I wanted to play a mystery mix tape that I haven’t listened to in years. (I’m the one who created the tape, but I don’t remember what’s on it, and it’s not written down anywhere.) So, I decided I’d have a listen using my mid-1990s-era Walkman. Sadly the tape wouldn’t play. 
Fortunately I still have a functional boombox with a tape deck. I pulled the boombox out of the closet, and I can now tell you that the first song on the tape is Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative.” Awesome!!!
Ooh, the second song just started. “Somebody” by Bryan Adams!!!
Quick! Digitize it for posterity!
It’s tempting to give real-time updates of which songs are on the tape, but I think I’ll just give the entire list once all the songs are over. I don’t think the tape has that many songs on it, though. It’s the last of seven mix tapes I created in my lifetime before mp3’s became widely available.
I still have my Watchman, but there is no more broadcast TV to watch on it.
Dennis
Is it over yet? What were the songs?
I know everyone’s been dying to know, so here is the complete list of songs on the mystery tape:
Bobby Brown, “My Prerogative”
Bryan Adams, “Somebody”
Simple Minds, “Alive and Kicking”
Finger Eleven, “One Thing” (for some reason, I recorded this song twice in a row.)
Bangles, “Hazy Shade of Winter”
Jay Z/Linkin Park, “Numb Encore”
The Jacksons, “Can You Feel It”
Joe Jackson, “Is She Really Going Out with Him”
Styx, “Grand Illusion”
Snoop Dogg & Pharrell, “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
Debbie Gibson, “Shake Your Love”
Billy Joel, “I Go to Extremes”
Joe Cocker, “She Came in through the Bathroom Window”
David Bowie, “Heroes”
REM, “Orange Crush” (sadly this song got cut off after a few seconds. Side A of the tape ended.)
The Clash, “Train in Vain”
Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey” (I recorded this song twice in a row as well!)
Santana, “Winning”
Rolling Stones, “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)”
Simple Minds, “Alive and Kicking” (making its second appearance on the tape)
Rolling Stones, “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” (again)
Four Tops, “Walk Away Renee”
The Raspberries, “Go All the Way”
Miami Sound Machine, “Bad Boy”
Linear, “Sending All My Love”
Based on the Finger Eleven, Jay Z, and Snoop Dogg songs, I started creating this tape sometime in 2004. I finally stopped in 2007 or 2008. I made these tapes primarily by recording songs off the radio. No idea why there are so many repeats on the tape. Maybe I’d forgotten what I’d already recorded.
I thought walkman and boombox played different sized casettes.
Maybe the original boomboxes, but my latter-day boombox worked just fine.
Earlier I said that I’ve created seven mix tapes. Numbers 2-6 were already cataloged, and I’ve just cataloged number 7 for all to see. However, I never cataloged number 1 either. This one was from my late high school and early undergrad years (mid 1990s). I’m sure it has plenty of songs I no longer like. I think “Don’t Stop Believin’” is on it. :eek:
I’m pretty scared to listen to Mix Tape 1, but I’ll do it tomorrow in the name of science!
Nope, Cassettes for this purpose were all one size, are you thinking about 8-tracks?I don’t recall any other tape media for boom boxes or Walkman until the DATcame out and they were fairly minor by comparison.
Judging by that track-list, I’m thinking the Walkman was working fine and simply decided to die with what dignity it had left.
I kid, I kid.
If you think mix tape 7 was bad, just wait until I post the mix tape 1 list tomorrow! I still shudder to remember that I used to like Journey.
Or perhaps he’s thinking of the microcassettes (or whatever they were called), that those voice recorders had.
They’ll play in a car cassette deck and on a bookshelf cassette stereo, too. All universal as far the Compact Cassette[sup]TM[/sup] goes.
There was also a Digital Compact Cassette, which players were backwards-compatible with analog cassettes.
I still have a big plastic bin full of my old cassette mixtapes.
