How To Repair Your 'Xanadu' 8-Track!
Xanadu, well, the soundtrack that is, made a very brief appearance in the 1997 documentary called SO WRONG THEY’RE RIGHT. Its was about various 8-track collectors and fans spread out over the USA and the rest of what the director called ‘the analog revolution’ during the early 90’s.
The film was made by Russ Forster and Dan Sutherland. Forster was the publisher of the brilliant 8-track zine 8 Track Mind from 1990 to around 2000 and it elaborately chronicled the culture, philosophy, theories and history behind this audio format. The reach of this zine and its subject turned out so big and wide that Forster and Sutherland armed themselves with a camera and took off on a road trip to meet as much of these collectors and fans as possible. This film was the result.
The ‘Xanadu’ scene in question comes during the crew’s Seattle visit to see one of the zine’s more mysterious readers, John Peterson. This brief scene has Peterson giving a very quick demonstration of 8-track repair. You can see a Xanadu tape as the second of three tapes he uses; blink and you’ll miss it.
SO WRONG, THEY’RE RIGHT is a wonderful little film that’s still available on Other Cinema DVD. For further information and reading on Russ Forester and the world of 8-tracks, go to www.8trackheaven.com