Mixtape Time Capsules: Driving Mix, c. 1992

A mix-tape, whatever its intended purpose, is also always a time capsule. A record of a person, a place, a set of feelings, a time that felt like forever, and then wasn’t.


Last week I opened a box and a little piece of the ’90s fell out: the first driving mix-tape I ever made. There’s no date on it, but I’m pretty sure it’s from the spring of 1992, since that is approximately when I would have gotten my license. Fun trivia fact: I learned to drive on the Beltway. In a Chevette.

Anyway it is a hilarious cultural trainwreck and I kind of love it, not least because a mix that starts with Dwight Yoakam, dips heavily into, among other things, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Elvis Costello in the middle, and ends with Ashokan Farewell probably does still sum me up as a person reasonably well.

Also, I have a terrible pop music problem and every time I listen to Five Seconds of Summer’s She Looks So Perfect I start laughing when they get to I got a mix tape straight out of ’94 because, dudes, I was there, I remember, and most of that, so not romantic.

Warning: may cause cultural whiplash.

Side I

Dwight Yoakam, I Sang Dixie – NICE OPENING SALVO, Seventeen. What, had you listened to Guitars, Cadillacs and Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose too many times?
 

Dwight Yoakam - I Sang Dixie

 
Bruce Springsteen, Human Touch – Clearly I started making this mix when I was in a bad mood. Let’s face it, that was probably just my default mode, because: seventeen.
 
Bruce Springsteen - Human Touch

 
Elvis Costello, Veronica – This is what I mean by “not romantic”: a New Wave pop song about Alzheimers!
 
Veronica - Elvis Costello 1989 New Wave Pop Hit

 
Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar On Me – I got to hear this live a couple of summers ago, and you know what: those riffs have aged like fine, fine wine. They belled out over the sea at Jones Beach and I rose and swayed gently, grinning like an idiot and doing my best not to air drum.
 
DEF LEPPARD - "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (Official Music Video)

 
Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Science Fiction Double Feature Picture Show – I was a sheltered suburban child and I am at a loss to explain how I even knew about this movie. P.S. Thank you, whoever introduced me to the dark side.
 
Rocky Horror Picture Show Science Fiction/Double Feature

 
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Kings Road – Tom Petty was my first show (in 1989) and in many ways my first fandom, which I was in pretty much alone, because I had no-one to discuss him with in the ’90s, because my friends were more into Robert Smith. He just put out another record this year – Hypnotic Eye – and you know what it is BANGIN’ and he puts bands 3/4ths his age to shame. I also had mixes that were just Tom Petty songs, drawn from all of his records c. 1992, which I also used as driving mixes. That was what we had to do in the dark ages before iPod shuffle, y’all. Trivia about this song: There’s a street in Los Angeles called “Kings Road” and every time I crossed at that corner this song started playing in my head.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Kings Road

 
John Mellencamp, Again Tonight – I appear to be feeling better! Yay!
 
John Mellencamp - Again Tonight

 
Blondie, The Tide is High – Ah yes, here we are, the Songs For Dumb Boys section: part 1. Dear Seventeen: It wasn’t worth it, but I appreciate your determination anyway.
 
http://youtu.be/Bv_mQIZHeHs
 
Elvis Costello, Miss MacBeth – This is actually a demo version, not the one from the record, because that I couldn’t find that one. But you get the general idea. It’s missing some of the depth and punch and all y’all should go and buy Spike so you can properly appreciate this song about the ways becoming an old maid can twist a person. It’s one of those tunes that falls into the “sometimes you read good stories, other times, the book reads you” category. Then, this was a cautionary tale; now, it still is, I guess, but I feel a certain amount of sympathy for Miss MacBeth and her daily love songs and corrosive rage.
 
http://youtu.be/O4s7y7if5ZM
 
BoDeans, Good Things – This one kind of lightens the mood, and kind of . . . doesn’t. Mostly I love that the person who uploaded this video went with 4+ minutes of dash cam somewhere broad, green and flat, because this is a driving mix, after all.
 
BoDeans Good Things

 
BoDeans, Paradise – I am not sure why I went all Two for Tuesday on BoDeans here, other than I really loved all of the songs Black and White and couldn’t choose just one.
 
BoDeans - "Paradise" - 11/4/11 - Radio Woodstock 100.1

 
Jimmy Buffett, Great Filling Station Hold-Up – Songs for Getting The Fuck Out Of Here, part 1: this is a silly song about dumb criminals, but also reflected my burning desire to graduate from high school and get out of town.
 
Jimmy Buffett-The Great Filling Station Holdup

 

Side II

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Thing About You – Songs For Dumb Boys, part 2a. I’m still not much for mystery, not going to lie.
 

Tom Petty- A Thing About You (Live)

 
Bon Jovi, Bad Medicine – You might be a lite-country-playing grown-up now, Jon Bon Jovi, but I remember when you had big riffs and ridiculous hair and acid washed jeans, and I loved you best. More or less. I suppose it would be more accurate to say I loved you best in a four way tie with Axl Rose, James Hetfield, and Tommy Lee.
 
Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine

 
Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, Over At The Frankenstein Place – In this case the light in the darkness was the possibility of college, where I might meet other weirdos like me. (Spoiler alert: I did.)
 
Rocky Horror Picture Show - Over At The Frankenstein Place

 
Elvis Costello, This TownThis Town is a very satisfying thing to hiss under your breath while driving back from the grocery store, is all I can say.
 
