So earlier today, @troyxmccall tweeted out to the millions, AND MILLIONS, of his followers, this choice nugget…
What is the oldest album you still listen to? (greatest hits not allowed) Mine is "War – U2"
I wanted to answer, but despite his amazing tastes in music, my answer in less than 140 characters would not make sense to anyone who didn’t own the Survival Sampler SR-1A. While I listen to a TON of older music, it is an eclectic mix of songs from all over the decades and the genres. This is the only one complete album that I have listened to in ages.
Since it is a collection, I don’t think it counts as ‘greatest hits’ but they are certainly GREAT hits. The Survival Sampler SR-1A was a tape cassette from Warner Brothers that I bought for my sister Christmas 1984. I grabbed it because I loved the packaging, but had no idea what any of the music was. She hated it, so I popped it in the Radio Shack tape player in my car one day just to see what it was like. I listened to it on the way to work, wasn’t half way through it before I got there, and wound up 45 minutes late because I sat there in the mall parking lot listening so intently that I lost track of time. Eventually I wore the cassette out, but about a year ago I found a digital repository (which apparently no longer exists, or I would have linked you to it </wink>) that had all the tracks online. If it’s possible to wear out a CD, I think I am getting close.
Above is what the package looked like. You literally had to peel back the top of the can like an old water ration from a fall out shelter. The tracks on the tape are a mix of English and Australian alternative rock.
- SIDE 1:
- What Difference Does It Make? – The Smiths
- Electric Lash – The Church
- Wishful Thinking – China Crisis
- Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) (12" Version) – Scritti Politti
- More More More (7" Version) – Carmel
- Sleepless (12" Version) – King Crimson
- SIDE 2:
- Pillar To Post – Aztec Camera
- The Caterpillar – The Cure
- I’m Falling (7" Version) – The Bluebells
- Rainbow’s End – Modern English
- Never Never (12" Version) – The Assembly (embedding disabled so linked here)
- Everything Counts (12" Version) – Depeche Mode
There are two tracks that I just can NOT find even a trace of on YouTube. Here’s links to short samples on Pandora, but you can’t do the songs justice in thirty seconds.
Or, you can listen to the album on my Grooveshark widget.
If you know where I can find a video online, please drop me a link in the comments. I’m sorry the Youtube playlists don’t have the same versions as the original tape…apparently the labels seem to think that having embeddable videos of songs you can no longer buy somehow hurts their business. I don’t quite get that. My bet is that every person who has commented represents another ten who haven’t but also would buy this compilation on CD or iTunes in a moment if it was available. So what about you? How would you answer @troyxmccall? If you can do it in 140 characters or less, send him a reply. If you want more….leave a comment!
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{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
I was just looking for the Carmel song to prove to someone that Amy Winehouse was not the first revival of an old girl group sound. Only, as I remembered it,it was Camel. NOT the band I was looking for, so I googled (misspelled) survival SMAPLER and you still came up! I loved that tape; what a great fun package and what a great selection of acts and music. I lost the insert and the can is in a box somewhere but I would love to know who was the creative team in charge of the selections and packaging on this one. Truly a beloved collection; thanks for posting!
i loooooved that tape. the good news is i still have it, the bad news is it won’t play.
I have tried to find the songs on iTunes but I think most were B sides or rarities. I wish I had a CD version of it to enjoy.
I think that was also the first time I had heard The Smiths before they played them on KROQ in LA. Eventually The Smiths would be one of my 3 favorite bands of the ’80s and “How Soon Is Now” is my favorite song of the ’80s. Sigh……
Thanks for the great post.
Thanks for the great comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the post, and yeah, me too…”How Soon Is Now” still haunts me.
This tape changed my life! I wore out the tape years ago, but I have an unopened can that I hold on to. I’ve been tempted to open it so many times, but I’ve managed to collect mp3′s of all the tracks on the tape, so I’m content. What a treasure!
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the comment. I am so jealous! I’m seeing an Antiques Road Show 50 years from now, where the appraiser goes wild over such a treasure. Here’s to resisting the temptation to open the can up, and just enjoying mp3 goodness. BTW I checked out your profile…you’ve got great taste in movies, music, and books. You’ve got a lot of my favourites there as well. I wish the priests at our church were even remotely as progressive.
Cheers,
Ed
WOW thanks for the memories, i was trying to recall the exact name of this tape so I googled survivual tape and luckily found your site. I bought the tape in Saratoga Springs NY fall 1984 (I was 21) to listen as i drove to Atlanta. i was so desparte for the newwave stuff then that i would buy anthing that had a cool pacake and promised new music. Man I loved and eventually bought albums from all the artists. my favorite sing was Bluebells ‘Falling” Thanks again
eric
oop sorry but the typos it’s late and Ive had few
Not a problem Eric. Glad I was able to provide some entertainment to go along with tasty beverages. SR-1A is still my favourite. There’s some timeless music in that collection. Thanks for dropping by!
