Weekends in Paradelle

A while back I came across this website that is edited by Jason Bittner called CassetteFromMyEx.com.  On the site people share their stories of lost (or everlasting) love that center around a mix tape they made for their love.

Jason Bittner is the co-creator of FOUND Magazine and an interesting photo book about LaPorte, Indiana. He also put together Cassette from My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves which  is a collection of stories, essays, art, and other contributions by various artists, musicians, and writers.  It’s the story of the role of the mixtape that was especially big in the late 1970s and 80s when cassette tape reigned.

There’s also a book called Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture by Thurston Moore . He is a founding member of the rock group Sonic Youth, as well as a poet. He also runs EcstaticPeace.com, a music, art, and literature website.

The compact audio cassette has been around since 1963. In the 1970s, these  inexpensive and portable tapes were part of the “downloadable” music culture long before the Internet and Napster.

Mix tapes let the DJ in us loose to create mixes for ourselves, friends, parties, road trips – and for those we loved.

Moore classifies those love tapes into categories like the Romantic Tape, the Break-up Tape, the Road Trip Tape, to the Indoctrination Tape (made to introduce someone to “your music.”

And it was often more than just the songs.  There was the artwork, packaging, “liner notes” and even the sequencing.

One extended story of mixtape romance is by rock critic Rob Sheffield. He wrote a memoir using 22 “mix tapes” to describe his life with his wife, Renee, from their meeting in 1989 to her untimely death in 1997. Each of the chapters in Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time begins with song titles from their mixes.

I have been making mix tapes all through the tape period and into CDs (some people still call them mixtapes). Though I have made many for my own listening pleasure, so that in the car I am listening to my own radio station, about half have been for other people.

My friend Steve gets sets when he heads across country in his car.  Though I imagined when I made them that they were highway sets, late night radio sets, an hour of quieter music sets, he told me recently that he only liked the loud ones – “Because I have the car windows open so I can smoke.”

A group of friends and I came up with a list of all our favorite summer songs. From the obvious ones (Beach Boys’ tracks like “All Summer Long,”  “In the Summertime,” “Summer Breeze”)  to songs we associated with summer because they were summer hits or we just associated with summer (“Time of the Season,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Take It Easy”).  Then I did the sequencing after gathering them from our collected CDs and with a few iTunes downloads. I listened to all of them trying to pick out references to a month or part of summer and created June, July and August sets.  “See You In September,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “School’s Out” are part of the June set.  For July, “Up on the Roof,” “Summer in the City,” “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” Kodachrome,” Hot Fun in the Summertime.”  The August CD included “Summer, Highland Falls,” Boys of Summer,” “Groovin’” “Summertime Blues,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” Summer Wind.”

My friend Pat was a big fan of the summer set, so she (a teacher) also got back-to-school and end-of-school mixes. And I have done winter, spring, and winter into spring CDs.

My largest set of mixes are for my wife, Lynnette.  This month we hit anniversary thirty, so the mixes span decades. Most of the early cassettes have jammed their last time, so we have moved to CDs the past decade.

The first mixtapes were actually pre-marriage. Tapes I made for car rides to the beach or vacations.  Have you seen the movie As Good As It Gets? Jack Nicholson’s character makes careful mixes for a car trip in the hope of seducing the character played by Helen Hunt. If not seduce, at least made to reveal who he really is via the songs – something he can’t seem to do in person. Been there; mixed that.

I love making lists anyway, so making song lists is something I like doing – like the people in Nick Hornby’s novel High Fidelity and the great film version (and even the soundtrack CD).