"non, je ne regrette rien" edition

[sanpaku_backup]

I've been uploading my CD collection onto this computer of late and it occurred to me how much I miss making mixes. That most adolescent of romantic pastimes, the mix tape or CD was one of the few creative things that I'll permit myself to think I was any good at, even though (like everything creative I used to do) it pains me now to think that I used to do it. In retrospect one always winces at exposing something so unbearably cheesy and universal.

And I was thinking about how everyone makes mix tapes when they're falling in love. It suddenly becomes vitally important for the other person to know exactly what it feels like to you, what your internal soundtrack is like, when you're in love. How it somehow proves that you really are in love with them, because you're making something so finely crafted out of other people's longings. But then rarely if ever does the person get to hear the opposite mix, the breakup mix, which is arguably even more personal and expresses all the anguish you poured into the person and how that got overlaid with all the disappointments you ever had in life.

So feeling deeply makes me become atavistic, as I start working my way back through the years and the depths get lower and lower. So most recent and dissonant is Radiohead, or the very sad Beck breakup album, or the Wilco album everyone listened to in 2002. The next stage is Pittsburgh indie, Wimp Factor 14 and Karl Hendricks Trio reminding me of someone in particular I listened to that music with and longed for in 1993 or so. Then, if pushed even lower into full mope mode I revert back to adolescence, to music I no longer admit to listening to, like Jethro Tull or Pink Floyd.

Does this work the same way for everyone? Do you dig out your cherished musical embarrassments when you're depressed? Or is it just me?

Comments

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. Why do you think I have over 17,100 songs on my iPod. Tonight I recorded "Redhead", "Rex", and "Morning Glory" (an obscure Mary Travers album from 1972) But I do have my favorite un-depression music: the musical "Two Gentlemen of Verona".

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Lordy, I don't have an iPod any more, let alone seventeen thousand songs. Good grief.

[flw.livejournal.com]

"cherished musical embarrassments"

Do you remember that guying chewing and chewing and chewing?

What the HELL was that guy chewing?

You should DEFINITELY make mixes. It is easier on the computer than anywhere else... finally!

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

I think we settled on whale blubber.

Yeah, but I am too unsophisticated to learn how to "mix" it, and it's amazing how much the beginnings and ends of tracks vary, so the segues are harder than when you made them on cassette. And as you know, it's all about the segue.

Of course it's hard to even talk about it in the presence of the master. Do you remember the "Richard Milhous Nixon Mix" you gave me? I lost the tape years ago but I still have the case because the songs were so perfect and arranged so perfectly. And the themes really came through. I always wondered if it was a mix you'd meant to give to a girl you were breaking up with and then hadn't.

Which reminds me to ask if you have that song "Horses" by Palace Music on CD -- that thing is impossible to find. I haven't heard it in years but every note and word is in my head so clearly, and it's maddening to not be able to... put it on a mix tape. II think it's the most beautiful sad song I've ever heard, and it seems to be exactly how I'm feeling these days.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Get a program called "Audacity". You load both songs in and slide the second song back and forth until the seg-way is absolutely 100% dead on perfect. It is miraculous. You can listen to it again and again and again. Then, you cut the tail of the first song and combine it with the head of the second song, and BAM! Perfect segue. Of course, you have to make sure that the cut happens at a certain position so that the CD doesn't introduce a tiny little millisecond "hiccup" into sound, but it works like a charm. I can teach you. It's a tiny bit more complicated, but it can all be done with freeware now.

I am sure that if I don't have that song, that it can be gotten somewhere. I think you can buy individual tracks for $1 at many, many different sites. I am not sure which ones to recommend, because I really only listen to free stuff that bands offer for free now. There are SO MANY bands! I just listen to everything and it's... it's just so awesome now. For fans, it sucks for musicians, but what can be done? If people like me avoid paying for music, what hope is there? And you don't even have to steal to not pay anymore. It's terrible!

But awesome.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Nah, it used to be on iTunes but it's impossible to get anymore. Which is maddening.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Someone's got it somewhere.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Oh and I love the phrase "cherished musical embarrassments". It is a coinage for the ages, and I saw it here first.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

But you don't have any. You were born with perfect musical taste. You were listening to the Pixies when I was stuck in Alternative Rock.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Your taste is exemplary. I will not, however, forgive "ska" under any circumstances. That and "Scout Niblett" are grounds for deliberate shunning.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

You were OK with the Jamaican stuff once upon a time. It's just swing. Has to be better in your book than whale-blubber times.

[flw.livejournal.com]

I suppose the thought of breathing in yards of marijuana smoke in a stiflingly humid Jamaican Quonset Hut while listening to a radio play at full blast has its appeal.