Side B
Red Hot Chili Peppers-My Friends
snippet of Larry Mullen & Adam Clayton's "Mission: Impossible Theme"
Butthole Surfers-Pepper
Los Del Rio-Macarena
Dave Matthews Band-Ants Marching
some Chicago Bulls/Mission: Impossible mash-up that B96 played for their playoff run
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Under The Bridge
snippet of Spacehog's "In The Meantime"
Foo Fighters-Big Me
Tracy Chapman-Give Me One Reason
snippet of Seal's "Prayer For The Dying"
Beastie Boys-Sabotage
snippet of Blues Traveler's "Hook"
snippet of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
Side A
Bruce Springsteen-Streets of Philadelphia
No Doubt-Don't Speak
snippet of Gloria Estefan's "Reach"
Celine Dion-It's All Coming Back To Me Now
snippet of Soundgarden's "Pretty Noose"
Primitive Radio Gods-Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand
Stone Temple Pilots-Plush
The Braids-Bohemian Rhapsody
Quad City DJs-C'mon 'N Ride It (The Train)
snippet of Jay-Z's "Ain't No"
When I moved back with my mother over the summer, the only cassettes I had were my mixtapes and my copy of Jagged Little Pill that my best friend dubbed for me. I would also listen to the few tapes that she had in her possession, mainly TLC's Crazysexycool, which I played heavily during this time. Seeing that I was enthusiastic about music and recording songs off the radio, my mother gave me one of her tapes that had an old church sermon on it with the words "Sunday Morning" written on the cover. It had been recorded on a 60 minute Sentry tape and it was the first time I had ever used an actual cassette that was created for the purpose of recording. Although I could tell the tape itself had some years on it based on the dated design of its cover, it didn't matter much to me since I now had an extra hour to record more music.
Something that I haven't mentioned yet is my love for The Red Hot Chili Peppers at this time. They were one of my favorite bands during the 1990s and were very key in getting me into rock music. My sister and her best friend would talk about "Give It Away" nearly everyday after school, so it piqued my interested and I started watching MTV everyday in hopes of catching the song. "Give It Away" had long left rotation, so the only Chili Peppers song I could find at the moment was "Breaking The Girl," which I still enjoyed. As of now, I'm nowhere near as big a fan as I used to be (By The Way and Stadium Arcadium were too bland for me), but I'm still fond of their output from the 90s. The fact that they appeared on here twice was a big deal to me and "My Friends" is a reminder that once upon a time I thought that they could do no wrong.
As has been customary for these first several mixtapes, there are still remnants of songs that were recorded over in favor of other tracks. At the time, it obviously didn't mean much to me, but listening back to what might have been, I can't deny that it would have been nice to have these songs in their entirety. Gloria Estefan's "Reach" was actually one of my favorite songs for the summer of 1996 (I'm a sucker for minor chord changes), but I cruelly cut it out in favor of No Doubt's "Don't Speak," which I had heard for the first time as I recorded it. They were kind of a big deal at the time and they had earned my trust for such a blind recording. I still know all the words to "Don't Speak," but I wonder how differently life might have been had I stuck with "Reach." There's a chance I probably would have been more forgiving of Diane Warren songs.
Speaking of Diane Warren, I can't help but always think of Celine Dion whenever she's mentioned, seeing as how she's responsible for penning one of Dion's biggest hits and also because they were both responsible for shaping the sound of adult-oriented soft pop during the decade. For the longest, I thought Dion was just plain dull and she held no interest for me outside of a few songs. Falling Into You was one of the biggest selling albums at the time, so Celine was also pretty hard to escape. "Because You Loved Me" was played on MTV and VH-1 fairly often, but its constant play didn't endear me to it all and I usually found myself reaching for the remote whenever it came on. The follow-up single, "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" received an entirely different reaction from me. Sure, there were plenty of elements that would never be mistaken for being chic, but it's still an unabashedly romantic song at its heart with epic musical strokes. It was different than anything that was going on at the time and it opened me up to the possibility that Celine Dion could actually be a talented vocalist and not all that bad after all.
One of the cool things about revisiting these mixtapes are the one-hit wonders that I've run into that hadn't crossed my mind in a while. I believe that the 90s was probably the best decade for one-hit wonders as far as quality goes and lasting impact. In the 1990s, there was a healthy mix of novelty songs along with tracks that could have held their own against more established artists. One of the better ones was "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand" by Primitive Radio Gods. I'm positive that future entries will explore other solid one-hit wonders to help build my case.
I remember years ago when I used to listen to this mixtape that I would always get the urge to dance in my room whenever "C'mon 'N The Train (Ride It)" would come on. Unsurprisingly, I had a similar reaction when I went back to this tape and I wanted to listen to it again immediately. I've always believed that C.C. Lemonhead was one of the most underrated producers of the decade (he also has 95 South's "Whoot! There It Is" and 69 Boyz' "Tootsie Roll" to his credits) and I hope that he'll get his due in the music canon one day.
I was still listening to the World Chart Show every week and one of my favorite discoveries from that program was a cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by a female duo from San Francisco known as The Braids. Apparently the song was on the High School High soundtrack, but was virtually ignored by American audiences. The song's success in Europe allowed it to crack the World Chart countdown and to this day it is still the only place I've heard it on the radio. I absolutely loved the soul they brought to this version and it came at a time where giving classic songs a hip hop feel was still fresh.
I'm not too sure if anyone noticed, but I did list Side B first in the tracklisting, which was no error. I can't even recall how that happened, but I was probably so excited about having another tape to record that I just went to the side that was already at the beginning. At first I had my doubts that I remembered it all wrong, but I distinctly recall recording "My Friends" first on that summer afternoon.
Although song snippets still plague this mixtape, I had gotten a little bit better at stopping songs before a DJ's voice came in. It wasn't a perfect effort, but it sounded better than when I began months ago. I also wanted to fill up every possible space on the tape, which is why there are only about eight seconds of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and "Ain't No" at the end of the sides. The concept of time had yet to register to me while recording, so I hardly ever checked to see how much I had left to record. It honestly didn't matter to me since eight seconds of music was better than none at all at the time, but a few lines of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" is just a tease to me as an adult. Ignorance is such a lovely thing when you're young.
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