Questions. I Have Them.

I've always read that John Hughes would make mix tapes ("mix" tapes? Is it "mix" or "mixed" tapes?) for his young actors since they were all pretty much high school kids playing high school kids and that's what high school kids did in the 1980s so he thought the music would help them know their character better. And I also know that Richard Linklater did the same thing for Dazed and Confused, so I guess my question is that in the year 2025, in the day & age of celebrities sharing everything about their lives all the time with everybody anyway, how have none of them posted these mix tapes ("mix" tapes? Is it "mix" or "mixed" tapes?) as playlists online? 🤔🤷‍♂️

Mix Tapes, Christ I'm Old

Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets, Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells, Knock Me Down by the Outlets and Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes, as those were my mix tape slices du jour for that time period. - XMASTIME 

A buddy of mine at work very thoughtfully gave me a cd mix he'd made for me, of "you know, new music." He's 25. Listening to it on the way home I felt 100 years old, as it's mostly rap/electronic stuff. I felt like I was from another planet. So of course at this moment I'm reciprocating with my own mix, mostly Artie Shaw and Phil Ochs of course  ;)

Mostly it reminds me of the greatest mix tape of all time.

Other Xmastime mix tape thoughts HERE.

Speaking of Mix Tapes

About four years ago I suggested chicks posting the various mix tapes they got through the years:

Tell you what i would like to see: a website devoted to chicks listing the mix tapes dudes have given them throughout the years. There's the "I fell in love to this one" batch to the "This is when I figured out he was gay" batch to the "I dont have the dude anymore, but I still got a copy of 'Radio Free Europe', so we're even" batch. I was complete faggot with mine, too; I'd always make little notes with each... READ MORE

Has this happened yet? Does such a website exist?

Of course, let's not forget the single greatest mix tape of all time (of course, upon receipt: "put it on a cd, maybe I'll give it a listen." sigh.) 

Wow.

I can remember a time when if someone had a tape deck in their car, I assumed they were rich, or were a part of NASA.  Those days are now officially gone:

2011 marks the first year — since I’ve been alive, at least — that you can’t buy a new car with a factory-installed cassette tape player. The last model to be sold with one was a 2010 Lexus.

Sigh. Makes me wistful for my old Ford Fiesta.

In the post, the dude also waxes about mix tapes:

I have a lot of nostalgic affection for my old cassette mixes, and I miss being able to play them in my car. They were so much more handmade and personal than CD mixes: I worked for hours getting the song order right, fading out of songs at just the right time; they were something you could, in some small way, be proud of. I hope to one day rescue my old mixes and convert them into long-playing MP3s, but I don’t think listening to them digitally will be the same.

I've thought the same thing, I'd love to have a website devoted to my old mix tapes, if only I could get them all back!

Was 1996 my "1927 Yankees" year of mix tapes? Interesting. Hmm.

Mix Tapes

Tell you what i would like to see: a website devoted to chicks listing the mix tapes dudes have given them throughout the years. There's the "I fell in love to this one" batch to the "This is when I figured out he was gay" batch to the "I dont have the dude anymore, but I still got a copy of 'Radio Free Europe', so we're even" batch. I was complete loser with mine, too; I'd always make little notes with each song

"I Need Your Love" The Ramones - You know, cause I need your love so much baby, I just love you...can I tell the guys we did it now? No? Please?

AND I'd even list the album and the year the album came out. No girl I ever gave a mix tape to even pretended to care about records, but I guess after one of my tapes I expected them to look up CREEM and ROLLING STONE on the microfiche every waking hour, researching the albums I had told her about. Christ. I know a lot of music geeks - no girl I've ever mix-taped (I just made up a verb!!!) was ever a music geek. I'm expecting her to figure out who engineered different band's albums, meanwhile she's smiling at me, trying to see out how long she has to have that gleeful look painted on her face before she can place it in the Vault: the bottom of her pocketbook, where it would never be seen again. Oh, until the next time I was in her car. We'd get in, I'd be like hey, lets put in the tape I gave you! Totally not reading the look of "oh god no, cant you tell I hate you and your stupid cuts?" on her face, I'd happily dig around for it until I've got my head stuck underneath the spare tire compartment , shouting "here it is!!"

