The mix tape

I was talking to my long distance BFF, Christi from mint. sweet little things (she's the one who makes all of those wonderful little bags that I sell on my retail site), and she had me taking a major hike down memory lane. She was burning some CDs with music hits from the 80s to give to some of her clients. We had a blast running through all of these tunes from the Big Hair era and it got me thinking back to some Mix Tapes I received in my teen years.

Mix Tapes were the ultimate expression of love when a boy just could not bring himself to whisper those three words. My first serious boyfriend courted me with tapes he made that contained his favorite songs from his favorite artists. Never mind my favorite songs or favorite artists, these songs spoke to him and he thought they would speak to me, too. I really hated The Cars and was not a big Beatles fan--I was more in to funk music and was just getting into punk and classic rock (I have an eclectic taste in music), but he really didn't care. He thought if he loved this music he could package it all together, present it to me and make me love it, too.

Well, he was wrong. The relationship did not last a year out of high school--not because of the music, mind you, it seems we really did not have much else in common either.

Now, my next boyfriend did his homework. We worked together at a newspaper and he was privy to my changing the radio dial and could tell if I really liked a song. He painstakingly made his tape in a time when you had to use a dual-tape recorder with a fast forward and rewind button--timing was a skill. If you could manage to get a disc jockey to play a dedication on the radio and capture it at the precise moment, well, that was a major coup. Some of the songs that found their way on to that tape still ring in my ears...Sheila E's "Love Bizarre"; Bryan Adams' "Cuts Like a Knife"; and Van Halen's "Why Can't This Be Love?" I LOVED that tape! I lost it when a jealous boyfriend from college found it and demanded that I destroy it. It seems he was well aware of the power of the Mix Tape.

Another guy I dated in college worked at a music store and had every song that ever existed in the universe at his disposal. Now that guy could make a Mix Tape--hits from Steely Dan, Dan Fogelberg, Chicago, Boston were prevalent on his tapes.

Of course, now, music is all digital and mixes are done on computers or ipods or MP3 players (and I am the first to admit I know NOTHING about ipods or MP3 players!), but
it's just not the same.

I miss the Mix Tape. Indulge me -- if you were to make a Mix Tape, what songs would make the cut?