A radio collage, this was one of many such tapes I used to make for myself. This one is from Fall of 1998.
Don't know where I got the tape, but it was originally the work of "Madame Buddafly, Professional for Hire" (S&M Domination). Unfortunately, none of Ms. Buddafly's original work remains on this cassette, but she is still around if you're curious about the music or need a good top.
Note: the above mixes do not contain the work of Madame Buddafly. For her, go to her MySpace.
Side A starts with about 8 minutes of techno type stuff. Then, T Rex comes in, middle of By the Light of the Magical Moon.
When I slay the darkest day
Then we can play
'Till that deep and joyous day
We'll dance and pray.
Then, a bit of Beck, some Fatboy Slim, etc. I just sat at the radio pressing record whenever something caught my ear.
16:00 Stray Cats?
By way of explanation for my tastes and my way of fulfilling them, this was a period of my life where I'd been listening to the same music (Rock from the mid 60s to the mid 80s, house music) for the last eight years or so. Very little new stuff. I stopped listening to Hip Hop around the time Biggie came out. Most of the new rock of the 90s (Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots) -- all this stuff I felt I was supposed to like -- really bored me.
Fatboy Slim, when I first heard him, excited me.
19:05 Don't Fear the Reaper's a great song. It is just so creepy. It seems to be sung from the point of view of a guy telling his girlfriend that they should commit suicide together. "40,000 men and women every day ... we could be like they are." And, of course, there's the cowbell. Overall, they went for major Majorness with this one, and succeeded!
23:45 starts a song about getting emulsified. I love how this song is so generic ("squeeze me, and hold me tight"), and yet has this one odd lyric. I don't know who does this version, but Yo La Tengo covered it.
25:30 is a bit of a song that I love, and I've just figured out who it is! Mott the Hoople, Alice! This is a great song. What is the deal with Mott the Hoople? Where were they coming from with this crazy, theatrical sound?
See Alice on the palace where her name adorns the boards,
ain't no flash in her Cannes, she got the willpower of a horse,
and it's a long way to Broadway from a 42nd lay,
or is it really just a couple of blocks away?
Side B
This side is unlabeled. It starts with an overmodulated track played on a Roland drum machine, with the use of an echo effect. I remember this drum beat, which I created on my 606, but not recording it in this way, with an interesting fade-in. Maybe Dave Sumner helped me? My memory is vague. I think this track required a bit of manual controlling. It lasts until 4:54.
Next on this side is Hollywood Holiday, by a German Indie Rock band. Do people still say "Indie Rock"? That phrase was, in the mid-90s, a bit of a put-down, like "hipster", yet it was also just descriptive. Here I am taping off of WFMU, and the signal sucks.
Next up is The Woman in the Iridescent Clothes by The Silly Pillows, which is about a Klimt, and contains the line, "visual maverick of visceral fabric". For that alone, they deserve a Grammy or something. Maybe a guest appearance by T-Pain or Kanye. Where the fuck is Jonathan Caws-Elwitt today?
12:56, Cars by Gary Numan. I think I know where Gary Numan is these days, and I wish I didn't, but this is a great track. Somehow, really perfect, to me. What was Gary listening to at the time? New Order? Why was he singing a bit like a robot? I don't know but it's awesome. People in the 80s acted like they thought synths were going to be the end of Rock and Roll. In retrospect, it made no sense. Culturally, the 80s had a lot of strange reactionism. Reagan was the perfect president for an era when people made a show of destroying disco records. "Disco Sucks" was the phrase. Disco does not suck. In fact, Disco is urban, it's Black, it's gay, it's sexy, it's dramatic, it's complex, and you dance to it. It's great. It's diverse. There's Georgio Moroder and there's Loose Joints, and both are great. So sad that musical project got so limited in the US.
Obviously, I love Disco.
16:16 Frances Fay in there ("Shirley goes with Helen" indeed, speaking of gay), and then (18:40) some odd punk played on saxophones. Would love to know what that is. "Pay day don't last a day; my paycheck just fades away!"
20:20 I'll Stop the World and Melt with You. Why not? I recorded this because I wanted to listen to it. Didn't have the record.
23:00 "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death", read by whom? Don't know.
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
Yeats.
Followed by Cheryl Lynn, Encore.
25:00 I don't know who this is, but they sound like Jason's band, Diablo Royale.
29:00 A man with a posh accent suggests we live as a moth heading toward a candle. What's one moth more or less? "The center of Zen training is to live spontaneously," he says. I don't think he's right about that, but what do I know? I thought Zen practice was all about meditation, repetition, and that sort of thing. Doing the same exercise for years seems like the opposite of spontaneity.