I've had the Sundown cassette playing in my car this week after not being able to place a line from "Somewhere, U.S.A." over the weekend, and I've noticed that the order of songs is quite different from that of the CD. I don't have the vinyl edition here in front of me (it's next to the folks' turntable Up North), and I'm wondering what the original order was and why they are so different. I'm guessing it must have something to do with the length of songs and balancing the tunes on each side of the cassette? And if that is the case, was the original record order the same as the cassette?
The cassette order:
SIDE ONE:
Sundown
Somewhere, U.S.A.
Seven Island Suite
Circle of Steel
Is There Anyone Home
SIDE TWO:
High and Dry
The Watchman's Gone
Carefree Highway
The List
Too Late for Prayin'
I haven't noticed a variation with the other cassettes and CDs I have, even those that have "long" songs on them (GGI and II).
It just seems curious to me, particularly because I imagine there is quite a bit of thought that goes into organizing tracks into an album.
Any thoughts or bits of trivia knowledge about this? Are there other albums that were shuffled around when recorded to cassette?
The order of the songs on vinyl matches the order of the songs on the CD. Just consider the fifth song on the CD the last song of side one on the vinyl.
I think you're right that the songs on the cassette were rearranged to balance the length of material on both sides of the cartridge. Back in 1970 (egads I'm dating myself with this admission!) I had an 8 Track recording of the "If You Could Read My Mind" album. The track "Me and Bobby McGee" was actually cut in half with a 15 second pause in the middle of the song while the tape switched from Side A to Side B! At least that practice died with the 8 Track format.
There are somke cassettes out there that list songs on the front,that "are" the songs included but are not exactly the way they are listed on the tape itself.
On one of those it would say "see label for sequence." Why they do that is mind boggling to me! Why not just put the right order in the first place?
At leas with CD's,they get both right,right off.
__________________
"A knight of the road,going back to a place where he might get warm." - Borderstone
Why not just put the right order in the first place? 
