Yesterday was the 24th Anniversary of the release of U2's Joshua Tree Album (JT) so it made me all nostalgic and I started thinking about where I was 24 years ago and how I listened to music back then compared to how I listen now. Those were my formative years, you know, the ages of 11-14 when you start to form your preferences for music, and I relied heavily on other people to make me mixed tapes. This started with my adoptive family at home because I was now living with real teenagers for the first time. This influenced me more than I realized at the time and I am thankful they both had such good taste in music.
Your older brother making you a mixed tape is a bit of a repetitive notion amongst music fans and for me it was where it all started too. My first mixed tapes had Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, U2 and plenty of punk rock on them.
I got my first Sony Walkman for my birthday at age 11 and I LOVED that walkman. Later in high school I listened to that every day on my walk to and from school (Rattle and Hum was worn out on that Walkman). It was always in my school bag with a selection of tapes clattering around. There is the first big difference from then to now. Now I don't have to carry around a device to play my music AND my music on various tapes. I bet even the thought of that would seem hilarious to any 11-14 year old in 2011 with access to a MP3 player. Rewinding, Fast forwarding, taking out the tape, putting it back in its case, taking out another cassette and winding (with your pinky finger or a pen) up the wayward spools of tape which sometimes spilled out. It seems hilarious now, but back then it was just the way it was -- and better than albums, for sure. Believe it or not a school bag filled with tapes was a "convenience" at that stage.
I was always driven by the single and wanted to hear as much music as I could and that is still true today. I ached for an easier way to get more music and in a way I could manipulate the music so I could put it in the order I chose. I had a lot of mixed tapes, even ones I made off the radio. I used to know where all my music was on those tapes too. I knew which songs were on the b-side of the cassette so I could cut down on the rewinding and fast forwarding. For some reason rewinding took more battery power than fast forwarding so sometimes you pulled the tape out and flipped it over and hit FF to get to the song you wanted. Now, I pull out my ole iPod or my blackberry, cue it and play. Not to sound like an old codger but it has to be said...Do the kids really know how great they have it these days?
I could never really afford to buy music so I only owned records or cassettes of what was given to me or made for me. (I never owned the JT cassette, actually I only finally bought a copy (CD) when it came out remastered 2 decades later) I only had JT on a mixed tape --made for me in the late summer of 1987 --by my friend Leighanne's brother, Todd. Looking back on it Todd was my first MP3 dealer. He was my Napster. And really isn't the mixed tape just the old version of MP3 sharing?
Todd didn't just take JT and copy it onto the cassette for me. No, instead he had also purchased most of the singles that had been released to that point too; the With or Without You single and the Where The Streets Have No Name single. Single cassettes were available but more difficult to find however, the want for the single (and for the b-sides) was already huge amongst music fans, or at least in the fans I knew had a penchant for them. It was record companies who at this pivotal moment in music history were already scaling back the single in hopes we would all buy the album so they could make more money off us. But back in '87 Todd bought all the singles too, God love him, so my mixed tape of JT also included songs that I thought for a long time were on the original album. The Streets single had a wee song called Sweetest Thing on it. My friend Leighanne and I loved this song. When we found out we were a bit ahead of the curve and nobody else knew about this gem, Sweetest Thing became our secret song. The one song so few others knew about in a time when U2 was every where. (oh and years later when U2 actually released Sweetest Thing I turned my music snob nose up at it and still think the original is far superior, but that is love speaking there for sure, I just loved the b-side so much because it had more meaning to me)
I listened to that JT mixed tape during a time of great personal crisis. I was a rebellious teen of 15 and my adoptive Father found caring for me too difficult, plus all my Mother's life insurance was spent, so long story short --I was out on my ass. The sense of loss I felt was something I pushed down deep into my heart, I can see that now, and it was music that allowed me to feel, allowed me to grieve the loss and start to overcome the adversity I was faced with. Running to Stand Still (RTSS) was a song I instantly connected to on that mixed tape. I didn't know why U2 wrote it or what the 7 towers were or any of the meaning behind it then, no, all I knew was how it connected to me. I was learning some tough life lessons and the lyrics resonated with me. In my first wee apartment, there were many nights when I needed some solace and I would play that tape over and over...."And so she woke up, woke up from where she was, lying still, saying I gotta do something about where we're going...." "I only see one way out....you got to cry with out weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice..."
One night I accidentally hit record in the dark instead of play....which is the worst feeling in the world...and it was only a second blip--on the second whine of Edge's guitar on the intro to RTSS-- but because I listened to it that way it stuck there forever in my mind. Even to this day when I listen to RTSS I still hear that wee pop at that part of the song in my head. It just became part of the song for me. Looking back I never really considered all of these things the way I do now or really thought much on how much the mixed tape influenced my life. I wonder if Todd knew how much his mixed tapes meant to me? I should thank him.
Song Du Jour: Professor Booty by Beastie Boys
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