The Lost Art of the Mix Tape

Back in the day when the primary sources of music were cassettes and LPs (records, vinyl, etc.), I used to make mixed tapes for friends. Unlike the primary character in the book/movie "Hi Fidelity", however, I did not make these tapes only for the fairer sex. I suppose my reason was two-fold: 1) I wanted people to understand that I had a very huge interest in music, and by giving them a mix tape, they would possibly "get me" better, and we would thereby have something in common; 2) It was a way to perhaps influence someone into buying more of my favorite band's albums, thereby helping out the bands I loved.

Over the years, I probably made over 100 mix tapes for people, sometimes multiple mix tapes for one person, usually my closest friends. It probably started when my dad brought me back a mono radio/tape player from Saudi Arabia, on one of his trips for the government. The thing was basically a boombox with one speaker. I'm not sure it was mono, but for some reason, I feel like it was. This was somewhere around 1978, I'm sure. I didn't even have a cord for the thing at first, I was using batteries. Dad told me that the tape deck would use up more juice, so when I recorded a song off the radio, I only recorded a snippet of it. Usually, this meant that I never got the beginning of a song, and barely got the end of the song. This was annoying to my friends I shared the tapes with, but didn't really bother me all that much.

Then my dad went out and bought a multi-component stereo, and laid out a concept for me: If you make a tape of your records, you can play this $1 tape over and over until it collapses, and save wear on your records. Pure. Fucking. Genius. At the time, I had a collection of 7" records, all Top 40 stuff, so I began by putting my favorites on tapes. Some people would stick to the hits, or A-sides of these records, but I was always willing to give the B-side a chance. I really liked Pat Benatar's "My Clone Sleeps Alone" and Heart's "Pilot". While "My Clone" was actually on Pat's first album, "Pilot" as far as I know, was exclusive to the "Barracuda" single.

Here's the thing about mix tapes: Anyone can slap together enough songs to fill 90 minutes. The key is trying to make them flow, which can be tough, especially if you're mixing genres like Top 40, album-oriented new wave, and metal. Which, at times, was what I was doing. To add to that, if you're only using a turntable and one tape deck, it's going to take a long time because if you're going for quality, that means you actually have to clean each record, cue it up perfectly (so as not to have too much dead air between songs - aim for 2 seconds, less if you're going for "aural assault", or one song right after the other, BAM-BAM-BAM; NOTHING BUT HITS, BITCH!)

I would start out by trying to figure out what to put on the tape, usually planning the first 6-10 songs. After that I started getting excited and impatient and would begin the process. While the first 6 or so are recording, you're listening, pulling out more material, and then trying to get a preview in your head how the next songs will flow. If you have two tape decks, and a turn table, then you can try to go record-tape-record, so you can speed the process. What's even better? When you add a CD player into the mix. Now you're cooking with gas. You can get a 90-minute tape done in about 120 minutes.

When you make a lot of these things, you sort of start taking it for granted. You think, "Everyone makes mix tapes for people." Only they don't. My friend, Andy, the Inhuman Eating Machine, was conducting an interview with Dave Crider of Estrus records for the Ersatz World 'zine we had in Ames. He was discussing his frustration with people's music knowledge, and Dave pointed out, "Not all people share the same love of music as you." I think Andy had an epiphany. I know I did.

What cracks me up is that with the internet, I'll find people from my past, or they'll find me, and you have the "I don't know if you remember me" conversations. Sometimes, people will say, "Hell yes, I remember you. You made me that mix tape back in ..." Honestly, it blows me away.

The other day, my wife called me and told me that I had a package from Amazon. She was wondering what I had ordered, when she opened the box to find a book that was sent to me from P Mart's little brother, Sam. Sam put a note in there saying that the book was written by Dr. Frank (Frank Portman) from the Mr. T Experience (MTX). Sam said in the note that I had put some MTX on a mix tape for him when he was in high school, and he had been downloading a lot of MTX from eMusic. Again, I'm amazed.

I would still love to make mix tapes for people. I've made mix CDs but the art is not the same. Drag and drop songs, move them into an order, and you can maybe fit 70 minutes of music onto a CD. CD is done in 10 minutes. Where's the love in that?

My man, P Mart, does a good job, only he does "themed" CDs, which are eclecta-cool. He did one with Falsetto songs, one called Black, which all the songs have the word "Black" in them, and he didn't choose obvious ones. I've discovered a lot of great music from those, including Modest Mouse's "Black Cadillacs" and "Cattle and the Creeping Things" from the Hold Steady off the "Best of 2005" CD he made.

Cassettes were never the greatest media for quality sound, but they sufficed, you could let people borrow them, or throw them in the car for a road trip. I miss being able to do quirky things at the end of the tapes, like throwing a comedy skit on there.

CDs are just as good, only shorter. But even CDs are dying out. People have iPods. I guess it would be cool to pass along Songlists, if that could be done.

