Unfortunately those were times when such experiences could not be replicated on demand since we had no videotapes yet…but for God’s sake we had audio cassettes!
So when I knew there was a film I liked on TV, I pulled out my little tape recorder, lied down on the carpet floor just below the TV set, and when the titles began, PLAY-REC.
As I became accustomed to this practice, I also acquired some peculiar skills, like being able to cut the commercial breaks out of my recordings; and time after time I became so clever that I could do it in real time, by anticipating the moments of the movie that were good “calls” for ad breaks, or by noticing the little signs of the incoming break that maybe only I was able to see.
Then I pressed PAUSE. And when the film was back, I pressed PAUSE a second time. The tape started to roll again. The film flowed, unbroken.
Believe it or not just by hearing my rough home version of the sound, I could fairly enough evoke the pictures. My ears were igniting visuals in my brain, and the moments when I was not sure was the hell was happening in the picture – well, I made it up, until a dialogue line, or a sound effect, or a musical phrase took me back on track, and I knew exactly which part of the narration I was in.
One of the things that thrilled me was that I could listen to the soundtracks again. I always had musical themes bouncing in my head…and as a consequence I began to make my own private soundtracks.
