Music Before the Money

It’s not everyone who gets a chance to see Paul McCartney live . . especially free. But Sir Paul is going to be playing a free concert to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City and, in effect, the French in North America. This should be a great event, right? Well to 99% of the population in Quebec it is. But to 1% who claimed they are separatists, it is a great faux pas. Why? Because they are separatists and hate everything about Canada except their government cheques.

Poor Macca. He can’t come to Canada without stepping into it: baby seals; his wife, Heather; and now the idiots who still think Quebec should be a country. So who represents these malcontents (who now could have their meetings in a phone booth)? well, our wonderful journalists do not pick a politician geared to separatism. Even they like Macca. They pick out some aging long-hair (dyed) who attributes the old Beatle to colonial England 250 years ago.

The poor soul still hangs onto the fact that The Battle of Quebec in 1759 was a devious English plot which forever enslaved French-speaking people. Actually, it was brilliant manuevre where a small party of well-trained British soldiers hauled themselves up a bluff in the middle of the night and marched onto the Plains of Abraham outside the walls of Quebec City. The French under General Montcalm, with a much larger force, had the time to make formations confronting the British. However, just like any confrontation on the field between the French and English (before Napoleon) the French and their colonial allies had neither the musketry skills nor the determination for full-frontal (brutal) warfare and their ranks disintegrated and their general died on his horse.

The British captured Quebec but after suffering a long bout of defeats like Fort William Henry and other battles. There is no question about the bravery of the French. However, their own King deserted them by not resupplying them with soldiers and supplies. Until this battle Montcalm had brilliantly out-generaled the best British had to offer. This is partly why General Wolfe beat him - Montcalm thought the British had no one who could make the soldiers scale the cliffs.

Now the British were not charitable. They did ethic cleansing in Nova Scotia, taking out the French families and sending the southward. But they did let the Quebeckers keep their language and religion - quite a liberal thing at the time. This is why this idiot has free speech and government benefits for the flag he spits on.

So why are these idiots blaming the Macca for something that happened all those years ago and why is the media even printing their ravings? Because they live in a country that tolerates it.

And I’m very jealous of the ones who will hear the Beatle in a free concert.

A unique little portable tape player emerged around the same time as the 4-track called the PlayTape. They were actually a 2-track tape that could hold around 4 songs and many were self-winding. The key to the PlayTape was portability and it followed in the footsteps of the small radios which had captured the attention of the late ’50’s and early ’60’s.

Sears was the exclusive seller at the beginning and put the price at $19.95. Right away everything from The Beatles to Sinatra was introduced on the format. By 1967, PlayTapes were available in color cartridges which designated their format and length:

• Red cartridge - once song like a 45 r.p.m. “single” - $1.00
• Black cartridge - 4 songs - $1.49
• Blue cartridge - children songs - $1.00 - $1.50
• White cartridge - 8 songs - $2.98
• Gray cartridge - voice and education format - $1.00 - $1.50

The marketers of the PlayTape targeted the youth music and business For the latter it produced a dictation machine that never caught on. And the other marketing ploy they never developed was the new car stereo one. Although, to its credit the PlayTape made inroads into Europe for a while.

Unfortunately, the PlayTape was caught in the grip of a market that was burgeoning with better technology and after Bill Lear’s 8-track became portable the PlayTape dropped out of sight.

I still have my PlayTape in the original box but it has sat idle since the early ’70’s so i’m not sure if it works.