Mixed Tape Memories
I ran across all of my old mixed tapes yesterday while I was sorting through my office. I sat cross-legged on the trundle as I ran through each and every one of them, reading the song titles and trying to stay adrift in all the memories that flooded me.
I found the tapes that Brian made me each Valentine's Day for the four years we dated. They had songs by Smashing Pumpkins, Mathew Sweet, Phish, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and Jane's Addiction. I haven't listened to those bands in years but I still know every word to those songs. Then there was the tape that Kevin sent me my first week of college. I think he knew that I would be a bit lonely and terrified and he sent me songs that would remind me of him and our old friends. There is a picture of Kevin in the 7th grade along side a picture of Ethan Embry in Empire Records, the movie we watched religiously our senior year of high school. The tape has songs by Cake, R.E.M, Jim Croce, and Oingo Boingo. I think even a song from the Partridge Family is on there. I also unearthed the tape that Tracy and I made, titled E3's greatest hits, filled with songs we constantly played in our college dorm room.
The majority of the tapes though are from Josh. I have the tape he made me when Brian left for Panama, the one that arrived in the mail after I had called him sobbing, telling him how I hated school and how all the people there were mean and religious hypocrites (not all of them were I was glad to soon discover), the one he gave me before he went to Nova Scotia for an entire semester, and the one he made after we had gone to see BareNaked Ladies at the Rose Room. There is a tape of his college radio show and a tape that he sent for a Tuesday Prize Day. The bands have names like The Rugburns, Pyschadelic Furs, and Mojo Nixon. The songs either made me laugh, think, or just sing along. They have become audio diaries, marking times and experiences that started fading away, but as soon as the opening hook to "We Close Our Eyes" begins, they all come back in vivid and bright color.
If I were to make a mixed tape now, to document the time and experiences I am living, I think the following songs would be there:
* "Girl" - Beck
* "Juicy" - Better Than Ezra
* "White Wedding" - Billy Idol
* "Things Have Changed" - Bob Dylan
* "Lovely Day" - Brad Walters
* "Rock n' Roll Lifesytle" - Cake
* "Life Less Ordinary" - Carbon Leaf
* "Deep Enough to Dream" - Chris Rice
* " Ain't No Other Man" - Christina Aguilera (guilty pleasure, I can't help it!)
* "Everything's Okay" - The Clumsy Lovers
* "Dead in the Water" - David Gray
* "Settle for a Slow Down" - Dierks Bentley
* "Not Ready to Make Nice" - Dixie Chicks
* "Remedies for Remembering" - Douglas Cameron
* "Half-Life" -Duncan Shiek
* "Pretty Little Thing" - Fink
* "Extraordinary Machine" - Fiona Apple
* "Language or the Kiss" -Indigo Girls
What would be on yours?