Sigh.

Collective Experiences

Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets, Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells, Knock Me Down by the Outlets and Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes, as those were my mix tape slices du jour for that time period. - XMASTIME

I'm not great at watching shows and shit on Hulu or dvds et al; there's always some weird feeling of liking to watch it when there are tons of other people watching it at the same time. I don't know why this sometimes means something to me. I mean, they're just pre-recorded shows or whatever. But these days, even with everybody's iPods and whatnot, there's still something special about when a song comes on the radio, isn't it? I mean, I've prolly heard Jungeland 10 million times. But few were as oddly thrilling as just now, when I turned on the radio and the song was starting.  I was lying in complete darkness, and that first sax note in the middle hits like a wave, and immediately wafts into the air of imagined NYC streets from the mid-70's to early 80's soaking wet at nighttime. Somehow that particular sound makes me think of every show from the early 80's, in a "it reminds me of Moonlighting" kinda way. And it makes the ol' "I wonder who else is hearing this right here, right now, at this exact moment as I am? What are they thinking about right now?" that much more compelling. Just like my making mix tapes, and then wondering what the person would be thinking when they listened.

In the Mix

I slapped High Fidelity around earlier HERE, but I will say that I like any movie that acknowledges mix tapes. Or, just like it took my 10 years to figure out if it was "box set" and not "boxed set," mixed tapes. Anyhoo.  (I also though you "flicked" somebody the bird until 1989.)

Anyways, I've done some bits on mix tapes

HERE.

HERE.

HERE.

Enjoy!

Mixed Up

Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets, Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells, Knock Me Down by the Outlets and Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes, as those were my mix tape slices du jour for that time period. - XMASTIME

THIS GIRL HERE critiques an old mix tape from her high school boyfriend and is generous enough to give it an F- in spite of it being filled with every 16 year-old girl's favorite band, RUSH.  Wtf? And can a collection of only seven songs of which six are by the same band even be considered a "mix tape"?  Could he have put even less thought into by simply giving her a copy of the Footloose soundtrack (that was back when a soundtrack was a soundtrack, young buck!) and calling it a "mix tape"?

THIS is how you make a fucking mix tape for your lady!!!!

I do like how at the end of 90 minutes of Canadian prog-rock by old men, dude has the balls to end with Sexual Healing.  "Gee baby, if these laser noises and lyrics about spaceships haven't tipped you over the horny edge yet, here's that final push you need."  Ha!

Caitlin Cries

I’ve blathered for years & years now that this is one of my all-time favorite songs of all time, it was on one of the all-time great & most influential mix tapes ("mix" tapes? or is it "mixed" tapes? 🤔🤷‍♂️) of my life from back in 1994 and it just randomly popped up on my YouTube channel & you’re goddam right it’s made my week. 🤗🎸🕺🥁❤️ 

Mixed Taped Up

I don't know if the Mix Tape Website I keep yammering about has actually happened, but it looks like someone has "written" a book about mix tapes.

Cassette from My Ex: Stories and Soundtracks of Lost Loves shares sixty hilarious, nostalgic and heartbreaking stories stories all about crushes and mixtapes.

I have quotes around "written" since I wonder how I too can make money on a book wherein people do the writing and I do the ol' cut & paste. Interesting.

Also, as per the mix tape listing he posts at bottom of the page: Unsatisfied is a side 2 opener, not side 1; Side 1 opener is the balls-out, getting-ready-to-go-out-on-Saturday night cut of which there is no slowdown if any til song 4 (ballad.) Side 2 is always the more reflective of the openers (lone exception: side 2 may open with Born to Run.) Also, two bands taking up the first four songs is no good. I won't even comment on the fact that out of 200 Ramones song this jerkoff choosing Spiderman. I'm assuming maybe there's a specific reason. Like, the person's a fucking idiot, for instance. Also, anything from The Clash off Sandinista! that is not Police on My Back/Lose This Skin/Somebody Got Murdered/Hitsville UK means the mix taper is trying too hard to show how "cool" he is and should be immediately frozen out. Just a fact.

