Mixtapes 80's & 90's YOUR Lists.

Hi all. We all remember these, in the days when you had a tape recorder/player in your room or at home and you could make up tapes to play in the car or when out with friends via a ghettoblaster. I chose these decades because soon after that the tape cassette was being phased out for CD singles or whatever came along to push the tape out.

All you have to do is come up with up to 24 tracks from those decades(because on a longer playing tape D120 you could have up to 24 small records' tunes) and post them here. You can also say why you chose them. I'll add mine soon. Simples!

^I remember recording a lot o of top 40 shows and songs from radio 1 and very often ended up with a lot DJ interplay afterwards but did some stuff from the Friday rock show with Tommy Vance and one tape somewhere has his interview with David Coverdale when '1987' came out. I think doing stuff on cassettes is one thing i do miss most from growing up!!

I used to make up tapes called Summer Sounds and play them oddly enough during the Summer but mostly on a tape recorder as I didn't/don't drive and my Dad hates modern music so wouldn't play it in his car.

Summer Sounds tape3 recorded Sunday 8th August, 1997

.
Side 1
Wannabe-The Spice Girls
Se A Vide E-Pet Shop Boys
If It's Good Enough-Dodgy
Waterloo Sunset-Cathy Dennis
Suspicious Minds-Fine Young Cannibals
Lip Up Fatty-Bad Manners
Echo Beach-Martha and the Muffins
I'll Be There For You-The Rembrandts(theme to Friends)
Hands Off-She's Mine-The Beat
Get Up!-Mike and the Mechanics
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic-The Police
Hammer to Fall/We Will Rock You-Queen
Side 2
Mmm Bop-Hanson
A Beggar(on a beach of Gold)-Mike and the Mechanics
Weather With You-Crowded House
Who Do You Think You Are?-The Spice Girls
Ooh ah, just a little bit-Gina G
What If...-The Lightning Seeds
Can You Dig It?-The Mock Turtles
Come on Eileen-Dexy's Midnight Runners
Up On the Roof-The Drifters
Move On Up-Curtis Mayfield
Beat Surrender-The Jam
Here I Stand-The Milltown Brothers

Right your turn folks.

I give you 9/10 on Obscurity for the Milltown Brothers

OK I'll rise to the bait and expose myself to potential ridicule.

I don't know exactly when this tape was made, but I'm guessing around 1993 - it's very much early 90s with only the odd one or two 80s tracks in there.

Sorry it's only a D90, I didn't stretch to 120 minute tapes, I was a hard-up student at the time and I think my cassette player either just chewed longer tapes or started playing them at slower speeds because it couldn't cope with the extra weight on the reels

Quite often, mix tapes wouldn't last long, they would get taped over by the next batch of songs that took my fancy; but this relic and a few others have somehow survived...

Why these particular tracks ?
Well I dunno, looking at them now - I'm guessing a mellow, even melancholy/ downbeat mood at the time and a penchant at that time for acoustic-y / jangly-guitar type tracks to reflect that.
They would have been particular favourites from albums that I was listening to/playing to death during that period of 1992 / 1993, I would guess.

Side A

Find The River - REM (Automatic For The People)
Just a simple beautiful melody, and a doom laden lyric I always assumed was about how climate change was going to drown us all.

Stay - Belly (Star)
Classic jangly arpeggio melody, of the kind that REM had a monster hit with in Everybody Hurts around the same period

The Hook - Grant Lee Buffalo (Fuzzy)
Dunno, just like it. It's a good album, I think I might dig the CD out again later.

Country - Paul Weller (Wild Wood)
Very mellow. Just a good song.

You & Me - Neil Young (Harvest Moon)
Acoustic melodic Neil was making a comeback at this time, he also had a live MTV UnPlugged album out

Drivin' On 9 - The Breeders (Last Splash)
Very atypical of the album, which is probably better known for the stop-start monster track "Cannonball".

Omaha - Counting Crows (August and Everything After)
Yes, seem to have been on a bit of an acoustic Americana trip. Mandolins. I'm a sucker for them.

Hannah & Gabi - The Lemonheads (It's A Shame About Ray)
Really liked this album, lot of good tracks.

She Hits Me - The 4 of Us (Man Alive)
A good tune. You think it's a love song, but then it turns out to be an alcoholic hymn of praise to the demon drink

Whispers & Moans - Crowded House (Woodface)
One of my favourite albums.

