A good friend and I were talking about mix tapes over the past two days. The level of conversation was actually escalated to the point where I told (threatened?) her that I would make her a mix tape — not a CD, a playlist, a pre-loaded iPod or an SD card. A cassette tape with about 90 minutes of music on it.
Of course, this was seen as problematic. Not because it would have been considered a slap in the face to technological advancement. Nope. It was more along the lines of her not having anything to play the tape on in her home. I guess she got rid of the Sony Sports boombox in obnoxious yellow. (Yes — we have one.) Or, perhaps, she hocked her “auto-dub” double cassette stereo system years ago at a yard sale, not considering the future magic that would be Shiny’s mad cassette mixing skillz. So it looks like we’ll have to settle for a mix-CD instead.
But it got me thinking: where are my mix tapes? Back in high school and college I considered myself, in very modest terms, mix-master Shiny. Where other kids my age were excelling at organized sports, academic achievement and getting girls, I would reign supreme over the home stereo system, learning exactly where to cue up the right track. I was the prince of the pause button. The Duke of Dolby B. Lord of the cassette inserts I would print out to make everything look professional.
In the summer of 1992, I spent time at my college buddy Roberto’s home — he had a setup with multiple CD players (!) and was able to let me do some of my own mixing and cross-fading. And I made a few choice mixes that summer. I was so impressed with myself.
Anyway — I found them in my closet. And decided to pull them out to see how they held up.
Notice the sleek Bookman font lettering on the laser-printed insert? The slick smoothness of the clear Fuji cassette shell? The sticker with the number 6 placed strategically between those two gear-shaped hole things? That’s professionalism, people. Here – let’s take a look at another viewpoint:
Not only that, but I decided it was time to dust off the mix tape and take it for a spin today. I wanted to see how it held up over time.
Yes, I drive a ten year-old car that has a cassette player in it. Our past few vehicles have undergone surgery to receive CD (and later, MP3-CD) players in them, but we later realized that it was probably more practical to keep the cassette player and buy an adapter for use with an MP3 player. Today I removed that cassette adapter and pushed in a real cassette tape. What would happen? Would all the tape unravel and gum up the in-dash system? Would I have to resort to listening to Kriss Kross make me “jump, jump” without a full dynamic range?
Surprisingly it wasn’t that bad! The tape was very muffled at that exposed portion where it had been stored in a dusty box for over a decade. But once I got past that portion, it actually sounded quite good! Well, good enough to blast and not notice a huge difference from the CDs or MP3 player fodder I was used to. (I will say, however, that I could discern no difference whether or not Dolby was turned on or off.)
So — I listened to it in its entirety! Over the duration of a commute to work and a commute home (during rush hour in the rain). Here’s the playlist for Shiny Happy Mix Tape: Volume VI:
Side A:
- Thompson Twins – Revolution
- A-Ha – Take on Me
- Extreme – Play With Me
- Frankie Goes To Hollywood – (some extended dance mix of) Two Tribes
- Tears for Fears – Watch Me Bleed
- Don Henley – Boys of Summer
- Public Enemy – Fight the Power
- Roxette – Joyride
- Midnight Oil – When the Generals Talk
- Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out
Side B:
- Nine Inch Nails – Head Like a Hole
- Prince – Sign O’ The Times
- Howard Jones – Life in One Day
- Aerosmith – Love in an Elevator
- The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones – Kiss
- ABC – Be Near Me
- Yes – Survival
- Kriss Kross – Jump
- Concrete Blonde – Tomorrow Wendy
I generated quite a few thoughts listening to this compilation for the first time in at least ten years.:
* Again, the sound quality wasn’t too bad. Then again, my hearing isn’t what it once was, so that may be why I think so. I remember when CDs came out and I was so amazed by the brilliance of the music. Or maybe I just wanted to be dazzled. Why the hell am I talking about CDs anyway? Moving along…
* How did we survive with fast-forward / rewind at turtle-like speeds? Seriously — I wanted to skip through a track to see what was next. And that alone took me a minute and a half. It’s similar to being used to your TiVo and then suddenly going back to a VCR — and realizing that it takes 20 seconds to fast forward through a 30 second commercial. So, on the most part, I was stuck just listening. Even through…
* Yes songs really drag out for a long, long time. I used to be a huge Yes fan, seeing them in concert several times from high school through college and beyond. (I might even see the current lineup this summer.) And perhaps my ADHD has become even more fine-tuned, or now we’re living in more of an “on-demand” society, but their songs all seem to be too fuckin’ long. Don’t get me wrong — their songs are classics. Masterpieces. But they simply can’t be listened to during bumper-to-bumper traffic.
* My taste in cover songs has really changed. I used to love the Thompson Twins’ cover of the Beatles’ “Revolution.” And now? I think it’s a lame excuse for a track to hook people to buy their album. This was the same album with “Lay Your Hands On Me.” Why didn’t I put that on instead?
* I can’t think of the song “Take on Me” without imagining the awesome (for its time) video in my head. Self-explanatory.
* Early Extreme rocks big-time. We’re talking about before the “More than Words” era. The song I chose is on the “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” soundtrack. Excellent, indeed! The song really holds up, while…
* Early Tears for Fears tries too hard to be The Cure. Or the other way around. But it’s pre-goth goth. The song I chose, “Watch Me Bleed,” is on an album called “The Hurting.” Then again — one of the other tracks is the original version of “Mad World” before it was covered for that Donnie Darko movie.
* Damn, the Cold War was kind of unnerving at one time, wasn’t it? The Frankie Goes to Hollywood song had little sound clips from fallout drill recordings. I was too young to remember most of that, but I do remember the video with Reagan and Andropov (I think?) impersonators beating the shit out of each other in a boxing ring. Oh — and there’s also Reagan impersonations in this version of the song. Remember when everyone was doing the Reagan voice? That could have made me millions in a different era…
* Midnight Oil was more politically aware than Bono ever was. The scary-looking bald dude even got a seat in Parliament! I wish they were recording more…
* Remember when we thought that Concrete Blonde was bad-ass because they had that strong-sounding woman lead singer? Now — just not so much. Sorry…
* Howard Jones should go on tour. I saw him on “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” a performance show which has has-been singers singing the hits of today as covers. I forgot which one he did, but he was stylin’. He looked really old, though. But in his defense — he is.
* Love In an Elevator is really quite a brilliant song when you think about it. The musical composition of it combined with the orchestral blends and vocal harmonies make it quite exceptional.
This is really a great mix-tape. I might give it away as a prize or something for a future contest…
So — anyone else have any mix-tapes from yesteryear? What songs were on it?
Related Articles
32 users responded in this post
Wow NIN and Prince back to back. With Kriss Kross later on. Ballsy choices, my friend. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t make a ton of mixed tapes, I was fairly young still when CDs came around. My earliest mixed CDs are crap though, it’s all Brandy and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Amandas last blog post..I Watched You Change
I have to think about the mix tape question because I don’t remember right now but KNOW I had a ton of them so I will be back for sure 🙂
Tomorrow Wendy is my all time favorite song to feel guilty about loving, especially since I like the “balls to come, gaul to die and then forgive us” part. Jesus weeps for me ;). I also used to listen to HoJo every night at bed time.
And yes, if you really PPH this friend of yours, you’ll not make her find a pawn shop and pray for them to have a cassette player. She probably is a modern chick with this being 2008 and all ;).
Hillys last blog post..Snackie’s Confession Both: Sins Of Spring
Perhaps your friend has a friend with an audiophile husband who has a set-up which allows the transfer of cassette contents to computer, thence to be burned onto a CD. Ahem. Then again, it’s probably easier for you to just burn it to a CD yourself. So … never mind.
Most of my mix tapes (and I do still have them) are hair metal bands – Def Leppard, Dokken, Poison, Motley Crue, etc. Yeah, I was a hardcore Headbanger’s Ball fan in the ’80s.
SJs last blog post..Shadow
I saw HoJo play live in 1984. I’m sure the first word that comes to mind when you think HoJo isn’t “stoner”…but that was the most baked I’ve ever been (back when i did that sort of thing).
Also…The Hurting is one of my all time favorite albums. Watch Me Bleed is great choice. I think of The Cure & Tears For Fears moving in opposite directions. The Cure being very live guitar/drum oriented in the beginning with Boys Don’t Cry and then moving into more electronic as they went on. But Tears For Fears, The Hurting, was one of the more electronic sounding albums of the time. No mistaking the drum machine and sequenced keyboard parts on that album, but by the time they got to Seeds Of Love it was all about real guitars, drums, and piano. Both are great bands.
othurmes last blog post..In Which A Computer Is Murdered (And Its Little Dog, Too)
I used to make so many mixed tapes, it was ridiculous. When I was younger, I used to tape them directly off of the radio. Very few of them exist and given my pretty bad taste in music when I was in middle school and high school, I’m glad that they don’t.
Brandons last blog post..100 Things About Me – #21 to #30 – Pizza!
Wow this took me back! We used to record the Top 40 on a Sunday evening from the radio and then someone clever, (not me), would edit out the talky bits. I am sure I still have some of those tapes knocking about…but where? Hmmmm…
Penelopes last blog post..Warning! I’m out of wine…
I think Fabby is going to argue with you about Concrete Blonde.