Ed
Finally! Yes, I’m another who has worn out the tape! Thanks for the Grooveshark widget.
So how can I add your Grooveshark playlist to mine?
Sorry Scott, no clue. This is the first and only time I have used Grooveshark.
Thanks for dropping by.
Ed
wow — for the longest period of time there was NOBODY on the net writing about this sampler. I’m knew I wasn’t hallucinating. Wore my copy out a loooong time ago . . .
c
Hi C
Thanks for commenting. At least it lives on in binary form.
Cheers
Ed
A friend saw your post and reminded how much I love this tape! Mine bit the dust years ago…but after a little research it is possible to copy your grooveshark file into Itunes. It worked like a charm and I now have a brand new CD copy to take me back to the 80′s. Thanks so much for the post…
Here are the instructions:
Download a program called “Charles Web Proxy”. I believe there is also a plugin for firefox. Once you’ve got Charles simple run it. Charles is a program that will list all internet activity happening to your computer. It also gives you the ability to save any file that gets downloaded to your computer from visiting websites (Ex: Jpg, Gifs, MP3s, Avis, anything that a website lets you download.
Now just start listening to songs on grooveshark and you should see the songs being listed in Charles. They usually look like “http://stream29.grooveshark.com” or something like that, it should have a “Stream.php” file inside it. Right click it, select save response and be sure to choose a name that ends with “.mp3″ .
I saved the songs to my desktop as mp3 files, opened them into Itunes and I was good to go.
AWESOME-
Thanks ED!!
w00t! Thanks for sharing instructions on Charles, Christine. I haven’ tried that or even heard of it before, but may have to check it out. I really appreciate the ‘value-add’ to this post.
Best,
Ed
I bought the Survival Sampler when I was thirteen at the local punk rock record shop in Tempe Arizona when the overwhelmingly cool chick who looked like Siouxie Sioux at the front counter recommended it to me. I took it home , popped the top and listened to it on repeat for the next eight hours in my room. It may sound corny, but this tape really shaped my future musical tastes.
I too have been trying to recreate it on itunes for a while with no luck, so I really appreciate your playlist. I do miss the Carmel song on your playlist. Now i am going to see if I can follow those directions for downloading it:)
Thanks for the memories.
Great story! Thanks for sharing it.
I was a big fan of Siouxie and the Banshees too!
Ed
I received the Sound Rations as a gift (I seem to remember) and it was one of my most played tapes. I’ve got most of the tracks as MP3′s but I never thought to reassemble the collection and listen to it as it was on the tape. Thanks for the reminder!
You’re welcome! Thanks for dropping by.
I purchased this tape the day it came out…. unfortunately, a hot girl in my high school ended up “borrowing” it and never returned the tape…. :-/
Same girl got my Siouxie and the Banshees tape!
Ok – hanging on dutifully since ’84. This has got to be worth a million dollars by now. Thankfully sites to listen to now (hence search) ’cause I was just gonna open the damn thing.
Ed,
Thanks for putting this page together. I purchased this canned Survival sampler from Record Town in Enfield, CT. circa the end of my junior year in high school, spring 1984. I had been eyeing it for a few weeks, up on that top shelf but had to wait until I had the money to shell out for it. When I finally got it, I too wore this tape out, Listened to it all the time, well into my senior year. I also got into many of the bands featured on the cassette that year as well.
I kept the can and the paper insert for years, but I lost track of it over time. I have since acquired most of the albums that these songs were compiled from, but it is very cool that you’ve reassembled it all in one place for those of us who owned and held a copy of this recorded music history.
all the best,
DJD
Dominick,
Sounds like we are from the same era…glad you liked the post and the playlist.
Cheers,
Ed
Been buying up these tracks…… talk about nostalgia….
i bought this at a small record store in west lafayette, indiana, during my second year of college. i was so broke then i had to give plasma for extra money for albums, but the guy at the record store had been reliable in the past for recommendations. as someone else here posted, this one cassette ending up having a profound impact on my musical tastes for the decade to come. prior to finding this page, i had managed to track down all the songs i could recall, but must thank you for filling in the gaps.
Wow, I have heard of serious music fans, but selling plasma? Whammo, that is hard core! I’m glad you found the post and that I had a song or two on there you were missing.
