Mix Tapes

I used to make mix tapes to play in my car when driving. Tapes. Not CDs, tapes. Did it for years and years. Then I switched to CDs.

Sometimes I would pick a theme and do a bunch of songs in a certain genre. Like "80's Hair" which was a bunch of late 80's hair bands. Or "21 the Hard Way" which was all heavy metal. Or "Speed" which were great songs to speed down the freeway at 90 mph.

Since I got a CD player in the car years ago I rarely pulled out the tapes. I had a deck of 10 discs at my disposal so the tape deck in the car fell to disuse. But recently I pulled out some old tapes and was playing them as I drove. They were somewhat remembered and a bit of a surprise because I didn't remember what I had on the tapes or what order.

I was hearing songs I haven't heard in over a decade and it took me back to the roads I travelled when they were new in my tape deck. I can't say for sure who some of the artists are. I had to have a tape or a record that the song was recorded from, but I have no idea who these bands or singers are. I remember the lyrics to many of them. Or a guitar riff. But I don't know who did it.

It's kind of cool to go back and listen to the tapes. They provide a window to who I was at the time I made them. Some songs I still love. Others were merely a memory, a phase, a brief obsession.

It may take the rest of the year to listen to them all.