I made so many mix tapes–it was a talent to get just the right songs to fill a side and not break the mood.
There’s one I wish I could find–I might manage to with the impending move–Songs from a Misspent Youth was the title 😉
Fabby made me some mix CDs—it was incredibly romantic.
Turnbabys last blog post..Shameless
DoI really admit right here in semi-public that I have BOXES of tapes (you know those paper ones – I have 3 full).. and I still listen to them? In my casette player in my car… Yes, i do.
I think I have an almost exact mix of your tape too. Funny, I just last week was drooling over those machines that will convert your tapes to CD for you.
bubblewenchs last blog post..1
I am still trying to get over Roxette and Public Enemy on the same side. “Elvis was a hero to most…” “She’s got the look.” Daring!
My mixed tapes were discovered by very curious three year old (he’s now 7), I was enjoying the silence when, as all parents know, I should have been more alert to the subtleties. (He ripped out most of them.) And yeah, I still have a double cassette player in my basement. It used to half work. (Same three old also found in fun to put his “bonhomme” (action figures) in there and I think it may have broken the mechanism. (I also have a turn table.)
othurme said what I was going to say about TFF. The album titled Concrete Blonde, I think, has held up pretty well. (Still in Hollywood is one of my all time favourite songs ever.) The other well Thompson Twins Revolution… always sucked. Sorry. 🙂
P.S. You sure you don’t mean Gorbachev? (He’s the one most people remember) Andropov was only in power for a year or something before him. (Preceeded by Brezhnev.)
Nats last blog post..Can I help you?
So cool! I still have a tape player in my solara (because it’s a 2001) and a standard CD changer that came with the car. Bose, of course. 😉
I also listen to stuff from the 80’s, and get more out of some that I missed due to experience and age, and then listen to some and go “WTF was I thinking???”
But mix tapes? Dude. What I like about the tapes is the easy access to the names of the songs on the CD. Of course, I never carry the actual CD case; all my CDs are in a CD holder thingy. So I never learned the names of the songs on my CD. Now, I say, “Oh, go to track 7, I like that one best”.
I have an IPOD and an MP3 player, and they are full of music. But I still use my CD player almost exclusively in my car, because it’s such a pain in the ass to use the adapter for my MP3 player over the radio in the car. I guess I am trying to play down my technology. I even cut my travel technology gadgets in half when I realized I had to have seven different cables to make everything work. Ugh. Now, at least a lot of them can use just ONE USB cable. But my next car will have an MP3 player built in. Period.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. Nostalgia. Ah.
Absurdists last blog post..Mother’s Day Part III: Honoring Wonderful Mothers
If you give it away as a prize, you’re going to have to give away that yellow boom box as well.
Miss Britts last blog post..Terrified
You have reminded me not only of how much I like mix tapes but of a beautiful book with the same theme. The book is Love is a Mix Tape, by Rob Sheffield a sad and beautiful view of love with a soundtrack made with the patience thrown away in our easy age of playlists and cd burns. Thanks Shiny!
The cold war gave me a twitchy childhood and made the sounds of airplanes at night a frightening thing. so yeah unnerving
Hey is was great meeting you last Sunday!
Nice transition from Don Henley to Public Enemy. 🙂
Also, you take that back about Concrete Blonde!!!
Chillzillas last blog post..19. Moving a TV
All of the mix tapes ever given to me are in Bookman font. Because the boy liked it so much. All my tapes are sitting directly behind me at this very moment, I kid you not.
Poppys last blog post..Shopping is f-u-n … online.
I have a mix tape made for me in the late ’80s by my first love. I still have although I have nothing to play it on. But I cherish it. Most of the songs have made their way to my iPod, but I’ll keep the tape until they pry it from my cold, dead hand.
A sampling of songs: Under Pressure – Queen/Bowie, No One Is To Blame – Howard Jones, Fast Car – Tracey Chapman, Don’t Let Him Steal Your Heart Away – Phil Collins, a Ziggy Marley song I can’t remember, The song by Meatloaf with the beginning, “On a dark summer night, would you give your throat to the wolf with the red roses?” and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – Roberta Flack (he had to buy this one special for me!).
*sigh*
Finns last blog post..Thoughts From Philadelphia
I used to make really annoying mix tapes for my friends (with an actual dual tape player so I actually had to buy all those crummy tapes as well). They were all named in the theme of the Manly Tapes. I can’t remember all the names but there was Still Manly After All These Years, I Often Feel Manly in the Morning and Quein es Mas Manly. Songs with double entendres (like the Dinynyls “I Touch Myself” would defintely be included. And I know “Love in an Elevator” was on one of them.
