Wednesday, December 03, 2008

School Of Rock: I Miss the Challenge Of the Mix-Tape/Cee-Dee


Don't get me wrong. I loves me my iPod, and I like that I make playlists that have a thousand songs in them.And that you can put a playlist together in a matter of minutes. And I like that I can take a ton of music with me in a tiny device. But, I must admit, I miss having to select a certain number of songs so that they will fit on a 60(or 90 or 120) minute cassette or even an 80 minute CD.

I used to obsessively make mixed tapes. I think I probably have hundreds of them,and they all have very clever names(Jackson Browne is God,Absolut Dead(that has six or seven volumes, i think), "Don't lie to me, I won't tolerate your lies!", "Do you have a receipt, quote, unquote, sir?"-often lyric or movie/tee vee quotes. I think I still have a couple that I made my freshman year in college, including "Question Reality", which included"Love Street" by the Doors, Zappa's 'Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?",and "Get Started...Start A Fire" by Graham Parker.

And then, when it came to cee dees, I could add pictures to the cee dee label as well! I was in heaven ! And I still occasionally get to make up a mixed cee dee(not much call for mixed tapes anymore), like the one I made as a party favor for my girls third birthday party, but not as much as I used to.

I don't enjoy the cee dees as much as the tapes anyway. I liked that you could try and fit a song on a tape, and even if it ran out, as long as it was on the fade out or something, it was okay. on a cee dee, the computer just tells you that your 2 seconds over and won't allow you to make the mix. Plus, I so rarely get to use my little under 2 minute songs anymore. I can't even tell you how many tape sides ended with "Bron-yr-Aur" by Zeppelin, because it's like a minute and a half long. or "the Baby Song" by Husker Du, or the Live/Dead version of "And We Bid You Goodnight" by the Grateful Dead, which I think is under a minute.

And the "random" aspect of the iPod(and of the cee dees, too) removes a lot of the artistry( I realize artistry is a bullshit word here, but what the hellfuck, right ?), of the mixed tape as well. I used to try and figure out what songs fit where, what would be a great opening song and all that, but now, it's just click and add to playlist, then the playlist will be on random anyway.

Wow, this all makes me feel very old.And sad. Pardon me, I have something in my eye!

9 comments:

Julie Falatko said...

I still have some 20-year-old mix tapes from you, I think. And a whole bunch of Grateful Dead tapes. The only fun mix tape title I can remember right now is "He's Got No Trousers On, and Isn't That So Funny." Which I can totally hear you saying, but can't remember what it's from.

Lauren Matson said...

I was just making a Mix CD today, and making sure all the songs flowed well into each other. It's still a fun project!

Paticus said...

Julie- I must admit, I don't remember where I may have gotten that from, either.

Lauren- yes, it is. i just miss the mixed TAPE, that's all.

Jessica said...

You bring back memories. :) I miss mixed tapes, but since I have a long bus commute...I am very grateful for my ipod!

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it's not strictly relevant, but I have to mention this book, anyway:

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/mixtape/

It's mostly about the relationship, but music, and mix tapes, are intrinsic to the story.

Anonymous said...

This summer I attempted to get rid of some of the clutter in my apartment. Some of that clutter was a box or two or three of cassette tapes. Because I don't have air conditioning, I figured that the actual tape was damaged - a test run proved my hypothesis – and I threw out most of them. But I couldn’t bear to part with all the mix tapes, most of which were from high school. I kept the covers, for the song list and the hand-crafted cover art. I also kept my copy of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" in honor of the 25th anniversary. (It was also the first cassette I owned).

Paticus said...

Jessica- the iPod is indispensable for commutes and road trips.We are driving up to Jersey next weekend, and it makes a 16 hour drive much easier to manage when you don't have to have a trunk full of cassettes or cee dees !!

c2- Interesting. I like his stuff in Rolling Stone. i might have to check that out.

sh-They are hard to part with.It makes moving a bit heavier, but I just can't get rid of them. I still actually play one every once in awhile.

Feral Mom said...

Let's revive the mix tape. Fuck it, what are they going to do, strip search us?

Paticus said...

Feral Mom- they just might. But what the hellfuck, right ?