Today is the blog's seventh birthday. One of the posts I made that day (yes, there was more than one) was a reboot of something I'd put on Facebook almost a year before, a snippet about the lead song on a mixtape I'd created in the WTLX studios in May 1985. There's little doubt in my mind that FB series (forty-four songs from two tapes) was one of the big moments on the way to this enterprise.
There was another tape I'd recorded down at WTLX, though. One Saturday afternoon in the middle of my senior year at Transy--I want to say late November or early December of '85, but I suppose it could have been January '86--I strung together another ninety minutes of stuff I liked, alternating songs cued up on the two turntables. (No, we didn't broadcast on Saturdays.) Even though the inputs turned out to be set too high, leading to a fuzziness upon playback, I listened to this one many a time over the following decade.
Until it broke, right at the end of side one.
It was a low-end BASF tape, something I'd bought a box of at a mall record store. There was something defective about the way they were made, as others from that box had the same thing happen.
Last Saturday, Martha helped me salvage four of these cassettes, using Scotch tape to reattach the broken ends (the things one does for love). I immediately plopped this one in our tape player and let the memories roll. With a few exceptions--particularly a sequence toward the beginning of the second side--I wasn't sure anymore about what I'd hear. After another listen at long last, though, the selections certainly feel like those I'd have picked on a grey weekend long ago.
It seems fitting to do a little mixtape blogging today. I played side two first because of where the tape broke, but we'll recount things the way nature intended.
U2, "A Sort of Homecoming"
There are only four songs on The Unforgettable Fire that I really dig: "Pride," of course, along with "Bad," the title track, and this opening cut. I remember being a little disappointed with the album on first listen; while I probably didn't expect War II, I guess I did miss Steve Lillywhite's bombastic production.
And as much as I like this, the live take on Wide Awake in America is the definitive version of the song.
Cock Robin, "When Your Heart Is Weak"
Like I had the previous May, I salted the playlist with a number of recent hits. "When Your Heart Is Weak" had reached #35 at the end of August. I realize the lyrics are plenty creepy/stalker-ish, but the song still sounds great.
The Cars, "Don't Tell Me No"
I would regularly purchase used LPs at Cut Corner Records, and some of those albums show up here. I think my original college roommate owned Panorama, which would have been how I first heard it. It's far from my favorite effort from these guys, but I wouldn't be surprised if I got my own copy later because I'd liked "Don't Tell Me No" so much.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "Here Comes My Girl"
Petty's decision to speak and speak/sing the verses really made this an arresting piece. The casual asides of "Watch her walk" (yes, I recognize it's objectifying) and "That's right!" help lift it to classic status.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, "So in Love"
My intro to OMD, believe it or not--I was still early in the process of breaking away from the pop chart scene, I guess. It's probably the only song on this side of the tape that came from the WTLX 45 stash.
Eye to Eye, "Nice Girls"
A favorite from the summer of 1982. Both vocalist Deborah Berg and pianist Julian Marshall are still active, even occasionally recording (separately these days).
The Go-Go's, "Tonite"
When I ranked the songs from Beauty and the Beat toward the end of 2021, I wrote that "Tonite" came close to beating out "Our Lips Are Sealed" for the top spot. I meant it.
Fleetwood Mac, "Blue Letter"
Mac disks were also regular used purchases during my college days--four of 'em. Before that I was familiar with a few of the album cuts, but others, like "Blue Letter," were new to me. All these years later, I'm still gobsmacked at how good that one is.
I was dimly aware that "Blue Letter" wasn't written by anyone in the band, but it was just this week I learned that around the same time writers Michael and Richard Curtis also penned a song that Stephen Stills later turned into "Southern Cross."
Chris Isaak, "Dancin'"
Several of the tunes on this tape have made appearances already on the blog, including "Dancin'." That probably says something about the relative immutability of how I feel about music from this period.
Katrina and the Waves, "Do You Want Crying"
I'd bought the 45s for both this and "Walking on Sunshine" earlier in the year. Do I think "Do You Want Crying" should have done better than #37 on the charts? Why, yes I do.
Talking Heads, "Girlfriend Is Better (Live)"
I don't recall purchasing Stop Making Sense on vinyl, but I'd bet a bunch of nickels that James had a copy. Wikipedia tells me the LP version was only about three-and-a-half minutes, but you're getting Byrne in all his big-suit dancing glory below.
Madness, "One Step Beyond"
As Jerry Harrison's (or is it Bernie Worrell's?) keyboard hijinks faded out last Saturday, I found I instinctively knew what was coming next. Martha can attest that my "Hey you!" beat Chas Smash's by at least a full second.
I bought the 45 for "Our House" when it was popular, but it's got nothing on this one or "House of Fun."
We'll check out side two of this delightful rediscovery in the coming days.
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