Cheers,
Ed
i was just playing my cassette of this today! Though I got it without the nifty packaging i made my own. I also found out that it was issued as a vinyl LP which was just a regular looking sleeve but, ironically, the cover image is of a woman holding the awesome cassette tin.
I’ll be burning it to CD soon…
I’m not sure which is more amazing; that you have a copy of the cassette, or that you have a cassette player! I do like the cover art you did!
I remember buying this cassette (in the can, and everything) at a large independent record store in Pasadena, TX. The store has been long gone for decades now, and unfortunately, so has the can and its contents (I think an old “friend” swiped it from me).
I consider this my most important purchase of my youth (I was 13 at the time). I bought it because of The Assembly song. We had a Top 40 station in Houston (93Q) that would take chances on non-hits, and this is one that they played, but I couldn’t find anywhere until I stumbled across the Survival Sampler. As an avid music lover, the cassette changed my life by opening me up to bands like The Smiths, Aztec Camera, Scritti Politti, and made me dig deeper into bands that I only barely knew at the time – The Cure, Depeche Mode and Modern English.
Thanks for the article, and much thanks for streaming the album. I’ve been searching for “Pillar to Post” to download without any luck. It’s nice to actually hear it again. Thanks!
You’re welcome! I don’t know why Pillar to Post is so hard to find on the tubes. I like some of Aztec Camera’s other stuff, but this is the only song I remember hearing and it is no where to be found, save here.
Cheers,
Ed
here you go, guys (rapidshare is your friend). AC’s “pillar to post” along with the equally elusive “queen’s tattoo”. the quality could be better, but… enjoy.
http://rapidshare.com/files/320938386/aztec_camera_pillar.rar
Thanks Whammo!
after a bit of hunting, i found a better version… plus, this one comes tucked into a mix that should appeal to fans of the original SS line-up.
it helps to have a fileserve account, but i think you can get it for free anyway.
80s Mixtape
Disc 1
1. Lloyd Cole And The Commotions – Perfect Skin
2. Orange Juice – Rip It Up
3. Prefab Sprout – Bonny
4. Echo & The Bunnymen – The Cutter
5. Aztec Camera – Pillar to Post
6. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
7. Icicle Works – Love Is a Wonderful colour
8. Japan – Visions Of China
9. The Human League -The Sound of The Crowd
10. Soft Cell – Torch
11. Spandau Ballet – Chant No. 1 (I don’t Need This Pressure On)
12. Scritti Politti – Asylums In Jerusalem
13. UB40 – 1 In 10
14. The Beat – Mirror In The Bathroom
15. Billy Bragg – A New England
16. Jona Lewie – You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties
17. The Monochrome Set – The Monochrome set (I Presume)
18. The Higsons – Run me Down
19. Carmel – More More More
20. Everything But The Girl – Each And Every One
Disc 2
1. The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
2. David Bowie – China Girl
3. The Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon
4. Simple Minds – Waterfront
5. The Cure – Why Can’t I Be you?
6. Talking Heads – And She Was
7. Prince – Kiss
8. Flash And The Pan – Waiting For A Train
9. The Style Council – Speak like A Child
10. Fine Young Cannibals – Johnny Come Home
11. The Housemartins – Happy Hour
12. The Bluebells – Young At Heart
13. The Special AKA – Nelson Mandela
14. Communards – Disenchanted
15. Blancmange – Don’t Tell me
16. Yello – Oh Yeah
17. Matt Bianco – Half A Minute
18. Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
19. The Dream Academy – Life In A Northen town
20. The Colourfield – Thinking Of You
Disc 3
1. R.E.M.- The One I Love
2. INXS – Need You Tonight
3. Talk Talk – Give It Up
4. Morrissey – Everyday is Like Sunday
5. World Party – Ship of Fools
6. Kirsty MacColl- Days
7. Sinéad O’Connor – Mandinka
8. Deacon Blue – Chocolate Girl
9. China Crisis – Working With Fire And Steel
10. Thomas Dolby – I Scare Myself
11. Howard Jones – What Is Love?
12. The Blow Monkeys – It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way
13. Simply Red – Money’s Too Tight To Mention
14. Chris Rea – Josephine (Version Francaise)
15. Pretenders – Don’t Get Me Wrong
16. Shakespear’s Sister – You’re History
17. Jesus & Mary Chain – Some Candy Talking
18. Then Jerico – Big Area
19. The Happy Mondays – W.F.L
20. New Order – Fine Time
http://www.fileserve.com/file/j7rYMKR/80Mixtape.rar
Thanks for the footwork Whammo!
I d-loaded this rar file this morning and I now finally have an MP3 copy of Aztec Camera’s “Pillar to Post” on my ipod!