This Town by Elvis Costello

 
J. Geils Band, Centrefold – The family of a deceased alumna gave my high school a jukebox for the cafeteria, because she had loved music, and we used it to play this song every single day for a solid year. I think they took it away not long thereafter.
 
J. Geils Band - Centerfold

 
John Mellencamp, Crazy Ones Songs for Dumb Boys, part 2b. They weren’t actually crazy, it just felt that way, at the time.
 
http://youtu.be/lYtF2ThS8IQ
 
Richard Marx, Angelia – Any ’90s mix that does not include at least one Richard Marx song is historically inaccurate because between this one and Right Here Waiting he was everywhere.
 
http://youtu.be/UR1MlRSJ-e8
 
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, You and I Will Meet Again – I know exactly which boy this was in reference to, and, listening to the song again, I realized: we did. Almost twenty years later, almost exactly as the lyrics said: in a far-off place (Penn Station), I recognized his face. We stopped to chat for a minute, and then he vanished back into the commuting crowd.
 
You And I Will Meet Again - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

 
Tesla, Lodi – Tesla – I saw them live recently (kind of) too, and, you guys, it was awesome. This is more on the theme of How The Hell Do I Get Out Of This Town?
 
Tesla - Lodi [Live]

 
The Forester Sisters, Mama’s Never Seen Those Eyes – One of the mysteries of old tapes: where did I get these songs from? Most of them I know I bought the tape. This one I really have no idea. I can’t imagine it was still on the radio, so I must have. Also, this is a whole lot of wishful thinking. Someday, Seventeen, someday. I promise.
 
Forester Sisters Mamas Never Seen Those Eyes

 
Alice Cooper, I’m Your Gun – Holy awkward transitions, Batman! I am baffled that I didn’t select Poison or House of Fire, here, but, oh well. The ways of Seventeen are cloudy and mysterious, I suppose.
 
Alice Cooper - I'm Your Gun (from Alice Cooper: Trashes The World)

 
Gerardo, Rico Suave – I actually bought his tape; it was pretty good. But this was the song that was inescapable. Did you know: Gerardo is at least partially responsible for Enrique Iglesias being signed to Interscope! Apparently he’s a youth pastor now.
 
GERARDO - Rico Suave HD

 
Ken Burns’ The Civil War soundtrack, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Ashokan Farewell – Again: good lord, THAT is a transition. I don’t think I ever watched the mini-series, I just listened to the soundtrack. A lot. Ashokan Farewell also ended up on the graduation mixes I made.
 
Folk Alley Sessions: Jay Ungar & Molly Mason Family Band, "Ashokan Farewell"

Fanmix: Warren Ellis, Gun Machine

Fan mixes: collections of music created as both soundtrack and illustration for other works, usually works of fiction, intended as both appreciation of and enticement to read the work of fiction.

This one is for Gun Machine by Warren Ellis, who is author of, among other things, Transmetropolitan and Crooked Little Vein, and is NOT the dude who plays music with Nick Cave.

Gun Machine is a murder mystery set in New York. But not the New York you usually see on cop shows; the Financial District, which is older and darker. Down there you’re off the grid. The streets are narrow and twisty and reality can be very thin. Depending on how the wind is blowing off the water, it does feel like you could walk around a corner today and stumble into the 17th century, 1926 could be tomorrow and 2018 was last week.

“Off the grid” would actually sum up the book as a whole. It is also bloody, startling, deeply lonely, occasionally bitingly funny, like watching my own city from the wrong end of a telescope, a complex puzzle, and very, very good. If you pick it up, be sure to both read and listen carefully; Ellis uses music and sounds much like Nathaniel Hawthorne used light, that is, as both text and subtext.

The mix below is my attempt at capturing the spirit of the work. The songs chosen are intended to trace the outline of the narrative in broad strokes. All of them, save for two, are available for sale and/or free download from the artist.

The exceptions are Panic! at the Disco’s cover of Karma Police, which is a fan bootleg of a live performance, chosen for the quality of the static, and Kasey Anderson and the Honkies’ Abbaddon Blues, because it is from Let the Bloody Moon Rise, a record which saw only limited release before Anderson went on indefinite-but-hopefully-not-permanent hiatus and which is now (almost) out of circulation.

1.BT, Go(d)t
 


 
2. Panic! at the Disco, Karma Police (Radiohead cover)
 

 
(If you want a visual.)
 
3. Foster the People, Pumped Up Kicks
 
Foster The People - Pumped up Kicks

 
4. Breakfast in Fur, Whisper
 
Breakfast in Fur - Whisper (Official)

 
5. David C. Clements, Oh Child
 

 
6. Blondie, Heart of Glass
 
Blondie - Heart Of Glass

 
7. Jane’s Addiction, Chip Away
 
Jane's Addiction - Chip Away

 
8. Firewater, A Little Revolution
 
FIREWATER: A Little Revolution

 
9. Milan Jay, In the Shadows of Footsteps
 

 
10. BL/\CK CEILING, I’MNLUVWITCHU
 

 
11.Xiu Xiu, Hi
 
Xiu Xiu - Hi [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

 
12. Kasey Anderson and the Honkies, Abbaddon Blues
 

 
13. Cage the Elephant, Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked
 
Cage The Elephant - Ain't No Rest For The Wicked

 
14. Blackwater Jukebox, Carousel
 

 
15. Willow Sea, Night Light