Summer Hits 1985

You know what I miss about the Eighties? Apart from my wrinkle-free skin and Culture Club, of course. Mixed tapes. Homemade mixed tapes especially. Although that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the odd K-Tel selection every once in a while, I’m sure some of you remember those. ‘Summer Mix 1985’ remains a favourite of mine.

But homemade mixed tapes were really the best. Now I know people can create playlists these days. I’ve heard it’s considered pretty thoughtful if someone creates a playlist for you of songs they think you’ll love or, even better, songs that remind them of you. It’s just not the same, though. When I was in high school, if a boy made you a mixed tape....man, that was something. It meant he was thinking about you, really thinking about you for long stretches of time. Long enough that he had to collect up all of his various cassettes, make a list of songs for you and spend hours hitting the ‘play’ and ‘record’ buttons simultaneously over and over. Painstakingly writing out an index of the songs he’d chosen on the cover of the cassette. Sometimes even doodling a little colour art or making up a title like ‘Songs That Make Me Think Of You’. Gorgeous.

My best friend Gina was a dab hand at the mixed tape. She was a terrible deejay – forever turning off songs about a minute and a half in because she got bored of the tune – but she made a helluva mixed tape. They were organized thematically and I desperately wish I still had some of them. She made me tapes for when I missed home in Switzerland (lots of The Platters and somehow she even found a little Anne Murray. Who I can’t stand unless I’m thinking of long drives at night as a kid, my family singing along to ‘Danny’s Song’ with the windows down), tapes for when I was having boy troubles (The Cowboy Junkies, Concrete Blonde and The Stones – that tape got used up pretty frequently) and tapes for getting ready to go out for a night on the town.

It’s funny, you know. I can’t remember much about certain boys I thought I’d love until the day I died from high school. I couldn’t tell you what colour ‘Rob’’s eyes were, or how tall ‘Mike’ really was. But I remember the mixed tapes they made me. Rob was a big Aerosmith fan and honestly, I had no clue of his affections until he dedicated ‘Angel’ to me with a weird little voice-over on one of his mixed tapes. Rob really knew how to work his magic on me through song. Whenever I was feeling mad or sad or pretty or anything, he’d whip out the perfect mixed tape and make it all perfect. And Mike....well let’s just say that to this day, I can’t hear ‘Purple Rain’ without having a flashback to his rec room. On his couch in the dark. His back under my hands....enough said.

Mixed tapes weren’t always great. One boy – one beautiful, complicating, heart-breaking boy – used a mixed tape to break up with me. Ouch. The whole thing was ‘Free Bird’ and ‘Wherever I Lay My Hat, That’s My Home’. I mean, honestly – he couldn’t just tell me he was going on a road trip to Thailand for six months? I still hate ‘Free Bird’.

I think we should bring back the mixed tape. Dig up all the old cassettes and find ourselves tape recorders. Forget playlists – after all, how long does it even take to make a playlist? Does that really tell someone how much you care? What does it tell them? ‘Look how much I love and appreciate you – I spent six minutes scrolling through my ipod and found some songs I thought you might like.’ Where’s the romance in that? Fellas – and ladies – if you really want to show someone how much they mean to you, create a mixed tape for them. And if it’s someone you really dig, make a collage for their cover art out of magazines. No one can resist a collage.