Tonight’s featured artist says that the day affordable multi-track recorders became available in musicians’ hands it really changed a lot of music just in the way that digital has changed music today. It was the first time that individuals could arrange entire songs, add to that the first song he used it for was a huge hit. Can you guess the song or artist?

loading...

The song was (Don’t Fear) the Reaper and the artist Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult. Buck said in an interview: “That was the first tune that I had created once I got a Teac four-track recorder. When affordable multi-track recorders became available in musicians’ hands, you used to have to go into a studio to do that. It really changed a lot of music just in the way that digital has changed music today. It was the first time that individuals could arrange entire songs.

When Blue Öyster Cult got four track recorders it really changed the way we wrote. That was the first example of that. The guitar lick was created and the first two lines of lyrics sprung a hole. The song took about six weeks to complete. It was a very creative period for the entire band because there was this new modality of creation.”

More From WWMJ Ellsworth Maine