High and Dry - Radiohead (The Bends)
Controversially, I think to this day I prefer this album to the more lauded follow-up OK Computer

Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? - Lloyd Cole & The Commotions (Rattlesnakes)
yep -1984, well out of period; but appropriate sonically and moodwise.

Side B

I Don't Know Where It Comes From - Ride (Carnival of Light).
Complete with choir, trying its best to be the Rolling Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want" but no worse for that in my view.And I liked the lyric "Turned On The Radio tonight and I was overwhelmed by shite"

In My Life - The Beatles (Rubber Soul)
FOUL! You cry - 1960s - disqualified! What can I say, I went from 90s indie-Stones-sound-a-like to Yer Actual Bona Fide Moptops. Roll with it.

The Beatles & The Stones - The House of Love (The House Of Love)
Can the free-association possibly be more transparent ?

Cigarette Girls - The Bible (Eureka)
late 80s that one I think. Boo Hewerdine I believe is still making music.

Untogether - Belly (Star)
Second appearance by Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses and Breeders fame. It's a great album. The lyrics of this track are fantastic.

Sweetness Follows - REM (Automatic For the People)
Doomy strings. Can't beat 'em.

Scarlet - All About Eve ( Scarlet and Other Stories ).
Late 80s again. Well, what can I say, when you're at art college on a course with Goth girls some of it's going to wear off

You Won't Listen To Me - The River Detectives (Saturday Night & Sunday Morning) Late 80s.
Under-rated Scots duo singing in their natural accents. The world wasn't big enough for them and The Proclaimers, evidently There Could Only Be One.
An example of the folk song form the roundelay, this track does push repetition to its limits though, which is what I think I like about it.

Polly - Nirvana (Nevermind)
Well it was hard to be a student in the early 90s and ignore Nirvana. I did try my best but they wore me down. I think what I like about this track though is it takes the quiet-loud-quiet-loud formula, and forgets to do the loud bits, and manages to have a melody

Looking Glass - The La's ( The La's)

The classic indie-band-that-should-have-done-more-but-didn't, before The Stone Roses took that crown. Always finish Side 2 of your mix tape with a big anthemic instrumental crescendo building to a climax

And there you have it.

Not sure if I'll find more, I think I tended to mix current 90s indie with the 60s and 70s stuff that all the 90s indie bands I liked were ripping-off -returning to the source if you like

(04-04-2019 21:17 )Doddle Wrote:  I give you 9/10 on Obscurity for the Milltown Brothers

I can get more obscure than that-but that's for another time. Great list MLL.

Here's another one I've just found - a more upbeat, obvious, middle-of-the-road, early 90s student-disco-indie-band-hit-single-of-the-moment type compilation :

Side A

Hello - The Beloved

Loaded - Primal Scream

I'm Free - The Soup Dragons

There's No Other Way - Blur

Real, Real, Real - Jesus Jones

Groovy Train - The Farm

The Only One I Know - The Charlatans

There She Goes - The La's

She Comes In The Fall - Inspiral Carpets

Step On - Happy Mondays

Sit Down - James

Unbelievable - EMF

Side B

Movin' On Up - Primal Scream

Get The Message - Electronic

Can You Dig It? - The Mock Turtles

She Bangs The Drums - The Stone Roses

The Size of A Cow - The Wonder Stuff

Shine On - The House of Love

Shiny Happy People - REM. Oh dear, yes I know, probably their worst song ever becomes their biggest hit at that point. But I was obviously looking to go from Shine to Shiny.

Born Of Frustration - James.

You shouldn't be able to get away with stealing Simple Minds' "La-La-La-La" from "Don't You Forget About Me" and playing it on the trumpet, but they did and it kinda works.

One Way - The Levellers

Take It Easy On Me - A House. Getting a bit obscure now.

Every Beat Of The Heart - The Railway Children. No, me neither. I'll have to listen to this to remember what it actually sounds like.

Another comprehensive list M-L-L and it doesn't matter the era it is more making the mixtapes in the 1980's and 90's and doesn't have to include 80's or 90's(it helps to have a few though) I mean I added Curtis Mayfield and he was then.

(04-04-2019 22:02 )M-L-L Wrote:  Take It Easy On Me - A House. Getting a bit obscure now.

Every Beat Of The Heart - The Railway Children. No, me neither. I'll have to listen to this to remember what it actually sounds like.

Props for A House here, and indeed the 4 of Us in the previous one.

Not remember EBOTH? Pfft!

I will try and see what list I can proffer, later...