1996

In January of 1996 while living in Oxford, Mississippi I made $479 every two weeks - I bought every cd I saw, ate out 3 times a day (including the "Love Me Tender" and toasted ravioli from...awww, cant remember the name of the joint...starts with a C, something...awwww, fuck it), and would still have money left over by the next payday. But it's also the only time, before or since, when I felt like I didn't have any friends. I was very alone for the first time in my life, and 1000 miles from home.

Every day I'd work til 5pm, then walk over to Square Books, where I'd sit for a coupla hours and read every dumb book in the rock 'n roll section (heady reading) while drinking free refill after free refill of sweet tea. Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets, Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells, Knock Me Down by the Outlets and Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes, as those were my mix tape slices du jour for that time period.

1996. A lonely time.

Mix Taper

When I was living in Oxford, I would spend hours at a time making mix tapes for my friends. I'd decide who I'd wanna make the tape for, painstakingly choose the songs, type out extensive liner notes, and then listen to the tape all the way through and imagine I was the person who it was made for, having just unwrapped it. If I made 40 of these tapes, maybe 4 actually got mailed out.

No, I didn't have a girlfriend while I was there. Why do you ask?

Slice du Jour

Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets, Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells, Knock Me Down by the Outlets and Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes, as those were my mix tape slices du jour for that time period. - XMASTIME

1996, Again

Last week I posted about an upcoming event that will change the entire history of rock and roll, which has gotten me a little nostalgic for the time period I lived in Oxford, Mississippi. A quick look at a post from 2009 reveals that incredibly, my life was even duller than you'd think back then:

In January of 1996 while living in Oxford, Mississippi I made $479 every two weeks - I bought every cd I saw, ate out 3 times a day (including the "Love Me Tender" and toasted ravioli from...awww, cant remember the name of the joint...starts with a C, something...awwww, fuck it), and would still have money left over by the next payday. But it's also the only time, before or since, when I felt like I didn't have any friends. I was very alone for the first time in my life, and 1000 miles from home.

Every day I'd work til 5pm, then walk over to Square Books, where I'd sit for a coupla hours and read every dumb book in the rock 'n roll section (heady reading) while drinking free refill after free refill of sweet tea. Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets, Sweet Cherry Wine by Tommy James and the Shondells, Knock Me Down by the Outlets and Walking in the Rain by the Ronettes, as those were my mix tape slices du jour for that time period.

Thoughts, Barely, By Xmastime

I think you should hafta give back your mix tapes after a break up, like an engagement ring if a wedding's called off.

Previous mix tape thoughts ICI.

The single greatest mix tape of all time HERE.

Picture of my nuts HERE.

I'll Yumblr for Ya

Then I'd go home and start drinking gin & tonics while spending hours crafting mix tapes for friends of mine from back home. I'd finish the tape and then play it from start to finish, all while closing my eyes and imagining I was that person who had received the tape and was listening to the songs for the first time in an order that, somehow, meant something to me. I probably made 50 of these tapes, of which 2 I actually mailed. And then I'd spend hours writing extensive liner notes for each song. And each tape more than likely included We All Love Peanut Butter by the One Way Streets. - XMASTIME

 When I saw the title alone on Tumbr for My Husband's Stupid Records I had already thought "GENIUS!" Then I actually wen to the site and VOILA!  The first record see is Back from the Grave Vol.1 which includes my super-slice of superslices, We All Love Peanut Butter!

I really love these liner notes.  For the song “We all Love Peanut Butter" by the One Way Streets (which is also very good) it says:

"One hot summer day in 1966, two mom-driven station wagons pulled up outside Sunrise Studios in Hamilton, Ohio and out piled 4 insane teens. While their moms set up a table on the lawn outside and played bridge and drank lemonade, the One Way Streets were inside the studio shredding their way through 2 songs they felt would create a major disturbance. As a finishing touch to their wild afternoon, they ripped off an eighty.dollar mike on their way out the door and haven’t been heard of since."

