Summer Mixes - The Beginning

Reading Mike's post on the Summer Mix blog made me recall creating my own mix tapes, which goes back to sometime in the early 1980s.

Music for me then was typical rock radio stuff of the era - Van Halen, Billy Squier, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, etc.

The summer of 1983 I experienced a sort of renaissance. I started working as a lifeguard at Spruce Run State Park in Clinton, N.J. At 17, I was one of the youngest lifeguards on the 12-person staff. Most everyone else was in college.

With Round Valley State Park literally down the road, that made for a crew of 24 lifeguards that would get together almost every weekend for a party at someone's house. These were full-blown BYOB or keg parties that sometimes ended up on the beach at Spruce Run. Yes, I can say that I've been "skinny dipping" in Spruce Run Reservoir. I realize this probably isn't a shock after my recent streaking incident :~)

Anyway... Almost every weekend at these parties I'd hear about and listen to songs, bands and albums that I had never heard before.

Suddenly, my musical taste included The Ramones, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, New Order, Black Flag, Talking Heads, The Replacements, R.E.M., The B-52's, Joe Jackson, English Beat, Thompson Twins, Squeeze, The Cure, Buzzcocks, Violent Femmes, Dead Kennedys, Elvis Costello, and the emerging lead singer formerly of Generation X, Billy Idol.

Even artists I had heard of, such as David Bowie and The Police, I was introduced to songs and whole albums of music I had never heard before.

This is also where my appreciation for live music and concert-going began. While my first rock concert may have been The Cars with Wang Chung* in 1984 at the old Philadelphia Spectrum arena, one of my other early shows included The Replacements at City Gardens in Trenton, N.J., in August 1985. This was back when guitarist Bob Stinson was still with the band, but didn't show up until halfway through the 4th song in the set. I remember Paul Westerberg asked the crowd, "If anyone sees Bob, tell him we're on." Later after the show, while driving out of the parking lot, we passed Bob walking on the side of the road. A couple of us yelled out, "Great set," but Bob just kept walking.

* When Wang Chung opened for The Cars, this was when they had a little known hit "Dance Hall Days." It would be another two years before "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" was released.

Back then it wasn't easy to find punk and new wave music. They didn't play that stuff on the radio, so you would read about it or hear about it from a friend, but then have to search for it in out-of-the-way record stores or borrow someone's album and tape it.

Many times, I'd be at a friend's house and go through their music collection taping a song here and there, creating a mix on the fly. Mixes then were thrown together songs that were new to me, but could have been in circulation for years.

It would be some time before I started to hone my mixes so that songs were placed strategically rather than haphazardly. This started slowly after I began to acquire more and more of this new music, and discovered places where it was easily available.

Back then I had a Panasonic all-in-one stereo. This was my first mixing machine. I remember I could use the pause button to carefully arrange similar sounding songs right next to each other. Being in the days of analog, if I made a mistake, I would have to redo my live pause-button edit again taping over the mistake.

I remember spending hours in my room listening to music and coming up with story and movie ideas. Sometimes I'd make music mixes to go along with my story ideas. I've done this with almost every written story or movie idea since.

Music for me has always been something special. Sometimes I'm almost disappointed when I find out what a song is really about, because it may have meant something entirely different to me. To this day, I will not read the lyrics of a song unless I have a real need to know what it's about.

Although I've come to know them over time, I've never actually sat down and read the lyrics to Dave Matthews Band "#41." I like the abstractness of it and what it means to me. To put it another way, it's like seeing a Van Gogh up close and in person. I see the colors and these wonderful images, and it doesn't matter what the artist was going for, or whether he was bonkers crazy or not. There is just this masterpiece to soak in and engulf your senses.

I had put together a few mixes by the summer of 1986, but I feel this was my first true "summer mix" that I titled "E.G.T." (Estimated Gig Time).

To give some background, earlier when I mentioned the party blow outs above, let it be known we danced at these parties. I mean we threw down, we had a damn good time playing music and dancing or "slamming" (slam dancing before it came to be known as "moshing") depending on the song, but we had fun!

I remember this one particular rainy day at Spruce Run back in 1983 or '84, we closed the beach early and a bunch of us gathered at Alvin's place. His parents had a hot tub in the basement, so naturally we picked up a bunch of beer and headed over there. We also brought along a huge record collection to create a classic party mix tape for our next "big gig." We did this and the tape was stellar. It was one great song after another. We reviewed our work and needless to say there were many empty beer cans left floating in the hot tub.

A few days later, Jon, the owner and holder of this classic mix tape, got into a car accident. He was fine, but the tape was never recovered.

When I created the "E.G.T." mix tape in 1986, this was the first time since then that a tape of our classic party tracks had been created.

If you saw the playlist now it would read like a list of oldies, but back then these were fill-the-dance-floor classic tracks.

The tape has long since gone, but I do recall the mix started out with "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, followed by "White Lies" by Jason and The Scorchers. After that, at one point or another the mix included "So Lonely" by The Police, "Jean Genie" by David Bowie, "Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol, "Mystery Achievement" by The Pretenders, "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel, "What You Need" by INXS, "Radio Free Europe" by R.E.M., "Train In Vain" by The Clash, "Rock Lobster" and "Private Idaho" by The B-52's, "Rockaway Beach" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones, "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads, "Mystery Dance" and "Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello, and "Add It Up" by the Violent Femmes. I'm sure there were more, but those were the main ones I recall.

Many years have passed since then along with countless mixes. Hopefully I've learned something along the way. One thing I know for sure, while mixes can fill a dance floor or be entered into a contest, I'd much rather share a mix for and with a special woman who touches my heart.

- Salud!