That Mix Tape Changed My Life

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When I was living with some folks post-undergrad, one of my roommates left me with a tape called "The Three Jewels". It had a mixture of rap, soul, and funk, most of which I had never heard before (I was so naive in my younger years).

Things it turned me on to:
Marvin
Stevie Wonder
Sly Stone

And various other goodins, but, based on those three, you can see what an effect this shit had on me.

Anyone remember a mix tape/disc that changed your music listening to a significant extent?

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Thursday, 12 May 2005 16:39 (twenty-one years ago)

My friend Charlie spent a year in the UK when I was a freshman in college (1985) and sent an irritatingly mislabeled (see below) mixtape which featured....

- This Mortal Coil (wrongly listed as the Cocteau Twins)
- the Jesus & Mary Chain (wrongly listed as The Psycho Candies)
- Peter & the Test Tube Babies (correctly labeled, as it turned out).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 12 May 2005 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Bumping into a bunch of strange dudes at Reading festival with a boom box playing Anal Cunt, Atari Teenage Riot and "Star Trekkin" by the Firm. Wicked!

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 12 May 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

My brother had tried for years to turn me on to Steely Dan, who I found painfully boring in high school. He finally made me a Dan mixtape (heavier on the first three albums) as I was leaving for college, and suddenly, in those environs, I *got* them. Which in itself may not have been so life-changing, but it was the first time I ever completely re-evaluated an artist, which was the big life lesson for me.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Thursday, 12 May 2005 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

ok - as the thread-starter's brother, i must say that this tape was totally awesome, and had a huge effect on my tastes in 11/12th grade, turning me on to sly stone's late stuff, stevie wonder, and the all-time musical love of my life, PRINCE. incidentally, i sort of owe most of my interest in music to being convinced early on of its coolness by my brother. way to go, big loud mountain ape.

ok... im sure a lot of these titles are wrong - there was no mix program. also, sequencing was way different.

jesse jackson's spoken intro of cannonball adderley quintet
tribe called quest - vibes and stuff
black star - fortified live
prince - i feel for you
sly & the family stone - poet
stevie wonder - jesus children of america
the roots - do you want more????
w. marsalis (?) - theme from mo better blues
african drum chant (dammit - i used to know who it was by, too...)
meters song, i think
parliament - dr. funkenstein spoken intro
parliament - flashlight

thats all i can remember now. if i could remake it now, id probably take out the roots and a few other things, and add some fuckin disco. all the 70s soul was spot-on, though. oh and some funkadelic. and more prince.

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 May 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

That's easy. David Arscott's older sister, Sarah, sent him a mix tape of the music she was listening to as a freshman in college. David was good friends with my brother who was 4 years my senior. David ended up passing it on to me and my brother and, in one fell swoop, the trajectory that our musical taste was heading in was changed for good. I think I was in 5th grade at the time. I have since lost the tape which is a big bummer since it really had an amazing impact on me.

The tracklisting is fairly pedestrian but at the time it was like nothing else (especially since in my case, the "else" was Madonna, Chicago, New Edition, etc)...

Aztec Camera - Jump (van halen cover)
Camper Van Beethoven - Where the Hell is Bill?
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
Echo & the Bunnymen - Bring on the Dancing Horses
New Order - ?
The Smiths - ?
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun

― ianinportland (ianinportland), Thursday, 12 May 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

1984
my friend tom sends me two tapes
from out of the blue
TAPE ONE: side one, Violent Femmes; side two, R.E.M.
TAPE TWO: side one, Fleshtones; side two, dB's.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Thursday, 12 May 2005 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

dude! one of the recent favorite mixes ive received had that aztec camera van halen cover.

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 May 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

1985 - A friend gave me a mix that included FEAR, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Circle Jerks, Flipper, and a buch on other early 80's So Cal punk goodies. I think I might even still have it at my parents' house.

― darin (darin), Thursday, 12 May 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

african drum chant (dammit - i used to know who it was by, too...)

Mingus? (off the top of my head - i'm no expert or anything.)

I wish somebody had made me a mixtape that changed my life. I've had quite a few that have improved it, but no drastic epiphanies or u-turns.

― LRJP! (LRJP!), Thursday, 12 May 2005 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually think it was "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" but I could be wrong...yeah, that shit was awesome. Did it have an actual recording by Adderly after the Jesse intro? I think it had "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" from Operation Breadbasket on it.

I want to say that, on one tape, I was introduced to Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone, Cannonball Adderly, and non-Top 40 Prince.

Like, holy shit.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Thursday, 12 May 2005 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

it definitely had "jesus children" on it. it may have had "dont you worry bout a thing", too, but i didnt think so...

― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 12 May 2005 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Mixtapes, mixtapes, you've meant so much to me. When I was a young serviceman, stationed aboard ships and in faraway locations, a girl I'd had a relationship with started sending me tapes, and they were SO IMPORTANT in those early Walkman days -- I'm sure they had far more impact on me than our brief sexual interaction did.

It started with a tape of Spriguns, Anne Briggs, Varttina & other folk stuff that was all utterly new to me. One time, because I was in the Marines, she thought it funny to include a few songs by the Marine Girls on a tape featuring the quiet side of new-wavey -- they became an obsession that really colored a lot of other aspects of my listening.

Then she sent my address to a guy I didn't even know from Milwaukee, who sent a tape that offered my first exposure to Nurse With Wound, Whitehouse, Muszikas & other such noises. That sucker was an eye-opener over the headphones somewhere out on the Arctic Ocean.

― brianiac (briania), Thursday, 12 May 2005 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

My friend Hazel sent me a tape a few months ago that's made me realise how little, er, "black music" I have and how I need soooo much more.

― That's not cocaine! It's Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 12 May 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

A few years ago, a girl I nearly dated gave me a double mix CD that kicked my ass into "indie". I've slowly been buying the albums that each song was orginially on. Shins and B&S for starters, then on back to Liz Phair, Sleeper, The Replacements, The Cure, Madness. The CD wasn't epiphinic, but it's slowly affected my musical tastes which in turn affected other things.

― shanecavanaugh (shanecavanaugh), Thursday, 12 May 2005 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was 10th grade, my friend Sarah's older brother Robb (then a sophomore in college, and my big crush of the year) made me a mix tape called "Roach Motel" with Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love? English Beat - Sole Salvation, Squeeze - Tempted, Clash - Rudy Can't Fail, the MC5 - Kick out the Jams, the Stooges - Search and Destroy, Elvis Costello - Pump it Up, Meat Puppets - Lake of Fire, X- Los Angeles, XTC - Snowman, Sonic Youth - World Looks Red, and the Replacements, the Smithereens, and Mission of Burma. Within a month I had bought ever album songs on the tape were from, within a year I was fully obsessed with punk rock. I mean, I still played my prince, cars and Knack records sometimes but this turned me on to a whole other world.

― leslie (leslie), Thursday, 12 May 2005 23:07 (twenty-one years ago)

i once had a mixtape with a happy harcore cover of walking in memphis on it. the rest wasn't so good so it didn't really change my life, y'know.

― elwisty (elwisty), Thursday, 12 May 2005 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Raving, I'm Raving by Shut Up And Dance?? Classic Classic Classic!!!

― LRJP! (LRJP!), Friday, 13 May 2005 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yes, while I don't remember all of the songs, in '99 a friend gave my best friend a tape with a lot of late '70s power-pop and punk:

Undertones "Teenage Kicks"
Richard Hell "Blank Generation
Elvis Costello "Pump it Up"
Real Kids and Modern Lovers songs
Green's "Gotta Get a Record Out"
Them's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"

My friend and I had recently started working at the college radio station, so this tape was a biggie and we drove around in her car all the time listening to it. It's still in her car.

― Kate Silver (Kate Silver), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

sixteen years pass...

My friend Kate and I chatted for a hour this week on the radio (WAYO-LP in Rochester, NY) about mix tapes - first songs, awesome discoveries, filling space st the end of a side, etc. If you’re a mix tape dork, you might enjoy listening to the archived show, or a previous (longer) show where we gathered 5 pals (& listener submissions) to discuss our mix tape obsessions and play fun music.

July 27, 2021: https://m.mixcloud.com/arefriendselectric/mixtape-ramblings-with-kate-chris-july-27-2021/

October, 2019:
https://www.mixcloud.com/arefriendselectric/mix-tape-memories-oct-27-2019-part-1/

https://www.mixcloud.com/arefriendselectric/mix-tape-memories-oct-27-2019-part-2/

https://www.mixcloud.com/arefriendselectric/mix-tape-memories-oct-27-2019-part-3/

― christopher.ivan, Thursday, 29 July 2021 12:52 (four years ago)

I'm wearing a WAYO shirt right now! Will check out

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 29 July 2021 13:38 (four years ago)

A college friend convinced me to go to New Orleans with him in 1988, and since it was my first time and I knew next to nothing about the music he made me three mix tapes filled with Lee Dorsey, Irma Thomas, Allen Toussaint, Neville Brothers, tons more. I was getting kind of burned out on alternative/college rock then, and those tapes opened my ears to a totally different era/style of music that I'm still digging today.

― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 29 July 2021 14:04 (four years ago)

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