Now ever since I got my first tape player I have enjoyed the making of a good compilation. Remember the days of hitting RECORD and STOP and PAUSE during the Top 40 on Sunday nights, well that was me, every week...
Like most kids I knew we didn’t have the money to pay the 79p for a 7'' single or however much it was back then. Albums no chance, the pocket money didn't stretch further than the football on Saturday. So I started making my tapes…
My memory tells me I made many a great tape (reality would of course be different! )
But I found one of the first ones when I went home for Christmas last year. The dusty busted old TDK had a collection of New Wave classics, Duran Duran, Visage, OMD, and the Human League on it. Better still, it still played, and I could still hear the noise my first tape player made as I raced to hit pause before the DJ’s voice came on.
Then things evolved slightly, I was given a battered old stereo where I could record tape to tape, off the radio, and off LP and Single. What a luxury, and of course this was where the scamming and borrowing started as I compiled collection after collection. I still remember going to the library to get out and record (Sorry Simon and the boys, few lost royalties there!) Duran Duran ‘Seven and the Ragged Tiger’. I waited for it for weeks, and was really keen.
That was when I first found my real love for music. The excellent collection at Stockport Library meant I was free to discover Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Joy Division, Bob Dylan, The Clash and The Cure amongst others.
It also lead to a change in friends as my clothing style became, well basically black! What else was cooler. Black skintight Levis, black desert boots and a donkey jacket with tartan inside… I wont mention the hairstyles. Best left there in the late 80’s!
During my teenage years me and my friends would scrimp and save every summer to go on holiday. One of the most important moments of the holiday was the official playing of everyone’s ‘Holiday Tape’. I would religiously prepare the 'holiday' tape, trying to out do my friends with originality/quality of choice/coolness of playlist! If we found any of them now they would probably be terrible!
As a natural progression for a music freak I found the joy of making a tape for 'someone'.
Tapes for mates going away, tapes of Manchester bands, tapes of tunes we had heard at the Hacienda, tapes for loves, and lovers. For these in particular I would spend literally hours trying to put the right song in the right place, and the right time!
A killer to start off with, a well known follow up to keep the interest, that cool song you had heard once but never again third and so on, and so on.
Whilst at University I read 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby. And I got it, I really got it. I believed that the lead character was scary like me.
"Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all, you 're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing."
Rob - High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.
I laughed myself silly when I saw the movie... And then smiled because I realised that what I enjoyed doing was perfectly normal... Lets face it who hasn’t loved atleast one tape/CD that has been made for them in their lifetime.
These days of course things are very different. Laptops, burners, mixers, IPODS, downloads and the like.
Me, I still prefer to spread out my CDS across the lounge floor and spend an evening or two carefully selecting songs I love. Music put together designed to express whatever message I am trying to get across with the compilation.
Tonight is a first though, I am going to do something I have never done before. Im going to make a CD to match the writing on a blog. Not just any blog, but a 'real' blog, by a 'real' person. One difference though, unlike many of my past compilations there will be no hidden meanings, just a simple message that says “I understand.....”
Compilation makers of the world I salute you.....
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I remember making mix tapes for people. I think it started with a scottish penpal I had found in a girls magazine. We shared music and recorded our voices. I guess pen palling was the first real way to "blog" Sharing thoughts and music. I made mix tapes for people I cared for to try and express what I couldn't say, through music. Putting passionate songs from The Smiths and The Cure, that I still get a heartfelt twang when I listen to them now. I remember boyfriends making tapes for me, and my flatmate- think I still have that one :)There is something very intimate about sharing music, and when I find someone likeminded I sometimes say " oh you HAVE to listen to THIS" and email a song or two over their way. But when in this world of you tube and i tunes it's a lot easy, and the work that we used to put into those tapes is lost. But thats our "fastfood" society for you these days.. everything is too easy...
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