Poor Ol' Bess Is Dead

I had intended to simply comment on Gouldie's post about mixtapes, but it caused such a wellspring of memories and emotions, I had to glom on and make a whole new post. At first, when I read Gouldie's post, I was like, "Yeah. Exactly. I could've written this." I was at the desk and I didn't really digest it at at the time except to be reminded of a funny episode on This American Life that Sarah Vowell did on mixtapes (she's from near Muskogee, y'know).

But then after work I had to go to the Volvo place to clean out our newly demolished car. Friday afternoon YHWH and both girls and a friend were involved in a pretty bad crash. They were cruising along on a main street and a truck barrelled out in front of them from an apartment complex and almost cleared them - almost. Airbags deployed, windows shattered, the whole thing. The cop said it was pretty bad; if they hadn't been in a Volvo, he'd hate to think how bad. The only injury was a broken finger from the airbag. The perp fled the scene - 'twas a hit and run. So, I had to go get all the belongings out of it. Man, I loved that car. Well, anyway I'm rooting around under the seats amongst the rotting french fries and sticky lint-covered gum, Barbie shoes, pennies, and straw wrappers and I reach way under the front passenger seat and feel a tape (the car didn't have a CD player, but I had XM, so I hadn't listened to tapes in forever). I pull it out and whaddayaknow...















It's a mixtape from Adjective Queen! Oh my God that was the worst tape ever made. I couldn't stand one song on there. And this is from a woman who adored DeeeLite! (I will find my video of the Queen dancing to "Groove Is In the Heart" and post it on here.)

On the way home I thought more about mixtapes. I have made hundreds of them. I'm with you, Gouldie, there's nothing like getting out every album you own and sitting in front of the stereo for hours making mixtapes. You have to listen to every song while it records; there's no other way. You get to hear songs you haven't heard in forever. Songs you thought you hated, but now you like. You tape, erase, retape; it goes on for hours. Clicks never bothered me and I got pretty good at making it go seemlessly between songs. It was a skillful endeavor. Not like these young whippersnappers today with their pods and their shiny silver things. It's just not the same. People just throw any old song on a CD mix these days and geez with shuffle, CDs and mp3 players lose the whole mood of the thing. It's like turning the Mona Lisa at a 90 degree angle or something. I make them on CD now, too, but it's just not as fun.

My friends and I frequently tried to DJ over the songs which got pretty hilarious. I still have one called Poem Break my college pal and I made which features really sick poems between all the songs. It was so awesome to listen to the playback after you were all finished. It was as though you were in control of the radio and it only played the songs you loved to hear. Kind of like those sick people who blog so that everyone in the whole world can read their petty little ... oh ... wait. Somewhere around high school age I started naming all of my tapes after wack character actors I loved like Clu Gulagher and Charles Napier. Dirk Bogarde - now that was a hell of a tape. I name my CDs after actresses I like now.

Gouldie, I used to have mix duels with people, too. I always won the dark ones because of my extensive Joy Division collection. And I could usually hold my own on the cheery ones because I retained all of my old 45s from childhood. Huckleberry Hound's "Laugh Your Troubles Away" was the clencher. But I need a date on your duel with Jeff. I remember the first time I hung out with you, the Queen and you and I went to see the revival of Casablanca and while we were waiting for the movie to start you went on and on about the new Michelle Shocked album (Arkansas Traveler, I think) and I remember thinking, hmmm, nawww, she's married. I didn't say anything, though. Come to think of it, were our spouses there? I just remember the three of us for some reason. Mainly because Queen was in her third person mode. You know how when she has a party or something with new people she spends the whole time referring to you in third person like you're not there. It's cute, Queen; don't take offense.

You ought to share some song lists from your favorite mixtape gifts, Gouldie.