So back when I was a strapping young lad, if we wanted to have songs from different artists and albums play sequentially, we made a mixed tape. Now you youngsters with your burned CDs and your mp3 players have changed everything around… it’s easier to carry thousands of songs with you in the car and never have to choose the best of the best.
But come with me now to yesteryear, when you had to work within the confines of a 90 minute cassette tape. Metal, 45 minutes per side, with Dolby C noise reduction for best sound.
That was about 9-11 songs per side.
I don’t require we use the songs of yesteryear either, so Flock of Seagulls is not an automatic inclusion… but the format of yesteryear. Give me one (or two) sides, or just signle song suggestions, for the greatest road trip mix tape ever.
Road trip? You have to include Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”, in which our protagonist’s car sprouts wings, allowing him to escape the New Jersey State Patrol.
Sugar - The Act We Act
The B-52s - Rock Lobster
The Feelies - Let’s Go
The Clash - Complete Control
The New Pornographers - Use It
Joshua Radin - These Photographs
Metric - Monster Hospital
Meat Puppets - Swimming Ground
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (12" Mix)
Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness (Live at the Monterey Pop Festival)
Side 2:
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
The Pogues - Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Billy Bragg & The Blokes - St. Monday
The Replacements - Takin’ A Ride
Marshall Crenshaw - You’re My Favorite Waste Of Time
Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
The Stone Roses - Elephant Stone
The Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You
The Beatles - Day Tripper
Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
The dB’s - Black and White
Belle & Sebastian - Women’s Realm
Husker Du - Divide And Conquer
The Divine Comedy - Tonight We Fly
Belle & Sebastian - Women’s Realm
Side 1
Magnificent Seven - The Clash
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
Cities In Dust - Siouxsie and the Banshees
Coming Up Close - Til Tuesday
Fascination Street -The Cure
Bring On the Night - The Police
Once In a Lifetime - Talking Heads
Bullet the Blue Sky - U2
Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top
Side 2
New York New York - Ryan Adams
Southbound - Allman Brothers Band
Travelling Riverside Blues - Led Zeppelin
California Stars - Billy Bragg and Wilco
Big Sky Country - Chris Whitley
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Going to California - Led Zeppelin
Two Of Us - The Beatles
Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
Let It Ride - Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Comin’ Home - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Free Fallin’ - Tom Petty (without, I believe, the Heartbreakers?) - especially good when driving alone and you can whoop and holler along. Clocks - Coldplay (I know, I’m a little sick of it too, but it’s an awesome highway song.) Riders on the Storm - The Doors (best after dark in the rain.) Good Morning, Starshine - the original cast recording - because every driving mix needs a sing-along around mile 724 to wake everyone up.
I remember these!!!
Made from vinyl, no less. (But no metal tape, that stuff flakes. )
Here are two I still have (not necessarily meant for a road trip, but used that way.)
The first is one of the oldest I remember making, probably in the summer of 1980.
A
Lady Fantasy - Camel
Cities on Flame - Blue Oyster Cult (live from On Your Feet Or On Your Knees)
Stand Up > Running - Santana
All My Love - Led Zeppelin
The Romantic Warrior - Return To Forever
Liar - Queen B
The Wizard - Black Sabbath
Europa - Santana (live from Moonflower)
Automatic Man - Automatic Man
In The Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson
Messin’ The Blues - Robin Trower
Fool In The Rain - Led Zeppelin
What Is and What Should Never Be - Led Zeppelin
Lady Love - Robin Trower
Soldier Of Fortune - Deep Purple
The next one I made in 1995 for a high school reunion. The idea was to give a prize to whoever could name the most songs. (We never got around to playing. Just as well, it probably would have been ugly.)
A
!. Situations - Jeff Beck Group
2. People, People - Tommy Bolin
3. From Another Time - James Gang
4. Late December - Gypsy
5. Pegasus - Allman Brothers Band
6. Desert Rose - Eric Johnson
7. Crash And Burn - Pat Travers Band
8. Sunhair - Ozric Tentacles
9. Country Music (a night in hell) - Stuart Hamm B
The Storm - Bloodline
Believe Me - Blues Traveller
Shaky - Limbo Cafe (a ringer as Limbo Cafe was a local band I liked)
I don’t know if it’s a road tape, but it’s my favorite mix tape. It’s roughly eighties on one side, seventies on the other.
What’s Going On- Four Non Blondes
Method of Modern Love- Hall & Oates
Heart & Soul- T’Pau
Video Killed the Radio Star- The Buggles
Come Back and Stay- Paul Young
Running Up That Hill- Kate Bush
Wuthering Heights- Kate Bush
Only the Lonely Can Play- The Motels
Bad Blood- Neil Sedaka
Afternoon Delight- Starland Vocal Band
It’s Magic- Pilot
Delta Dawn- Helen Reddy
One Tin Soldier- Coven
Wildfire- Michael Martin Murphey
Wichita Lineman- Glen Campbell
Love Is Alive- Gary Wright
And I sing! I may be a freak but I have a good time.
When certain songs come to an end, I still expect to hear the song that was next on one of my old mixed tapes. Boys of Summer was on a mixed tape that was made for me by the cute younger sister of one of my best friends. I still think of her every time I hear that song. sigh
Me too, Shelbo. It’s even worse when that’s the only song on the record I like, I always associate it with the mix tape rather than the record.
Or the worst: when someone makes a mix tape for you that has songs that sound nearly the same and puts them together on the mix. I always associate Town Called Malice by The Jam with Lust for Life by Iggy Pop because someone put them together on a mixtape and they have a nearly identical beat.
)