Keeping The Art Of The Mix Tape Alive

Like the Ark and the Rubik Cube b4 it the Mix Tape has sadly gone the way of Dinosaur, once a proud symbol of 80's culture it has fallen down the pecking order of how we choose to listen to our music,don't get me wrong I fully embrace I Tunes,the I Pod,and Spotify but there was just something about the C90 Mix Tape that just screamed 80's.

When I got back into the habit of reading again on a regular basis in Sept 2010 Rob Sheffield's book,"Love Is A Mix Tape" was the first book I ordered from Amazon a heart felt tale of his relationship w/ his ex wife who died in his arms of a Pulmonary Embolism,the book traced their relationship from beginning to end and feature the mix tapes they sent each other while they were dating one another but in separate locations,it was a bitter sweet reminder of my own experience when I first met my ex wife Erica,I lived in London while she lived in Philly and I would often send her mix tapes during January 85 till March 86 when we were able to live together in London b4 eventually moving to Philly in October 87.
Several of those songs plus others after our separation and subsequent divorce feature in the collection "Songs In The Key Of E" a collection of mix tapes that I've compiled over the years as I came to terms w/ the fact that in the immortal words of Level 42 "and I suppose you're leaving me now".

Another good book on mix tapes is "Cassette From My Ex:Stories And Soundtracks From Lost Loves" a collection of mix tapes and stories of relationships gone south,we've all been there and the old adage that "misery loves company" was never more appropriate in this book,another one I'd recommend.

Even though the Mix Tape has gone the way of the eight track{readers of this younger than 30 maybe left pondering "what the hell is an 8 track!!!}I still own racks of cassette tapes several of which are of the mix tape variety,having already used "Dragon Rock" and "Pale,Paddy And Proud" in my blog I thought I'd feature my favourite collection of the bunch,a 7 tape collection simply called "80's".
The criteria was simple one song each of my favourite 80's artists,I tried to keep it in alphabetical order as best I could some letters had more bands than others {S was a popular letter} and some letters only yielded a few artist.
I don't remember exactly when I put this collection together,late 90's early 20's and I fully accept there are artists missing that now I've grown to love Grace Jones,Erasure,Devo,Kraftwerk but otherwise I think it's a pretty good representation of the 80's,here's volume one enjoy!

That Was Then,This Is Now-ABC
Flame Of The West-Big Country
Rock The Casbah-The Clash
Grimly Fiendish-The Damned
Killing Moon-Echo & The Bunnymen
Is Your Love Strong Enough?- Bryan Ferry
Red Rain-Peter Gabriel
Out Of Touch-Hall & Oates
Hey Little Girl-Icehouse
Steppin' Out-Joe Jackson
Dancin' Girls- Nik Kershaw
Leaving Me Now-Level 42
A New England-Kirsty MacColl
I Die,You Die-Gary Numan
88 Seconds In Greensboro-OMD
Thousands Are Sailing-The Pogues
Hammer To Fall-Queen
Can't Happen Here-Rainbow
Your Love Is King-Sade