One of my favorites was titled “Spring Fever '82”:
Side 1 “Live”
[ul]
[li]Highway Star–Deep Purple[/li][li]Young Man Blues–The Who[/li][li]4 Day Creep–Humble Pie[/li][li]Communications Breakdown/Good Times Bad Times–LZ[/li][li]Carol–Stones[/li][li]20th Century Man–Kinks[/li][li]Close To You–Doors[/li][li]Hard Drivin’ Man–J Geils[/li][li]Medicine Jar–Wings[/li][li]Rock ‘n’ Roll All Night–Kiss[/li][/ul]
Side 2 “Studio”
[ul]
[li]Jenny (867-5309)–Tommy Tutone[/li][li]Mr. Soul–Buffalo Springfield[/li][li]Rock ‘n’ Roll Outlaw–Foghat[/li][li]Surrender–Cheap Trick[/li][li]White Punks On Dope–The Tubes[/li][li]Rock Candy–Montrose[/li][li]Razzamanazz–Nazareth[/li][li]The Breakup Song/Hurt–Greg Kihn[/li][li]DIY–Peter Gabriel[/li][li]Rene Didn’t Do It–Russ Ballard[/li][/ul]
Another fave was “4 Long Ones”:
[ul]
[li]The Revealing Science Of God–Yes[/li][li]Echoes–Pink Floyd[/li][li]Karn Evil 9–ELP[/li][li]Fifo–Sky[/li][/ul]
At long last, here is the complete track listing for mystery mix tape 1. To recap, I made seven mix tapes over a period from c. 1994-2008. I had already cataloged tapes 2-6 long ago. Yesterday I cataloged tape 7 and posted the results in this thread. Today I catalog tape 1 (created in the mid-1990s):
The Fortunes, “Here Comes that Rainy Day Feeling Again”
Boston, “More than a Feeling”
Van Halen, “When It’s Love”
Queen, “We are the Champions” (including only the last two notes of “We Will Rock You”)
Chicago, “Hard Habit to Break”
Simon and Garfunkel, “Mrs. Robinson”
Queen, “Another One Bites the Dust”
Love and Rockets, “So Alive”
Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, “Say Say Say”
Green Day, “Basket Case”
(blank space–there must have been some really objectionable song that I recorded and later erased. Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” maybe???)
Love and Rockets, “So Alive” (a more complete version than the earlier taping.)
(more blank space)
The Eagles, “Hotel California”
Peter Frampton, “Show Me the Way”
(more blank space)
Ray Charles, “Hit the Road Jack”
The Eagles, “Lyin’ Eyes”
Dion, “Abraham, Martin, and John”
Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, “Karn Evil 9” 1st Impression, Part 2 (side A ended during this song, so I flipped the tape over to slide B, where the song continues.)
Steve Miller Band, “Jet Airliner”
Fine Young Cannibals, “Good Thing”
Billy Joel, “This is the Time”
Gabrielle, “Dreams”
Collective Soul, “The World I Know”
Left Banke, “Walk Away Renee”
Bush, “Glycerine”
Vanilla Ice, “Ice Ice Baby” (I recorded this one solely for humor value. Word to your mother.)
Seal, “Prayer for the Dying”
Queen & David Bowie, “Under Pressure”
Kansas, “Carry On Wayward Son”
Left Banke, “Walk Away Renee” (a more complete version than the earlier taping.)
Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”
Cheap Trick, “Surrender”
Jackie Wilson, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”
Freda Payne, “Band of Gold”
In my opinion, most of the songs on this tape have held up surprisingly well. My tastes haven’t changed quite as much as I thought over the last two decades. There are a few songs I don’t really need to hear anymore due to overexposure (“More than a Feeling,” “Hotel California,” “Jet Airliner”) and a few real duds (“When It’s Love,” “Ice Ice Baby,”) but most of the others were a pleasure to listen to again.