little room, is easy to fit and operation is simplicity itself. Just lower a cassette into position and click down - the deck automatically switches on and begins playback. The unit will automatically switch-off at the end of the tape and the cassette can be semi-ejected by squeezing two buttons. Specification: Cabinet Dim. 10 x 112 x 57 mm Fast Rewind Time: 70 secs. for C60 Output: 5 watts per channel. Wow And Flutter: 0.4 per cent. Signal To Noise Ratio: Better than 45db Frequency Response: 100-10,000 Hz. Recommended Retail Price: £38.74, including speakers.
PARFITT: I've only just had the new tape deck fitted and the first thing I did, as soon as I got it installed, was to get the new Humble Pie tape "Eat It". I find that sort of thing makes good listening when I'm driving. I really dig driving and like to listen to tape all the time.
During the day I usually play things by Pie. Zeppelin, Rod Stewart and the Faces - that's really the sort of thing I'm into. Then I sometimes play "'Piledriver". I'll play it and think tomyself. "Oh Christ! We should have had so-and-so going there" and "We could have done something really nice in there". But that's cool because you can use some of those ideas on the next album.
Playing tapes of your own music helps you learn and progress - as far as I'm concerned that's true anyway.
I find my taste in tapes is different to my taste in records because of the different playing environment- Because I dig driving, going down the motorway, playing something like Zeppelin while I'm doing a ton, really gives me a buzz. I get a little distortion off the set when I'm trying to blow the back windows out but I hope yo remedy this when I have another two speakers fitted. I don't want two at the front and two at the back. I'm having four fitted in a line across the rear.
I don't always play loud music though - I also have a selection of down volume, funky, nice music things. At night, when there's not much traffic around I might play something like the Carpenters.I've had both cassette and cartridge systems but I much prefer the former - eight tracks are more prone to problems and a cassette is neater and less bulky. Status Quo used to have a cassette deck in the old band car and I can remember the number of times we used to play old Chicken Shack tapes on our way back from gigs - particularly "O.K. Ken". That one, for us, was really great.
Another great one was that Fleetwood Mac set with "Albatross" on it.
Some music turns on mind pictures for us. When we recorded "Oh Baby" we all visualised pedalling a bike, and on the album we're recording now, there's a track where we visualise three Arabs walking across the desert.
I know it probably sounds mad but it has that sort of feel to us. It's like when we did "Don't Waste My Time", that brought top hats and gaiety to mind - it's got a lot of flair and cheekiness about it.
We're now doing a country type track, country to me being the sort or thing the Byrds did on "Easy Rider". That's a beautiful tape. But now I've got to forget about cassette decks for a while and get back to the sixteen-track at IBC.
We've done about four tracks of our new album so far including "Claudy" which I consider to be the best thing we've ever done.
Image caption: RICK PARFITT operating his Philips N2607