Ah, good times. It’s no Frankie Goes to Hollywood though.
t2eds last blog post..Pour Some Sugar On Me
Wow, nobody ever knows who Concrete Blonde is/was. Tomorrow Wendy is still one of my favorite songs. You should check out some of their videos on You Tube…just a teensy bit overly theatrical (insert sardonic wit here). 🙂
Epiphanys last blog post..Ouch
I never even heard of Concrete Blonde until Fab made me a mix CD a year or two ago. I’m younger than him, too. I have cars that play cassettes, too. They also play CDs and iPods.
I had a friend who used to make mix tapes by recording them off the radio. With a microphone. I’m not kidding.
Shellis last blog post..The Emotional Side of TequilaCon
I approve of any mix tape which includes the Thompson Twins!
Dave2s last blog post..Buy!
Amanda: I was actually thinking of posting just the cross-fades between the songs because it sounded so damn professional for an amateur in the early 90s. That one, especially, between Head Like a Hole and Sign O’ The Times, was quite remarkable.
Hilly: I still consider “Tomorrow Wendy” to be one of my favorite songs of all time. My college roommate (and later my best man) was a guy named Joseph who both ridiculed my taste in music and introduced me to newer stuff, and he played “Wendy” for me one night and I was hooked. I have nothing against Concrete Blonde; I’d probably feel more positively about them, however, if they didn’t have that fucking annoying “Joey” song.
And for that comment, my dear — just to spite you — I’m going to find an 8-Track on Craigslist and send it to you just so you’ll have to waste money in exactly the same manner. 🙂
SJ: I’m sure this individual has some wonderful friends who could do that. But you’re right — it may be more trouble that it’s worth.
Call it sacrilege if you wish — but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a song by Dokken. Unless, of course, I just didn’t know it was them…
othurme: Since you wrote your reply, I had pulled out my copy of “The Hurting” (which was, by the way, the first CD I ever purchased). A lot of it really holds up. I didn’t like them as much around their “Seeds of Love” era — but they were still one of the more original bands out there.
Brandon: You and me both. I remember recording our local hit music station’s (then Q107 in DC) “Top 5 at 10” and playing it back at school. It’s how I got everyone to listen to Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom.”
Penelope: It’s funny you mention this: In the summer of 1992 I took a road-trip with some college friends from College Park, Maryland to Disney World in Orlando, Florida — about a 16 hour drive which we did straight through. I happened to bring some tapes my brother recorded of a radio special counting down the top 100 songs of 1984. (Hello, Casey Kasem!) The best part about it, I think, was listening to all of the advertisements from 1984 as well!
Turnbaby: We all were so clever with our titles, weren’t we? 🙂 And yes — I have my slow mixes as well which were planned quite strategically.
And what can I say? Mr. Fabulous is a classy man…
Bubblewench: It’s not so tough to do with free software and an older stereo system. I’ve done some converting of old tapes to MP3 that way… But kudos to you for kickin’ it old-style in the car!
Nat: The double tape-deck stereo system was a status symbol growing up — and one which we didn’t get until much later. In fact, if I wanted to dub anything, I needed to hook up my generic-brand Walkman’s headphone jack to cables which would, in turn, split into the left and right channel microphone inputs of the tape deck. I felt like MacGuyver…
Oh — and I Wikipedia’d “Two Tribes.” The Soviet leader was Konstantin Chernenko.
Absurdist: I’ve seen relatively inexpensive head units (heh) which have MP3-CD capability as well as a slot for an SD card and a USB port. I was thinking of getting this — if only to become another means to charge my phone while driving…
Miss Britt: The tape player in it doesn’t work so well — it makes the music sound all wobbly and woozy. But it’s a hell of an improvement when you’re listening to Lionel Richie…
PocketCT: Likewise! And I’ll have to take a look for the book…
Chillzilla: I made it seamless — it was a beautiful transition — like a symphony! 🙂 (Thanks for finding me here, by the way. I miss you guys and the Friday nights together…)
Poppy: I discovered the Bookman font my freshman year of college. It was on a Mac — and I didn’t discover the font on a PC until two years later. It’s a shame, really: had I thought the font were exclusive to the Mac, I might have lived my life differently, embracing a computer platform that actually works well…
Finn: “No One Is To Blame” is also a favorite of mine — and I remember having to get both versions — the single one with Phil Collins and the one at the end of the “Dream Into Action” album which is solely accompanied by piano. Very powerful.
