Oh, this is fun. I had exactly one tape that admits to being less than 1800 feet, so I figured I’d get that out of the way. It’s 1200 feet, or just over an hour per side. The box is labeled “Kantner-Slick/Starship/Sunfighter.”

The box lies.

In faded tiny lettering it also says “I/Dance.music/Bach harpsichord/medieval.” This part is merely unhelpful, rather than flat-out wrong. I’ve recorded Side 1. I have not yet identified most of the music on it. The first three tracks are all piano and/or flute (or recorder, or pennywhistle, I’m not sure) dances. They don’t match the beginning of any album in my collection.

I think this might be something Jody put together (or had me put together) for a performance by Ring o’ Bells, her Morris troupe.

And it was quite likely recorded live, not off a record.

There are five tracks of that, and then Bach’s Concerto in C Minor for Two Harpsichords — but it isn’t the same version I already had from my Nonesuch collection; I don’t recognize it as a recording I’d heard before. Then there are a few more Bach pieces that I haven’t identified yet, though one sounds familiar — it’s about 25 minutes of Bach in all, I think — and then some random medieval music I also haven’t yet identified.

The Bach and medieval stuff is off records — it has that background hum, where the live stuff doesn’t.

Where did I get this music? And why?

Jody’s long dead, but I asked my other sisters if they know anything. Ruth thinks she may be able to identify some of it.

Meanwhile, the other side of the tape actually is Kantner & Slick’s “Sunfighter” and selected songs from “Blows Against the Empire,” which I don’t need. Already got ’em from LP/CD.

I think this means I flopped the sides, because the box has the Kantner/Slick stuff listed first. I have two empty reels for exactly such a purpose — play the tape onto take-up reel A, but then instead of rewinding it back onto its own spool you run it onto take-up reel B. Then you put it back on its own spool, and the sides are swapped.

I must have done that with this one at some point.

Which is probably what that faint “I” on the box is about.

I’ve transferred everything from Side 1, even though I can’t identify most of it, which means I can toss the tape.

Thirty-eight tapes left. And I still have some sorting and identifying to do on material off some of the fourteen that have been discarded.