Got a craving recently to listen to this old album, and pulled out the cassette (#17), which indicates in recorded it from the album March 10, 1983, which was my freshman year at ETSU. I went through my tapes a couplf of weeks ago, and it appears I was doing a lot of dubbing around that time, which makes sense - marching band season and KKPsi pledgeship was over. Although I didn't have a car or a Walkman (until spring of 1984) apparently I felt the need to have tapes of my favorite albums.
Airborn is an album written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield, best known for his 1973 album "Tubular Bells", which was used as the theme for "The Exorcist". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Oldfield Released in the UK as "Platinum", it was his fifth new album and the first to feature "regular" songs and cover material. Airborn is a slightly different version of the UK original ("Woodhenge" was replaced by "Guilty") released in 1980, and is the one I have. As best I can recall, it was a Christmas present from Mother & Daddy in 1981 or possibly 1982. I really can't remember why I wanted it - although I had some interest in prog rock at the time (Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds, Alan Parsons Project, etc.) I still can't figure out the connection - odds are that a friend in band - possibly Shannon Lynn - had it. Or that I got interested in Tubular Bells, and this album had it, which may be more likely. The album contains a "bonus" live album which is a live version of Tubular Bells recorded live on Oldfield's European tour in March/April 1979, and a studio and live version of Incantations recorded at Througham December 1977-September 1978 and on the EU tour March/April 1979. (The live versions are supposedly different from the live versions on Exposed, but I'll find out when I get that in - along with Platinum and Incantations - next week. Oldfield's discography is decidedly confused.
Platinum - particularly the first section - is my favorite on this album, although there are some good sections in the live parts of sides 3 and 4. The cassette has held up remarkably well - listening in the car (admittedly not the best sound environment) the recording is as crisp as any DVD, and the occasional pops from the album are not annoying at all.