An Ancient Nancy Wilson Cassette

I got an old cassette tape by Nancy Wilson. This isn't one that was put out 10 years ago, but this is one of the older cassettes you occasionally see from the '60s.

Since the album "Son of a Preacher Man" came out in 1969, this is when this tape was from. So it's 40 years old. I got it at a thrift store. And right away I noticed the little fuzzy cube that butts up against the tape against the player head was askew. At first I didn't buy it but then I figured I could always put something in there if it didn't play right.

I got it and put it in the player and it immediately broke upon the rewind. The clear leader was stuck to itself and the tape snapped away from it. So ... that's no good.

My big option at this point was to break open the case and then unscrew an old cassette to transplant it in it. That didn't go well with the first cheap (Halloween sound effects) tape I unscrewed. So I had to do another one. I picked out one I could dispense with if necessary and made the switch.

Finally I recorded the thing on an MP3 player and it's on my iPod now, sounding pretty good.

I'm keeping the paper insert to the album. It advertises other Capitol stereo cassettes from the time, including The Beatles. The last one listed is "The Beatles," meaning the White Album.

I almost could've sent this in to Capitol for replacement. But looking at the warranty it says "If any manufacturing defect becomes apparent within 30 days of purchase..." I'd be able to mail it in for replacement. But this wasn't a manufacturing defect, really, but just the leader had gotten itself stuck by the passage of time. Who knows? Maybe there was some moisture at fault.