On March 6th of this year, we lost another great innovator in the world of music, Mr. Lou Ottens. Lou Ottens was a Dutch engineer who worked for Philips. Philips was at one time the largest electronics technology company in the world, go thru your house you’ll find tons of Philips’ products you didn’t know you had. So, the humble Lou Ottens, (21 June 1926 – 6 March 2021), was the inventor of the CASSETTE TAPE!
Yes that glorious invention that saved many a turntable from a fate worse than a stereo needle at a Rap concert. Yes, the practice so many of us musicians used, picking up / down, moving back / forth the needle on the album to desperately learn a Jeff Beck lick that kept alluding us. Now, being able to hit the “Rewind” button and hear that part again and again. Such joy! But before you go and start arguing about audio quality, try rewinding an 8-track. You kept bouncing the needle back to the start of the lick until both the album and the needle wore out. What do you mean, “you need another needle, I just bought one six months ago” a frustrated parent would yell. “And, no, you can’t get another copy of “Let it Bleed” either”. As far as sound quality was concerned, a decent TEAC deck and some Maxel cassettes would usually do the job just fine.
Mr Lou was also instrumental in developing the compact disc. The CD vastly superior in audio quality, but a step backwards, once again driving the transcribing musician insane by removing “again” the ability to rewind. Yes I know, the ability to rewind was still there, but it required a steady finger that I was not blessed with. Of course as history is want to do, history is repeating itself and we are once again embracing vinyl. Stereo needles shaking in fear all around the musical world.
It’s time to grab yourself a beverage, plug that ancient copy of Raunch and Roll into the Pioneer, fire up the Jensens and raise your glass to Mr Lou Ottens. Until next time.
Make a Joyful Noise,
dave