Every single detail about that anecdote makes me very, very happy.

31 Years Ago Today

Born in the USA came out:

I bought Born in the USA when it came out; I was 11 years old and this seemed to me to be the only real 'rock n roll' record out there that I knew about at the time. I can still remember playing it over and over - I loved the bombast of the title track, and I LOVED 'Dancing in the Dark', - still do to this day. The track that still gets me choked up, and I can still picture where I was sitting when I first heard it, is 'Bobby Jean'.  Funeral slice of funeral slices. I wore the HELL outta Born in the USA (still have the cassette). Many, many years later Op gave me a mix tape of Bruce cuts (remember mix tapes?). I remember riding the Dog down to Charlottesville and I had it in my walkman, kinda listening, not really paying attention etc and then a song called 'Livin On the Edge of the World' came on.  And just like that, I was in love.  - XMASTIME

Story behind the cap on the album cover HERE.

Somewhere, I don't know where, there's a tape of me and Dave on E Street Radio giving my rundown of what should have been Born in the USA. Hint: My Love Will Not Let You Down/Lions Den/This Hard Land in, Darlington County/Downbound Train out.

28 Years Ago Today

BORN IN THE USA came out.

I bought Born in the USA when it came out; I was 11 years old and this seemed to me to be the only real 'rock n roll' record out there that I knew about at the time. I can still remember playing it over and over - I loved the bombast of the title track, and I LOVED 'Dancing in the Dark', - still do to this day. The track that still gets me choked up, and I can still picture where I was sitting when I first heard it, is 'Bobby Jean'.  Funeral slice of funeral slices. But for some reason, in a move that did not fit in my later musical personality at all, it never really occurred to me to get Bruce's other records. I wore the HELL outta Born in the USA (still have the cassette) but it never occurred to me to pick up anything else. Many, many years later Op gave me a mix tape of Bruce cuts (remember mix tapes?). I remember riding the Dog down to Charlottesville and I had it in my walkman, kinda listening, not really paying attention etc and then a song called 'Livin On the Edge of the World' came on.  And just like that, I was in love.  - XMASTIME

28 years ago today, Born in the USA was released.

Now, for a few years up to this point Bruce has been playing Born in the USA in what some consider it's original form, the solo 12-string slide guitar version that was meant for Nebraska. So when between songs Bruce started talking about the war and I picked up that he was gonna play the song, I kinda thought "piss break." But he was talking about the mistake we were making, and then a fucking vein almost popped out of his forehead and he said "This is a song called Born in the USA" and Max' snare snapped and what followed was one of the angriest 5-6 minutes I've ever seen in a show before or since. Dude spit every word. And it wasn't cute, and nobody sang along, and it wasn't "anthemic." It's the song I most remember from that show, and it was bone-shattering. Like it was meant to be. Like it always was.  - XMASTIME

Story about the hat on the album cover HERE.

George Will STILL FUCKING SUCKS.

And I still can't believe that it never occurred to anybody to insinuate that, thanks to Bruce's right arm, he was pissing on the flag.

Born in the USA

I bought Born in the USA when it came out; I was 11 years old and this seemed to me to be the only real 'rock n roll' record out there that I knew about at the time. I can still remember playing it over and over - I loved the bombast of the title track, and I LOVED 'Dancing in the Dark', - still do to this day. The track that still gets me choked up, and I can still picture where I was sitting when I first heard it, is 'Bobby Jean'.  Funeral slice of funeral slices. But for some reason, in a move that did not fit in my later musical personality at all, it never really occurred to me to get Bruce's other records. I wore the HELL outta Born in the USA (still have the cassette) but it never occurred to me to pick up anything else. Many, many years later Op gave me a mix tape of Bruce cuts (remember mix tapes?). I remember riding the Dog down to Charlottesville and I had it in my walkman, kinda listening, not really paying attention etc and then a song called 'Livin On the Edge of the World' came on.  And just like that, I was in love.  - XMASTIME

27 years ago today, Born in the USA was released.