What a great song! Prefab Sprout, Japan, The English Beat & UB40 were also bonus treats as well. So glad I did a search
for the “Survival Sampler Rations can” a month or so ago. It has returned to me many memories as well as long ago
lost sounds from my youth, as of today.
Rock on!
I had this tape and lent it to a girl. Well You can guess what happened to that tape!! But it inspired my musical tastes from the moment I first heard it. All of these songs had such power and meaning for me, they are the echoes of my youth! I collected them all on their individual cd’s and used iTunes to recreate the tape on a disc with all the songs in their perspective order. I also have it as a playlist on iTunes.
Nice! I’ll have to do that too now that I have a shiny iPhone.
Thanks for dropping by.
Ed
I worked at a record shop in southwest Wyoming when I was in high school, and we definitely (unknowingly, of course) cultivated a High Fidelity vibe when folks came in looking for the latest Chris LeDoux eight track. I found the Survival Sampler at a music/head shop in Salt Lake City called the Cosmic Aeroplane and just wore it out play after play. I’ve been able to recreate it except for a few of the more obscure cuts. The Bluebells track is one i’ve had some difficulty locating, and hearing it again was a gift. Thanks, Ed, for putting it all together. Well done.
MT,
It’s comments like these that make me want to write more non-tech posts. Thanks for dropping by and sharing the story. I’m glad I could hook you up with some good memories.
Ed
Ok, it has taken some time and serious internet footwork, but since I first posted here, I’ve been trying to track down the 4 or 5 missing puzzle pieces I needed in recreating a digital age version of this old Warner cassette sampler. It seems some “legal” holes have been worn into your Grooveshark widget as well since I first posted here, Ed.
Anyway, I am proud to say that as of today I have acquired all 12 tunes featured on this 1984 sampler cassette and I’ve managed to Frankenstein together an in-order playlist (even the correct 12″ versions) for my tunes/ipod use. The Bluebells track was definitely the hardest to acquire a copy of due to a lot of “Geographical restrictions” on legal downloads, as it is not available for MP3 download in the U.S. So, I found “other” sources” to acquire the track, but it was a special effort that finally paid off.
Ed, thanks for the inspiration ressurect this lost classic 80′s mix.
N.P. China Crisis – “Wishful Thinking”
DJD
NICE!!!! Way to go Dominick. Colour me jealous.
Ed
I have this tape – it was my first introduction to The Smiths, Scritti Politti, and The Bluebells. I wore it out but have since recreated it on my iPod. There’s a record store in Eagle Rock, CA (LA) that still has a sealed copy for sale. I love the booklet that comes with it, with all of the funny descriptions of the songs.
O’rly? How much?
Me too. Great cassette, great packaging.
I’d further categorize the tape as the “One CD/Tape that you miss the most”. If I had it, I’d still listen to it too.
Oh and let me plant another seed of “wish I hads”:
Does ANYBODY recall the movie called “Dogs in Space” from the mid-80′s? (1985, I imdb’d it).
The soundtrack was great, and I always looked forward to “The Green Dragon” by Michael Hutchence, but I can’t find any of the songs, or the cassette/CD anywhere. Any leads?
Now, for anybody who’s looking for the ST to “Hardware” another rare gem, I have that CD
glad to help…
http://p-l-m.blogspot.com/2009/01/dogs-in-space-expanded-1986.html
Whammo…YOU ROCK!!!!!
my dad bought me this when i was 8 – i wore the tape out. i wish i still had it. it had a profound effect on my musical taste ever since. thanks dad!!
You could always recreate it…check the comments above. I think you will be pleased.
Thanks for commenting!
found a site with another entry in the “survival sampler” series. i had this one on vinyl, and it features lesser-known bands from the 80s, possible of a francophile variety. a bit fey for my tastes then and now, but a few standout tracks worth having.
http://funderglass.blogspot.com/2008/03/va-art-of-survival.html
Thanks for the follow up Whammo, I actually like Tik & Tok Higher Ground. I bet there’s some more I will like.
Cheers,
Ed
Ditto, ditto, ditto. A friend gave me this tape, and I’d nearly worn it out before I realised I needed to make a copy before it became unlistenable.
What I like best about it is that it introduced me to bands I hadn’t heard — and to tracks from bands I already liked.
One of the few factory-issued tapes that I could play from beginning to end, especially in the car.
I somehow still have mine and the can. My sister and I bought these in a record store in central Illinois in early ’84, Same seminal effect as others have mentioned. One of the coolest attic artifacts ever.
I am so jealous! Keep that thing forever, but if you do ever decide to eBay it, hit me up first!