Albums of Influence

If you've got myspace, then you know that people can send out bulletins. These go to all your friends. One of these came through the other day, and most of the time, I don't really give a damn what they're about. My cousin sent one with the subject of "Why boys like girls." It was a list of about 25 items that what appeared to be "emo-boy" answers (sample: "How great she smells even if it's just her shampoo."). I replied with the 26th item, which stated, "Because the other choice would be to love a hairy man." I only reply to the sender of the message.


Anyway, one came through the other day with "Top 5 albums that influenced you," or something like that. I took a brief moment, took a sip of coffee, and then quickly pulled 5 out of my butt.


When I woke up at 4:00 a.m. this morning and couldn't fall back asleep, I decided to get up and expound on this topic.


KISS: "Destroyer"

This was the first album I claimed as my own. Everything else in the house was either mom or dad's. I begged for weeks to get this album. My mom and dad were not sure. I got verbally dogged for playing this album. Typical generation gap stuff. I probably played this album more than any other album I have ever owned. This is strictly based on format. There are CDs I have owned that I know I have played more, but this record was bought when we still had that all-in-one stereo from Sears. Eight track, record player, radio, two speakers. Soon thereafter, my dad bought a bunch of components, including a tape deck. My practice soon thereafter was to buy a tape with each record, play the record while recording it, and then store the record. Mostly, I got 7" records, which begat the creation of the "mix tape" concept, which is really what I miss the most about cassettes these days. Oh, sure, I can make you a "mix-CD" but I can only get about 70 minutes in there. 90 on a cassette.

This album would lead me into the heavier rock as I got older. I think I actually had this album just over the year, and then I sold it for like $5 to the kid down the street. The browbeating from my folks finally got to me. Plus, I was getting into tunes on the radio at the time.

Cheap Trick at Budokan


I have owned this album in every format except 8-track. It's just too bad that they didn't make this a double-live album. They released Budokan II, which was the second half of the same concert in 1994, and then after that, they put a package together of the whole thing, which I still want to get.


This might have been my first live album. My dad did have "Frampton Comes Alive" but that one had to grow on me. Cheap Trick was much more raw, and they were from my cousin's home town of Rockford, Illinois. I was never a big fan of the production on the first 3 Cheap Trick studio albums, and found the recordings on these albums to be more true to the band's sound.

This album developed a pattern for me liking new bands. If I was interested in a new band, I would buy a live album if they had one. If I liked a certain song, I would then go pick up the album with the studio version. I did this with Rush, for sure. I had a couple of studio albums by AC/DC, but I'm pretty sure "If You Want Blood, You've Got It" lead me to buy every album that Bon Scott sang on.


Wanted! The Outlaws and
Willie Nelson: "Red Headed Stranger"


Dad used to play these on Saturday and Sunday mornings while making breakfast. These two albums lead me to appreciate good country music. When I say "good" country music, I don't mean Garth Brooks or pretty much anything on country radio after 1986. Whereas Willie, Waylon, and these albums sort of gave rebirth to country music ("Wanted!" was the first country album to go platinum. Think about the history there.), Garth Brooks and the rest of Nashville killed country music. Oh, sure, they're selling more records now. But if you listen to the music and didn't know it was a country station these days, you'd say to yourself, "This is just cheesey pop" (especially if it's a woman country singer).



It was probably this appreciation that lead me to the Gear Daddies first, and then Uncle Tupelo second, in the 90's. Then came the whole alternative country movement, which never got its due credit. Who knows, maybe I'm the only one who likes the genre, but there were some great bands, that I bet if they would have received airplay on country stations would have had some great success. But they weren't from Nashville, and no one knew where to put them. Hell, I heard a Son Volt song ("Drown") on a mainstream rock radio station back in '95.

The Sex Pistols: "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" and "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle"



There are some people (Andy) who would say that the Sex Pistols weren't really a punk band except for their image. The tunes were more rock or even early metal than punk. However, the Sex Pistols influenced me in two ways. First, my rhythm guitar playing was influenced more by Steve Jones than any teacher or other friend (save Dan Malkinski, that guy is solely responsible for explaining the Barre chord to me). On these two albums, Steve taught me to keep it simple. He taught me how to "arpeggio" a chord ("Lonely Boy"). He taught me how to rock out with my cock out. Thank you, Steve. Because of you, I was able to chip out a career in the minor leagues of rock and roll. Because of you, I am the Crash Davis of Indie Rock.

Secondly, these two albums opened the floodgates of punk rock for me and my friends perusing the record stores in Germany. These guys allowed us to buy records in the genre and sub-genres, including bands like the Angry Samoans, Black Flag, G.B.H., Alien Sex Fiend, and countless others. The Sex Pistols rock influence later lead me to appreciate my favorite punk rock band, The Descendents.


I'd be really interested to see what records influenced you in the comments section.