Now, for a few years up to this point Bruce has been playing Born in the USA in what some consider it's original form, the solo 12-string slide guitar version that was meant for Nebraska. So when between songs Bruce started talking about the war and I picked up that he was gonna play the song, I kinda thought "piss break." But he was talking about the mistake we were making, and then a fucking vein almost popped out of his forehead and he said "This is a song called Born in the USA" and Max' snare snapped and what followed was one of the angriest 5-6 minutes I've ever seen in a show before or since. Dude spit every word. And it wasn't cute, and nobody sang along, and it wasn't "anthemic." It's the song I most remember from that show, and it was bone-shattering. Like it was meant to be. Like it always was.  - XMASTIME

Story about the hat on the album cover HERE.

George Will STILL FUCKING SUCKS.

And I still can't believe that it never occurred to anybody to insinuate that, thanks to Bruce's right arm, he was pissing on the flag.

Speaking of NEBRASKA...

....I've been grousing about going to see Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, bitching & moaning because I know they'll take up valuable movie real estate with some bullshit romance nobody cares about and endless "here's Bruce having an epiphany and staring off into space as an event happening before his very eyes become lyrics" moments when I only want strict details about how he actually recorded the songs, the technical struggle it took to make the cassettes amenable to being played on vinyl, etc etc etc. Everybody I say this too looks at me like I'm crazy; meanwhile the one moment from the Get Back documentary people love to talk about more than anything else is when Paul pulled the song Get Back out of thin air while sitting there with a bored/hungover George & Ringo. It wasn’t some bullshit head in the clouds/magical mystical thing, it was an honest moment of clarity about how art presents itself, then going on to show us scene after scene of the band tirelessly working & re-working the song until they'd shaped it as they wanted and at no point was their some mystical "Paul looked out and saw the stars that said Tucson and it reminded him of some ancient Indian warrior he’d once dreamed that told him to get back to there you one belonged" etc etc etc bullshit.

So when I saw this article about Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, I was pleased to see this: 

Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is more of a why movie than a how movie, despite the fact that the how of Nebraska is its defining aspect. The man known for his band’s colossal, saxophone-blaring sound stripped away every bit of studio sheen and turned in a set of songs scored with a spooky, echoing acoustic guitar on a commercial cassette tape, captured on the kind of four-track recorder you could pick up at any commercial electronics store.

When Deliver Me From Nowhere plays Nebraska’s “Mansion on the Hill,” it shows us images of the young Bruce gazing longingly at a large house surrounded by acres of flowing grass: Get it? He’s the boy in the song! 

It just drives me crazy whenever a filmmaker picks a specific subject to make a movie about because they love that specific subject & know that many other people do as well, but then chickens out about actually showing whatever it was that drew them to that specific subject in the first place & instead of servicing the fellow super-fans they panic-fill half the movie with needless love interests/over-dramatic bullshit for the casual moviegoer in such a way that in the end it pleases neither the super-fan nor the casual moviegoer.

On a side note, the lyric "deliver me from nowhere" is from Livin' on the Edge of the World, an outtake from The River considered to be a precursor to the Nebraska song it ended up on, Open All Night.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), "doesn't this particular song have extra meaning to you as a Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce fan?"

Sigh. Yes it does, faithful readers, YES it does:

I wore the HELL outta Born in the USA (still have the cassette, too), but it never occurred to me to pick up anything else. Many, many years later my buddy Op gave me a mix tape of Bruce cuts (remember mix tapes?). I remember riding the Dog down to Charlottesville and I had it in my Walkman, kinda listening, not really paying attention etc and then a song called Livin On the Edge of the World came on. Blew, blew blew me away. And just like that, I was in love. After all those years, I was in. 

I also need to calm down, take a breath & just enjoy the movie while being 10000% grateful that somebody even thought of making a movie even remotely about the making of Nebraska.