Mixology: To Funk or Not to Funk?

I haven't done a lot of recurring features on this blog, with the exception of the CompCon shownotes, but I'm starting one now. The inspiration was an article in the Globe this week about a great site I had never heard of called Cassette From My Ex, in which folks write about a mix tape they received from an ex-significant other; there are some great stories about the tapes themselves, the relationships, the meaning of the songs, etc. And you're able to listen to the tapes as well. The site hasn't been updated since last fall, but it appears as though site organizer Jason Bittner has spent the last few months putting together a book based on the site's premise. Hopefully, he'll start posting new stories about old mixes. Mix tapes have been glorified to excellent effect in the fine books High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (and subsequent movie adaptation starring John Cusack) and Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield.

Mix tapes and I go way back, ever since 1980-81 when I got a clock radio with a built-in tape deck. I started making tapes of songs I liked off the radio. The sound quality was awful and sometimes the DJ started yapping before I could stop the recording, but those tapes got me through some rough times. I didn't make a tape again until I got to college, when aided by my roommates' superior stereo equipment, I got the bug again. In the 24 years since, I've recorded dozens of mix tapes and later, CDs and iTunes playlists, but making a mix cassette is much more rewarding--not to mention time-consuming. The vast majority of tapes I made were for my own personal listening pleasure, although I did make a few for girls I was dating, including Deb. I think I only received one tape from an ex; I'll write about it sometime.

I believe my last mix tape was made in 1999, around Thanksgiving, when Deb and I had just started living together. Not long after that, my tape deck broke and I didn't replace it. A few years later, I got a CD burner for my PC and tapes were long forgotten. But I still drove cars that had tape decks, so occasionally I would dig up an old mix and pop it in. Some of the mixes were more thematic than others; some were just made up of cool songs I liked at the time. I still do that each month, putting together an iTunes playlist and burning it to a CD. Although now that I'm driving an old Explorer that only has a tape deck and no CD player, I've been listening to tapes more often.

Last year, I bought a Sony double-cassette deck off Craigslist and have it hooked up to a receiver, CD player and turntable, so I'm actually fully equipped to make mix tapes again. And I found several blank tapes last night, so at some point when I have some time I'll make some new mixes. In the meantime, I'm going to use this feature, Mixology, to describe various past mix tapes in random order. So here goes with the first one:

To Funk or Not to Funk (11/30/96)

The '90s were my most prolific time for mix tape making. This tape was made when I was getting heavily into funk and R&B. Looking back, I could make a tape that's way more funky than this one now, but this one ain't bad. The first side was funk or funk-influenced songs and the second side had more of an alt-rock bent. Probably the best thing I can say about this tape is that there aren't any songs on it I'm embarrassed of, something I can't say about a lot of my other tapes.

Side A: Funk
1. Hey Ladies - Beastie Boys
2. Make It Funky - James Brown
3. Chicken Dog - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Rufus Thomas
4. High 5 (Rock the Catskills) - Beck
5. What is Hip? - Tower of Power
6. We Got Soul - Big Boys
7. Can't Get Enough of Your Love - Barry White
8. When Doves Cry - Prince
9. Taste the Pain - Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. One Born Every Minute - Big Chief
11. Bring the Noise - Anthrax and Public Enemy
12. Jerry was a Race Car Driver - Primus
13. Blame Etc. - Afghan Whigs

Side B: Not to Funk
1. (Feel Like) (Gerry) Cheevers (Stitch Marks on My Heart) - Chixdiggit!
2. Worst Thing - Sebadoh
3. Leave - R.E.M.
4. Gift Shop - The Tragically Hip
5. Smile - Pearl Jam
6. Men in Black - Frank Black
7. Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
8. Lil' Devil - The Cult
9. Tighter and Tighter - Soundgarden
10. Witness - Screaming Trees
11. Underneath - Kevin Salem
12. Ice Cream Man - Van Halen
13. Funk Off - Big Boys

Funk:



Not to Funk: