...
R makes quite a few compliations. He has a reasonable taste in music... except that track number 13 on every single one is, without fail, MmmmBop by Hanson.

Why oh why oh why?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:32, Reply)

Made the wrong mistake
In more youthful days, I had a fledgling relationship with a wee cutie. One month in, whilst round at her mum's I pulled out a tape and began to explain that the song that was on it would go some way in explaining just how much I felt for her. Said girl was flattered, impressed and intrigued by this 'romantic' gesture and put the tape on, pressed play and sat on my lap waiting to hear my expression of love.
At this point Akinyele's 'Put It In Your Mouth' blares out. Girl gets cross. Girl's mum walks in. Girl's mum hears song and isn't impressed. Joke backfires. She doesn't 'put it in her mouth'.......ever.
(mymonkeylife, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:31, Reply)

One song that will appear on 70% of mix tapes...
...since 1983.

Journey - Don't Stop Believin'

FACT!
(ShaunyBoi has been surviving fires since, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:30, 9 replies)

Click below if you prefer iTunes to all that messing around with C90 cassettes
Staralfur (Live Acoustic Version) 5:23 Sigur Rós Q - Best Of 2007 Alternative & Punk AAC audio file
Hawaii Five-0 Theme 1:39 1 12/01/2007 14:01 MPEG audio file
Dark Moon, High Tide 4:12 Afro Celt Sound System Volume 1 Sound Magic Alternative 14 23/08/2006 23:32 AAC audio file
Neighborhood #2 (Laika) 3:32 The Arcade Fire Funeral Alternative & Punk 2 11/01/2007 16:06 AAC audio file
Ships In the Night 4:11 Be Bop Deluxe Postcards from the Future - Introducing Be Bop Deluxe Rock 1 17/02/2007 23:58 Protected AAC audio file
Lemonade And Buns 5:51 Kila Lemonade & Buns Folk 17 05/11/2006 14:46 AAC audio file
The Facts Of Life 4:38 Black Box Recorder The Facts Of Life Alternative & Punk 3 25/10/2006 23:47 AAC audio file
The Hold Steady 3:09 Chips Ahoy Word 49 Alternative & Punk 1 06/02/2008 23:49 AAC audio file
Feel The Need In Me 3:20 Detroit Emeralds Soul Masters Blues 16 07/02/2008 00:18 AAC audio file
The James Bond Theme 2:55 John Barry Themeology - Best of John Barry Soundtrack 3 21/10/2005 15:06 AAC audio file
You Don't Make It Easy Babe 2:32 Josh Ritter Word Of Mouth Winter 2004 Unclassifiable 3 08/04/2006 11:27 AAC audio file
Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now 3:30 Mitch Benn And The Distractions Word of Mouth July 2005 Rock 1 04/07/2005 22:31 AAC audio file
Love Will Tear Us Apart 3:18 Nouvelle Vague Nouvelle Vague Electronica/Dance 3 14/05/2006 13:21 AAC audio file
Little Fluffy Clouds 4:02 The Orb Big Tunes! Electronica/Dance 1 23/07/2005 16:39 AAC audio file
Bigpipe Style 5:16 Orbital Style ep Electronica/Dance 1 22/12/2007 11:58 AAC audio file
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:28, 1 reply)

Che reminded me
of the last time I made a mix tape.

Heavily pregnant and hormonal as hell, I made the most god-awful tape, everything from slushy luuurve songs and 80's pop to a wee spot of 60's rock. With a side trip down Meat Loaf lane.

*hangs head in shame*

Duly went into labour, off to the hospital. Several long painful hours later, I've succumbed to the lure of the epidural (after first working my way through the rest of the drugs cupboard) and am resting fairly comfortably. Watching the telly.

Bit later, the epidural has worn off and (with my agreement) won't be topped up. I'm about ready to push - or kill someone. Either is possible.

Just as the third stage begins MrWitch remembers the tape. He offers to put it on. I agree (I was actually past caring) and he bungs it on, volume fairly low.

Some time later, as the pushing (and it's bloody hard work) is getting serious, the tape player increases the volume all by itself, and out blasts a bit of Wham! Wake me up before you go go? Not a bloody chance, George!

MrWitch was instructed in no uncertain terms to turn off the fecking tape RIGHT NOW! He shot over and hit the stop button - which fell off. He fumbled around with the thing, hitting all the buttons in turn, before eventually yanking the power cable out. Silence! However briefly, I was happy.

Nature took its course, a healthy baby girl arrived, and I was up and walking around in no time at all. Okay, I was walking like a giraffe taking a drink, but give me credit, I was vertical.

I have never made a mix tape since, and still cannot hear that particular Wham song without being mentally transported back to the delivery room. So you can safely say it's not my favourite tune any more.

As for getting into someone's pants, that was the midwife's job. If I'd stayed out of someone else's pants, I wouldn't have been in labour!
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:23, 1 reply)

Driving across Canada in the late 80s
with a mate called Mark. He was into Black Box, Five Star, Snap! etc etc. Boy did he love the mainstream.

I was going through an extended Goth/Indie phase that still hasn't really left me.

So I made a tape to play on our trip filled to the brim with tracks I knew he'd hate. I even titled it "BTAM" in nice spidery gothic lettering on the inlay. "BTAM?" I hear you ask. He asked the same thing. Repeatedly.

We'd parked downtown to do some food shopping. Mark was badgering me about this tape and as we returned to where we'd left the car I eventually caved in and revealed BTAM stood for "Bound To Annoy Mark".

He walked up to the car, stopped a moment, and then turned around laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked, "I thought you'd be pissed off at least."

Mark pointed at the passenger window, "I'm never going to have to sit through that tape again... some fucker's broken in and nicked the tape player."

Didn't nick the tape though (or my dirty washing). I still have it somewhere.
( chthonic, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:22, 1 reply)

this could probably have gone in the "i knew it was over when" qotw
Met a girl reading the da vinci code in quite a famous livestock esque music venue in bristol, she was studying at bristol uni and we got talking about dan brown and then other books and authors etc. Turns out we had fairly similar tastes in literature and ended up spending most of the evening with her and her friends. After the bands had finished and it was time to leave, we exchanged numbers had a bit of a kiss and I went off. A couple of days later a band I liked was playing in the same venue and my mate pulled out leaving me with a spare ticket and a brilliant reason to get her out again. So I met her before had a drink then went to watch the band ,which she hated…. Turns out that she was only there last time as one of her friends was seeing one of the band members. It didn’t really bother me or anything just laughed it off and tried to enjoy the rest of an evening. After the gig we were walking along Bristol bridge to head into town and she came up with the idea of doing each other mix cd’s as she hadn’t heard of half the bands I was talking about wanting to see. Thinking this was actually a brilliant idea and slightly annoyed I didn’t come up with it first I threw myself into making the perfect mix cd. Think John Cusack in High Fidelity but with more sexual frustration thrown in (she hadn’t put out). We exchanged CD’s later on that week and sweet jesus was the rug pulled out under my feet. The first fucking track was Flying without wings by westlife. Second track was mysterious girl by peter andre. I didn’t get as far as track 3. I only saw her a couple of times after that as it soon transpired that we had nothing in common apart from books. BTW this might make me sound shallow but the feeling was mutual, I cant remember all the tracks now but they included, Modern love by Bowie, anthems for a 17 year old girl , broken social scene, cardigans, deftones, manics, foo fighters !

It just shows how important mix tapes are!
(drew pea great minds like a think!, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:21, 4 replies)

Let's get it on.....
I've got a little selection of songs on the laptop that can't help but melt ladies hearts. (Otis, Al Green, Marvin Gaye for the 'hey ladeez' vibe, plus a few seldom heard heart-breakers to show my sensitive side).
I've given it out to quite a few girls in the past and even a couple of male friends who needed a little help. That collection of songs is perfect for emptying knickers. And nutsacks.

EDIT:

Here's the list

Hey Jude = Wilson Pickett
Wouldn't It Be Nice = Beach Boys
Afterglow = Small Faces
The Bar is Beautiful Place = Ryan Adams
I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have = Primal Scream
Man of Constant Sorrow = Rod Stewart
All the Rights Reasons = Jayhawks
Les Fleurs = Minnie Riperton
I Can't Right Lefthanded = Bill Withers
I'm Hurting Too = Kel Elliott
Mellow Doubt = Teenage Fanclub
He Called Me Baby = Candi Staton
Hard Times = Ray Charles
Coal to Diamonds = Gossip
Into My Arms = Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Ooh Child = The Posies
Blackbird = The Beatles
Ooh Baby Baby = Smokey Robinson
Do You Realize = The Flaming Lips
(fatcock has decided to be more mysterious.....or has he?, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:19, 4 replies)

Another "not a mix tape" story
When I was about 14, my sister borrowed a book of mine and wouldn't give it back. So I cannibalized a cassette tape, and turned it into a 5 second loop of me saying "Can I have my book back now please?" Then I left it playing outside her bedroom door.

I didn't get my book back, but my Dad did tell me in no uncertain terms to shut the damn thing up, after a scant 5 minutes or so.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:18, 1 reply)

A bit early to be a bit off topic, but tough.
To set the scene: my father is an entomologist, and has acquired a degree of expertise in his particular field of research, which is the communication used by social insects. Strictly speaking, we’re more in the territory of compilation albums than mix tapes… but… I don’t care. Sue me.

Early in his career - about 1974, I think - Dad was browsing a record shop and noticed a sign advertising a new album on which were recorded the particular buzzes of each species of European wasp. This was an opportunity not to be missed, and Dad asked if he could have a listen prior to purchase. The shop assistant took him to the listening-booth, and then went to put on the record.

A few minutes later, Dad emerged, nonplussed. “I think there’s something wrong with the equipment,” he said. “I’m fairly good at identifying wasps from their distinctive buzzes, but I recognise none of these.”

The assistant checked the equipment, and Dad was invited to try again. Again, he listened; again, he didn’t recognise anything. Thinking, perhaps, that there was some static on the jack for the headphones, he asked the assistant if it might be possible to play the recording of European wasp buzzes over the shop’s main speaker. The assistant was a bit reluctant – insect drones are not everyone’s favoured listening – but, after an assurance that it’d only be for a minute, he said that it would be possible. Flicking the switch, the assistant filled the shop with the sound of what was, ostensibly, wasps buzzing. But still Dad recognised nothing. As an expert on identifying wasps by their buzz, this was worrying.

The assistant checked the equipment again. All seemed to be in order… until…
“Ah! I know the problem!” interjected another member of the shop staff who had overheard what was going on. “You’re playing the bee side.”





Oh, come on. It’s a rubbish question anyway.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:14, 13 replies)

the perfect mix tape
I made The Perfect Mix Tape the summer I was 21. It lived in my mate's car and we went everywhere listening to it. It was the perfect soundtrack to a perfect summer - a work of art. Each song led to the next in a flowing, symphonic, brilliant sculpture of sound collage. We sang to it, laughed to it, chilled to it, it was the God of all Things. It soared through the blue skies of our misspent youth.

Yes, that's the past tense I'm writing this in for I have it no longer and because of this my life is now colourless and drab.

What happened to it? This mythical product of fleeting, staggering genius?

My friend, my lovely wonderful friend, sold her fucking car with my fucking tape still infuckingside it.

My heart was all broken and smashed but I learned my lesson. On that I day I swore I would never again dabble in the bewitching sorcery that is compiling songs.
(happylittletulip helpless and delicious, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:13, Reply)

I have only dull stories for this one
So until such time that I come up with a dazzling story with which to entertain...I'm sloping off to questionswap.com to poke fun at the merkins.


For now however I will tempt you with this brief tale....

A boy I fancied copied his CDs of the Cocteau Twins onto tapes for me and made beautiful inlay cards for them too.

He never even kissed me despite us going out places together quite a few times...He was shy, I thought he was beautiful and probably gay...

I believe he's a doctor now...*sigh*

However, he knew nothing about sculpture so nothing lost really.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:13, 1 reply)

Mike
Good mate.

Used to make tapes for everyone about their life.

They were Mick's Tapes.

What?


Christ. I'm turning into Apeloverage



( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:12, 5 replies)

A tape for all reasons
One of my first girlfriends had a series of mix tapes for various stages of seduction. Her sister had made them for her (she claimed) and they came with titles such as "First snogging session" and "Hot and Heavy".

Quite a sweet idea in its way, but for one crucial fact. Her sister had really bad taste in music. This led to many nights of praying the awfulness of Charleene's 'I've never been to me' would induce detumescence.
(paxvobiscum, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:11, Reply)

Animal magic
When I was a little squirt I made a mix tape of farmyard animals for an elderly relative who was in a nursing home.

Picture the image of a group of grannies cooing over an old dolby tape recorder belting out the sound of (in my innocent mind) two horses playing leapfrog.
(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:06, Reply)

Mix Tape
I have a habit of coming in drunk form the pub and then deciding that it would be a great idea to:
A) Make a soothing tape for bed ( I find music helps me drop off quicker)

B) Decide that I need new music for the car and decide to create a new CD.

Hence, I end up with about 7 CD's with the same sodding music apart from one song and then I'm late going to bed so knackered the next day.
Bloody Alcohol!

And I do this every time!
(Fuckarma was masturbating into your handbag, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:06, Reply)

I wanted to make my boyfriend a mixtape for our anniversary
Of songs with 'love' in the title. It turned out that was too hard, so I got radio personality Andrew Collins to do it for me instead.

True story.
(clumsyeloquence is a girl, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:06, Reply)

Not really a mix tape...
But when i first started Uni i had real trouble getting up in the mornings for lectures (something to do with the endless drinking and partying no doubt)

To counteract this i recorded my mum yelling at me to get up in the morning and set my stereo as my alarm, you know the usual "GET OUT OF BED YOU LAZY FUCKER! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE AGAIN!!!"

This was followed by the classic 'Philadelphia' by Bruce Springsteen, just to bring me back off the ceiling after the harsh wake up...

Every time i hear the drums at the beginning of that song i get flashbacks...

Still got the tape now, I use it to annoy my housemate in the early mornings if he's kept me up late...

Length? About 10 minutes in total...
(Nuclear Ninja like a radioactive Chuck Norris..., Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:05, 2 replies)

I didn't think people really made mixtapes to try and woo members of the opposite (or the same, for that matter) sex.
I've made a few - mostly incredibly loud, headthrashing industrial, techno and electro. Unfortunately most of them were lost in the glovebox of a car that got scrapped.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:04, Reply)

What!
I've loads of dance mix tapes given by drugged up friends in the dim and distant past who thought it was the best mix tape since the history of mix tapes and consists of very bad and cheap tapes with very good music but very crap sound. Still got them and no fucking tape player to play them on. Just as well really. I'm too old for dance music now.


Big fish, little fish, cardboard box
Big fish, little fish, cardboard box
( girlinthehole, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 14:02, 1 reply)

I got one once
From an ex. It would appear that my image as a crappy judge of male character will continue once again in this week's QOTW.
(Is anyone getting tired of this theme yet? I KNOW I am.)

It was 1991, and I was going out with a boy called..oh, I don't know, lets call him shithead, for that was him. Shithead was my first foray into the horrors of "moron dating" and he initiated me in the ways of the terminally stupid.

As usual, the first 6 months were great. The second six less so, and by the third and final six, the hopes of this relationship being anything other than a mistake were fading fast.

We split up a couple of times, and I will skate over the reasons, lets just say me getting beaten up, almost being thrown from a moving car and having a lighter held about an inch from cheek were not helping the relationship.

Anyway, the mix tape. One morning (after a break up) I came downstairs and found a little jiffy bag had been pushed through the letterbox and lay waiting malevolently on the doormat. After listening for any disturbing ticking noises, and poking at it with a toe, I opened the bag. There sat a little memorex tape, and a cheque written from his account, made payable to me and paying me "All the love in the wurld for ever" (Sic - and I mean that in both ways)

Well, I slotted the tape in and waited. I can't remember all of the songs but here is a snapshot:

1) I Wanna Sex You Up, Color Me Badd
2) It Must Have Been Love, Roxette
3) Make You Sweat, Keith Sweat
4) You are everything, Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross

Fine, that's not too bad I thought. He followed these up with:

5) Devil in disguise, Elvis Presley
6) In the air tonight, Phil Collins
7) Now I'm following you, Madonna (This one I'd never heard in my life!)

Great.

Thankfully mix tapes seem to be a thing of the past. A bit like Shithead.
( my_cat_has_no_shoes meh meh meh MEH MEH, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:56, Reply)

I made me a mix tape once
and I always get in my own pants.


Length: if the email I just got is anything to go by 3 foot if i take some pills
( hygor gyrates with animatronic emptyness, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:54, Reply)

For fucks sake
This a boring QOTW. And I am in no way bitter because I just spend fucking ages writing out a story about Stalkers only to have post it one second before the question closed.

Fuck fuckity fuck
(posage As I turned the corner I felt muscular and compact, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:53, 18 replies)

Panty Mix Tape
Yep Mix Tapes were made for the entering of panties and cost me a fortune in phillips tapes and hours of recording/editing/precision engineering for s club seven from cd to tape........ Was it worth it........ NOPE scared for life
(jigsaw Meh... Is it Friday yet?!?!?!, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:49, Reply)

Here's a nice story
I made a mix tape once. It was in 1987 and I called it 'Various Soothing Stuff'. On it were: Brian Eno - various from 'Another Green World', Steve Harley's 'Understand', Peter Gabriel - 'Here comes the flood', more Eno, Bowie's 'Letter to Hermione', Peter Sartedt's 'Where do you go to my lovely', 'Redemption Song' by Bob Marley, and 'Love and Affection' by Joan Armatrading.

I made it for Xena to take into hospital when she gave birth to our dear Sprog, to listen to on her Walkman (well, mine, but I didn't mind lending).

Come the hour, music was the last thing on her mind, in fact I can clearly remember her last words as they wheeled her into the delivery ward at just gone 10pm on that fateful night:

"Give me a fucking epidural!!!"

Anyway, all went well, and at 3.00am I was summarily kicked out of the hospital to take the night bus back to Hounslow. We did use that tape though, often, over the years, usually as a background to making lurrrve...

...fast forward 20-odd years, to Christmas 2007 in fact. And what did Che present to Xena as a present? You guessed it - a c.d. of 'Various Soothing Songs' compiled thanks to i-tunes.

Oh yes.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:49, Reply)

First crush
Heard she liked the song Killing Me Softly
hmm methinks and put together a few more songs on a CD for her thinking "oh boy oh boy i am so freakin romantic, she'll go out with me for this" and put a cover on it

gave it to her, all her friends laughed at me, the word travelled, more people laughed at me

didnt get into her pants
the end
(Joe Guevara is well known for stealing your biscuits, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:47, Reply)

enzme
thats cheating !! cheater
(maxumus HEY!.... diddly dee, de de de de de de, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:47, 2 replies)

americano
my first girlfriend in america... and some really soppy boyzone stuff, she had never heard of them... oh and take that.. they had just made it over there and i sent her all their old stuff before i flew over there... didn't get in her pants that trip tho :( took another 5 trips at a cost of £5000

first ??
(maxumus HEY!.... diddly dee, de de de de de de, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:47, Reply)

First!
When in my early teens - actually, probably a bit before that - I was developing an interest in dance music, and was impressed by the way that tracks could be segued. I decided to have a go.

Unfortunately, I lacked decks. I was 12.

However, I did have access to a stereo with twin tape players... which led to me spending hours experimenting with the possibilities of mixing on and by tape. I count that as a mix tape - albeit an aborted one.

God, I was a rubbish child.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 7 Feb 2008, 13:45, 5 replies)