Romulus Q8 Tape Gallery!!

QuadraphonicQuad

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Fascinating! As I had already guessed, this stash must have come from the Nashville label Mega's vaults. Pillow, Cargill and Jack & Misty all had country chart hits for the label during 1971-72, the time frame of this music. Curiously, though, while most of the tracks on their respective Q8's did appear on the only Mega Lp's each artist had, they are not straight reissues of those albums. They do have *most* of the album's tracks in common, but in each instance, a few are missing while a few that never made it to Lp are included, so obviously whoever assembled these went right to the session tapes and pulled the songs, and didn't bother referencing the album masters. Same with the Bill Black album: it has most of the tracks from their lone Mega Lp, but not all, and a few tracks I don't think I have even on 45.

Since you haven't stated these are in any way 'faux quad' I'll assume the quad's for real, which makes their release even more curious, since these got limited distribution at best (I never saw them in New England, and I traveled a lot in those days, not likely I'd have missed Q8's like these) at a time when Mega itself was on its way out.

Another interesting aspect is that Mega's best selling act turned out to be Sammi ("Help Me Make it Through the Night") Smith, but she didn't get a quad, while some who sold far less did. Go figure.

Stan Hitchcock? During this time he recorded for GRT (the tape manufacturer's label) and Cinnamon, a short-lived indie. I would guess whatever's on that Q8 has to be from one or both labels.

ED :)
 
And of course truck stops and gas stations were especially notorious for being the place to find bootleg tapes of all manner and stripe (and vinyl too, though not nearly as much). Yet if these are true quad, then one wonders why they were sold this way rather than through more logical avenues where quad collectors would more readily find them. Have to admit, checking out small convenience stores or gas stations for Q8's never occurred to me.

ED :)
 
Never saw these in Chicago and Milwaukee. I hit ALL the stores back in the day, but didn't check gas stations and truck stops.

Then don't ask me how a Bill Black Combo Q8 made its ways to Italy. That's the only Romulus cart i have and i got it here.
 
Yes, these are all genuine, 4 channel, discrete Quad. Nothing seems faked. They're not the greatest mixes, but they all try to surround you in sound. They remind me very much of early RCA Q8's where the mixes use the four sides (ie: four centers) rather than four corners. However, occasionally, you do get some 4 corner action.
 
RQ-5012: Unknown Title/Questionable Existence
RQ-5014: Unknown Title/Questionable Existence
RQ-5016: Dizzy Gillespie "Souled Out" (No Photo.....yet!)

RQ-5012 Has been Identified!! It is called The Carmen Cavallaro Camp plays the Three B's (Beatles, Bacharach & Bach)
 
Just adding two that belong here. 12 and 16.

RQ-5012 The Carmen Cavallaro Camp.JPG RQ-5016 - Dizzy Gillespie - Souled Out.jpg
 
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