I found a 31-year-old mixtape playlist made by me in the 1980s recently.
I don’t have the tape but this list, tucked into the inner folds of my wallet, is eye opening because it chronicles musically a particular time in my life. I will comment briefly on the songs below but first. some background.
I was about 27 or 28 and had left the Birmingham News after five years. I went to work at the Orlando Sentinel. I was living in Leesburg, FL, for my first reporting job at the Sentinel. And that’s where I think I assembled a tape to send to my colleagues back in the Birmingham News newsroom. We had a running game to see who could find the best songs no one had heard of.
I wrote a list of the playlist to keep for myself and I’m not sure why except perhaps anticipating sometime in the future we would open this time capsule and talk about the tape, see how our tastes have changed or rediscover lost music from my past. Prescient, I think I can say in retrospect.
It’ an eclectic bunch of songs heavy on rock, alternative, New Wave, and what we call now Classic rock. I think I made the tape the old fashioned way with vinyl, turntable and cassette deck — although some of these cuts I believe came off CD’s which were starting to get a toehold in the market, and I was an early adopter. I took pride in mixtapes. I still know these songs but some I haven’t played in dozens of years. And some I’m not sure I have or where I got them.
How did it stay in my wallet all this time? I have changed wallets since then but not much. I have a rotating set of wallets and I think I went back to an older one right around the year 2000. The older one had stuff in it that I must have just let ride in wallet — business cards, receipts I think I should keep but don’t really need to.
Here’s my song-by-song thoughts:
Eleventh Dream Day “Rose of Jericho.” Underrated band alternative hard rock with female vocalist. Good band. I actually like. with its rock harmonies, the song “It’s All a Game’‘ better than Jericho.
Dreams so Real “Rough Night in Jericho” another good alt-rock song from the Athens, Ga., scene.
I see I scratched out Green on Red “Zombie for your Love.” Too bad, that’s a good one but I think i had this on CD not vinyl.
Mekons “Club Mekon” I just reviewed this one for My Vinyl Countdown. i have speculated that this was the last vinyl record I bought during this eral
Soul Asylum “Cartoon.” This band received some success on MTV with a song called “Runaway Train” about runaway teens.
Pylon “Stop It” Athens Ga., band tried to catch a ride on the attention brought to the college town by REM and the B-52’s. This one is a real screamer, cathartic for Vanessa Briscoe.
Alex Bradford “Lord Lord Lord” Some good old fashioned gospel.
Darden Smith “2000 Years” And some new fashioned gospel.
Here’s the list for the other side of the cassette:
Flaming Groovies “Shake Some Action.” A garage 1970s band that played music 1960s music. Home base was San Francisco. Camper Van Beethoven covered this great song.
Posies “Golden Slumbers” A band from the Northwest that played tuneful alternative songs with hints of a Beatles/Byrds influence.
Big Star “Ballad of El Goodo” Band that famously didn’t make the big time featuring Alex Chilton who belted out “The Letter” as lead vocalist of the Box Tops when he was only 16.
Blackgirls “Happy” I’m going to have to go back to listen to this one because I have no memory of it.
Love “Alone Again or …” Classic 1960s band and song coming from the classic album “Forever Changes.” Covered by Suzanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet in one of their covers records.
Quicksilver Messenger Service “Fresh Air” Another California Bay Area rock, a little psychedelic with kick butt guitar playing on this one.
Camper Van Beethoven “Pictures of Matchstick Men.” Cover song of a Status Quo psychedelic-era song. Well done.
Toad the Wet Sprocket “Come Back Down.” Another one I remember nothing about. What’s a wet sprocket?