Mixology: Rattle and Homina

Mixology is a recurring feature in which I take a look at one of the many mix tapes I made over the years. Some are better than others, but all of them are fun to revisit.

Rattle and Homina (5/14/90)

It's pretty amazing that it has been 20 years since I made this mix. It was nearly a year after I had graduated from UNH. I was 22, working as a reporter at the Peabody Times, living in Wenham, Mass., with three friends as we house-sat for one of the editors at the paper, who had taken his family to China for a year.

We had some epic parties in that house, the likes of which it has never seen again. There was a core group of reporters at the Essex County Newspaper chain (comprising the Beverly-Peabody, Gloucester and Newburport papers) that were all hired around the same time, all in our early to mid-20s and all single. It was a great time. We worked crazy hours; one of my roomies, Eric, worked in Peabody with me and we would often be up at 2 a.m. playing table hockey to decide who had to get up in four hours and cover the police and fire beat on deadline. High stakes, man.

There was much hue and cry in the news over the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker that in '89 caused the biggest oil spill in U.S. history (well, until the ongoing BP clusterfvck, anyway). Nelson Mandela was finally freed from a South African prison. Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in a shocking upset. Microsoft released Windows 3.0. The Gretzky-less Edmonton Oilers swept the Boston Bruins to win the team's fifth Stanley Cup in seven years.

This mix covers quite a range of musical styles. I was all about broadening my horizons at this point, getting into stuff like James Brown and old blues guys like John Lee Hooker. Not so much of the metal, but still some hard rock like GNR and the Chili Peppers. And stuff like Clapton that you couldn't pay me to listen to nowadays. All things considered, it was a fun, fairly responsibility-free time of my life. Hard to imagine these days, but I'm okay with that.

Side A
99 Worlds - Peter Wolf
Blues Before and After - The Smithereens
Could I've Been So Blind - The Black Crowes
Before You Accuse Me - Eric Clapton
The Other Side - Aerosmith
She Gives Me Love - The Godfathers
Rocket Queen - Guns 'n Roses
Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
A Little is Enough - Pete Townshend
Love is the Drug - Roxy Music
Knock Me Down - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Side B
No More - Neil Young
Train in Vain - The Clash
Liars Dance - Robert Plant
Hoochie Koochie Man - Jimi Hendrix
Cold Sweat (live) - James Brown
I'm in the Mood - John Lee Hooker with Bonnie Raitt
Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M.
All Lovers are Deranged - David Gilmour
The Great Embrace - Kim Mitchell
Two of Us - The Beatles
Almost Hear You Sigh - The Rolling Stones



Knock Me Down:


Cold Sweat: