One of the most difficult things to deal with when pondering mix tapes is the transient nature of the medium. Tapes get old. They run down and get warbly from repeated (and frequent) use. They get stuck in that nether region between the bottom of the seat and the car door and get smashed into bits. They get stressed and 
pulled by constant rewinding or an over-zealous fast-forwarding mechanism. They get warped by the heat of the sun and the plastic dash board.
And sometimes, they just die.
I was at my parents house when I went searching for a tape to write about this week. The place of my upbringing, the place I went from records to tapes to CDs to digital media. This is where I perfected my craft, spending hours every week listening to music in my room and making tapes. If any place was going to have a real treasure, it would be here.
And what a treasure I found!
In the previous post, I mentioned that many times I made tapes to mark a vacation — a new compilation to start a journey. What I found was an old friend amongst the stacks of Eagles greatest hits and Paul Simon cassettes yellowed by age and almost illegible from the years of fingers that smudged the ink, sliding them into or removing them from the car stereo. What I found was the mix I prepared in 1996 before leaving for our yearly fishing migration to Minnesota.
This one is legendary. This one marked a change in the type of tape I used on pretty much a permanent basis until I stopped making tapes. For years I had bounced around types of tape — Maxell really did make the best in the early ’90s, but they were hard to find in the premium line — but this was the year that Sony released their CD-iT series. In my opinion, this became the premium tape that one could buy at most common emporiums. Sony would later go on to also be the first to introduce the slide case instead of the classic hinged case. The tape itself was clean, black and could be purchased in a genius length: 74 minutes.
Why 74 minutes? Well, 90 minutes was sometimes too long to keep a vibe strong, but 60 minutes was too short to complete a theme or really get a good experience. 74 minutes: genius marketing and practical application.
So not only was this mix legendary for being a technical watershed event in my tape-making experience, but it was also a fantastic musical experience unto itself. I hit a groove, a stride with the mix that was seldom repeated. I wanted to capture the feel of late spring/early summer. Those days when it rains late in the day and fills the evening with a low-hanging cloud cover that permeates everything and fills your lungs with a comforting mix of lushness and soil. The way the trees provided shield from the rest of the world.
A bizarre cast of characters make up “Untitled: May 1996.” If I were to hand you the stack of what went into making this mix, you would probably laugh. Heck, I would probably laugh at myself for it. Some of the music includes:
The tape begins with “A Warm Place” by NIN from “The Downward Spiral.” This sets the tone. It’s simple, pure and brimming with an ethereal longing. The mix progresses from there into “And So I Know” by Stone Temple Pilots from Tiny Music, with its slow bossa nova feel and circa-1967 vocals.
As I sat in the floor of the living room Sunday afternoon listening to each song roll forth, I was washed with the whole experience all over again. I sat there, arms wrapped around my knees, being taken in by it all just like I had 15 years ago. And there with me was my son, listening to the music and enjoying the experience (although he did call one song “creepy” …).
And then it happened.
After years of sitting and waiting for me to find it, waiting for me to pull it out of the box and enjoy those familiar sounds, the tape just wasn’t strong enough to hold on any longer. It snapped, and my friend was gone.
Sometimes, tapes just die.
Name: Untitled
Year Recorded: 1996
Tape: Sony CD-IT Type II (High) Position
Recording Quality: Great, until…
Duration: 74 minutes
Noise reduction: N/A
Highlight: “A Warm Place” by NIN
Lowlight: None on this tape, pal. Sucker was gold through and through.
Rockford’s Rating: ASide A
“A Warm Place,” Nine Inch Nails “You Can Never Go Home,” Moody Blues “And So I Know,” Stone Temple Pilots “When I’m Sixty-Four,” The Beatles “Bungle in the Jungle,” Jethro Tull
… and then the tape broke.
Anyone out there know how to splice tapes back together?
At least my old friend lasted long enough to make an important impression. Yesterday, my little man comes to the table, plops down in the floor next to me and asks in his earnest way, “Daddy, can I listen to a tape in my radio?”
Now that made me smile.
Beautiful.
actually I used to use regular clear tape to fix them. You sometimes have to remove the tape at the splice, roll past it then put it back in to finish listening, but it works… otherwise the newer tape players would “flip sides” like the tape was over. I can’t wait to hear what else was on it!!!