Dig out your old mix tapes!!

[dan m]

Before the age of CDRs and email, I would spend hours making
mix tapes for myself and friends. I've just dug up a couple and
for me the selections bring back a ton of memories. So, to
start, here's one side A circa 1985 --

1) 8 miles high - Husker Du
2) Celebrated Summer - "
3) Telling Them - Social Distortion
4) Anthrax -- Gang of Four
5) Just like Honey - Jesus and Mary Chain
6) Stories -- Minutemen
7) King of the hill -- "
8) Southern China - Camper Van Beethoven
9) Swimming Ground - Meat Puppets
10) New England - Billy Bragg

Feel free to post yours and the date it was made.

cheers

Dan

 

[dan m]

So did you all bin your tapes? Here's side B:

1) Bastards of Young - Replacements
2) Androgenous - "
3) I don't like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
4) Read about it - Midnight Oil
5) Spellbound - Siouxsie
6) What she said - The Smiths
7) Legs - Art of Noise
8) Song to the siren - This Mortal Coil
9) AIkea Guinea - Cocteau Twins
10) Tomorrow never knows - Beatles

 

[RJohan]

So did you all bin your tapes?

No, but my Nak stopped working a couple of years ago, I have nothing to play them on.

My oldest tape is in fact a reel to reel one with stuff recorded from the radio in 1969. At least a third of the songs I don't know what it is!

Come to think of it, it's not the oldest, there is one a couple of years older where one can here this writer singing...

JohanR

 

[dan m]

My Nak still works, but doesn't get much use these days since I have
a component CD recorder. However, I still have a shoebox of TDK-SAs
that I can't bear to chuck out -- I am odd?

Dan

 

[robs]

This thread spurred me into putting on the sole Husker Du LP I own - Flip Your Wig - unplayed for many years - and I'd forgotten how great it is!!

Ta

 

[jimb0]

I have several large boxes of tapes in the garage that I can't bring myself to get rid of - strangely enough that is where my copy of "Flip Your Wig" is. Great record (apart from "The Baby Song"). That and Zen Arcade have gone onto my list of things to re-buy on vinyl.

/me hits ebay

Jim

 

[rod]

I didn't really get into mix tapes. I seemed to prefer taping whole albums and getting really bored by them. No logic there, I guess! Perhaps I should go down a Squeezebox-type route for a bit of random programming.

Still have a couple hundred or so tapes lying about that haven't been played for years. At least the vinyl gets an outing. The tapes are doomed, they just don't know it yet.

 

[mmterror]

Jeez I used to love sitting on my bedroom floor making compilation tapes to play in the car. A stack of CDs on the floor, the head cleaner tape, the de-magnitiser and a TDK SA or AR pushed slightly into the red (a bit further for the AR). Hunting out the short two minute tracks to fill the end of the tape so you didnt have to FF in the car. All so long ago!

Kids today.......

 

[Mike Hanson]

Originally posted by rod
I didn't really get into mix tapes. I seemed to prefer taping whole albums and getting really bored by them. No logic there, I guess!

I'm of much the same mind. I created perhaps one mix tape when I was a kid, but I can't for the life of me recall what it might be. I'm far to much into "completeness" to listen to individual tracks. On a related note, I've always disliked singles (45's, et al.).

Perhaps I should go down a Squeezebox-type route for a bit of random programming.

I've got a squeezebox, and I occasionally try to play randomly. It always annoys me, and I go back to selecting individual albums. The songs are often ordered on the album for a particular reason, and I don't like missing that plot.

Still have a couple hundred or so tapes lying about that haven't been played for years. At least the vinyl gets an outing. The tapes are doomed, they just don't know it yet.

Me too. I happened to play a tape on my old Harmon Kardon the other day. Either the particular tape has serious wow and flutter problems, or the belt/motor in my deck is bad. Either way, there's a good chance that those three big cases of tapes will never be played again. It's really quite sad...

Perhaps I should starting taking a few with me in the car, just to throw in for a laugh and a bit of nostalgia.

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

 

[rod]

Originally posted by Mike Hanson
Me too. I happened to play a tape on my old Harmon Kardon the other day. Either the particular tape has serious wow and flutter problems, or the belt/motor in my deck is bad. Either way, there's a good chance that those three big cases of tapes will never be played again. It's really quite sad...

My Yamaha deck has until now been given a reprieve, as it had the only headphone socket in my system. With my new White Noise head-amp now in service, the Yam will be going into cold storage, as I don't see a market for seven year old, bottom of the range tape decks. The good thing is, I now have a spare shelf to expand the amplification.

Perhaps I could resurrect it once a year for a tape playing session, for old times sake.

Although most of my tapes are home recorded, I probably have thirty or so pre-recorded. A friend of mine with a little record shop, no longer even sells second-hand tapes. I would imagine that they probably don't even sell on ebay. Good in thier heyday, but a waste of time now.

Cassette tape RIP.

 

[dan m]

the Yam will be going into cold storage, as I don't see a market for seven year old, bottom of the range tape decks

It's still a youngster. My bottom of the line two head Nak was my first
serious bit of kit (~1982).

I kind of agree with Mike - most often mix tapes were made for others
to let them sample things I was listening to. So I don't have too many.
Here's another one probably recorded around 1989 (not a complete
listing - I need to play it all the way throug) - some of this stuff has
not passed the test of time This is a really bad example since it has
no flow, but is good for a laugh.

A:
1) Time Zones - Negativeland
2) Shadow of a doubt - Sonic Youth
3) Let it ride - Dinosaur Jr.
4) History Lesson II - Minutemen
5) Confortably numb - Pink Floyd
6) E=MC2 - BAD
7) All roads lead to Rome - Stranglers
8) Madame Butterfly - Malcolm McLaren
9) Heroin - V.U.

B:
1) Don't believe the hype - P.E.
2) Posse on Broadway - Sir Mix-a-lot
3) Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry
...

 

[Mike Sae]

As an impressionable teen I made many a mix tape on one of these:

I still have the deck, but it needs a new belt. Besides, what the hell I'm I going to do with it?

I played recording engineer by twiddling the knobs so that the meteres stayed in the red at all times.

My piece de resistance was the best Tupac mix tape, ever. It was a bit of a legend in the suburbs of Vancouver.
I'll try to find it, so you can all have a laugh.

 

[dan m]

Back before silver was the new black (and still going strong):