The Roberta Flack song was number one when I was born. Feel old? 🙂
t2ed: My slow, sentimental mixes were called the “Shiny, yet not-so-happy” mix tapes. You were far more creative than I…
Epiphany: “Overly theatrical.” THANK YOU. I was trying to determine an appropriate adjective — that’s just perfect.
Shelli: I used to do that as well! After all — what else was the microphone there for? 🙂
Dave: … although they went downhill when Joe Leeway left the band and it became just a duo. The little “where are they now” blurb pops up on VH1 every so often…
Are you trying to have a Mac vs. PC war with me?
Because (and please don’t take this the wrong way, take it in that cute-voiced Poppy way) I could give a shit what OS people like or don’t like.
I just wanna blog and email and chat with the damn thing.
Yes, yes, I’m an IT guy. Doesn’t mean I hafta care. 😉
Poppys last blog post..Surprise gift
Oh, and watch and make videos.
And stare at LOLcats.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
ok, bye
Poppys last blog post..Surprise gift
Poppy: Use whatever you wish. I use two opeating systems at work (side by side), and I’ve gathered that I’ll be critical of anything that comes my way. If I used a Mac I probably wouldn’t idolize it as much as I do now. 🙂
And I’ve decided to quit my LOLCats habit once I found and was creeped out by Ceiling Cat.
Shinys last blog post..Mix Tape
Yah, I took a tiny glance at Ceiling Cats and quickly clicked the X. YIKES.
Poppys last blog post..Surprise gift
So yesterday on the drive to Jester’s, I was listening to Tomorrow, Wendy when I noticed that I had previously FAILED to notice that I was close to empty. As my gas light went on, I quickly turned off that cd and promised Jesus that if he let me get to a gas station, I would never listen to that song again…or for the whole ride up…or for that hour, at least ;).
Hillys last blog post..Snackie Video: The Sweet Sweet Posse Bonus
It was Gorby. Gorbachev. I HAVE the video on a VHS tape in the living room. Rott refuses to give up all his concert tapes and video mixes… and cassette mixes. He’s pretty much taken all my tape mixes. Like SJ, I had a lot of hair bands. Lots of Dokken, Poison, Bon Jovi, etc. I also had tapes with Extreme, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Y&T, Tesla, and Yngwie Malmsteen. And hair ballads, including one that has Yngwie’s “Don’t Let It End” on it. That tape was made for me by a guy I was boinking at the time. I think I still have his mesh briefs too in a box somewhere…
Winters last blog post..Too Many Shuns
I did mix tapes, but… Ok I have something even worse. You see I spent a lot of time in trouble, and I would get grounded to my room with no tv, no phone, no radio, no books allowed. So, I used to tape my favorite shows with my swank boombox, and then hide the walkman and the tapes under my mattress, so when I got grounded I could entertain myself with “audio television programs.” The last tape I found had Heathcliff the cartoon shows on it, along with ghostbusters and garfield.
Kyras last blog post..Uber-Sigh
aawesom mix tape… the only Aerosmith song I like is “Janies Got A Gun” but “Love In An Elevator” isn’t bad!
Hilly: Jesus was more of a 4-Non Blondes fan than a Concrete Blonde fan, actually…
Winter: Nah, I think it’s Chernenko. I’ve included the video here:
I didn’t get into metal as much, but I’ve always liked the name Yngwie Malmsteen. Sounds like a nice Jewish boy…
Kyra: YES! I would do the same thing — with annotation describing the action. I remember specifically doing that for episodes of Knight Rider…
Tori: Another good song. Powerful…
I came via Hilly…I’d do pretty much anything she told me to do I think.
I have a box full of mix tapes in my closet. I wish I could listen to them again but our only tape player broke about a year ago. I had a good friend in high school and when I moved, he used to send me mix tapes with him talking on them between the songs too. I remember how awesome I always felt when I got one in the mail. He was a big fan of Janet Jackson though, and I was never really into her.
I accidentally made a mix tape (CD though) for my good friend’s brother not too long ago…we were at a party and talking about music and I went home and made him a CD full of stuff I thought he would like. His wife (another friend of mine) was teasing me that she was going to get jealous!
radioactive girl toris last blog post..Cupcakes, Paper Chains and Wheezing
RGT: Welcome to the blog! I’ll have to convince Hilly to tell you to bring me a suitcase full of money dressed in a cheerleader outfit two sizes too small…
The mix tapes with talking in the middle? Those can get awkward and weird when listening to them later in life with… well, let’s say someone else for whom the talking wasn’t intended. 🙂
Shinys last blog post..“List on the 3s:” Top 9 Movies That Shiny Is A Complete Tool For Not (Yet) Seeing
Leave A Reply