In high
school, I bought a cassette tape, special ordered from the Strawberries Records
between my house and my school. This was
same record store that would later ask our band to play the midnight release of
Metallica’s short hair album. The tape
was from a band my friend had taped off the college radio station, put on a mix
tape and delivered to me like a precious secret. We spent fall of our senior year dissecting
and detective finding out all we could about all of the mystery bands---Mission
of Burma, the Queers and Archer of Loaf.
When I got Archers of Load Icky
Mettle I had it in my walkman for weeks.
Ok, I am
aware how dated this may seem to you.
Before digital playlists and apps that can name that tune for you, we
had radio mysteries and friends of friends, and older brothers and sisters
sharing their music. I still have a few
mixtapes from high school. The music
may be available digitally but I treasure the cardboard inserts, careful
handwriting, and wear from pockets or bottoms of backpacks and car floors.
I wanted to
make a mixtape for a friend who was going through a break-up. We are older and smarter and our decisions
may be more calculated but we still feel sad and, sometimes, indulgent. I wanted to make a mixtape celebrating the
range of emotions, something like driving around the dark suburbs in New
Hampshire listening to Archers of Loaf over and over, broken hearted, with a
broken hearted friend, laughing because we were sad and we didn’t know yet how
angry we could be.
Here is to
the explorations of feelings. It’s a bit
over the top, but sometimes that is what you need. I ended up not making this as a mix for my
friend because when it was done,it didn’t seem right for him. And by now, he’s moved on, doing better than
either of us knew could be. Now this mix
is for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment