Mom: Cue up the G N' R!

On my last trip to see my parents I found some of my old cassette tapes. In addition to the first tape I remember buying with my own money Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em and the late 80's classic Forever Your Girl I discovered a treasure trove of various mix tapes, some given to me by various friends, others carefully constructed by yours truly after tedious hours sitting in front of my Sony dual-deck boom box with the radio on and my finger on the record button. As my skills improved I made a few tapes with the actual recordings of songs from the albums that didn't cut off the beginning of the track or have an annoying radio dj in the background. Here are a few of the gems:

The Beatles 1967-1970 made with "love" by my grade school crush of all crushes Josh. As I recall, I saw him buying the tape after school, called him that night (thank you school directory for making his digits public knowledge) and asked if he could make me a copy. I didn't really know who the Beatles were, nor did I care....Josh was making me a tape! A tape that he TOUCHED and was going to GIVE to me! Swoon! Nothing ever happened with Josh, but I have him to thank for introducing me to the Beatles....except that he ran out of room to include Across the Universe and The Long and Winding Road so until late adolescence I had no clue these songs even existed.

Mushy Mix/Oldies contains a lovely arrangement of radio friendly tunes including, but not limited to:
Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney
Unchained Melody - The Righteous Brothers
Time Is On My Side - The Rolling Stones
I'll Make Love to You- Boyz II Men
I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Rait
American Pie - Don McLean
This Magic Moment - The Drifters
I Know This Much Is True - Tears For Fears at least the first part of this song made it onto the tape...I was actually impressed my pre-teen self had the ability to enjoy a remotely cool song and deem it worthy of the Mushy Mix/Oldies tape, but my praiseworthiness was quickly fleeting as the song was cut off and replaced with...
(I am so embarrassed to admit this)
Angel - Jon Secada

Clearly I stood by the saying "You can never have too much of a good thing," because I found numerous tapes that had the same song on them several times. Who wouldn't love a cassette with this playlist:
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Better Man - Pearl Jam
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
American Pie - Don Mclean
My Name is Mud - Primus
Low Self Esteem - Offspring
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Stuck In the Middle - Steelers Wheel
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Thunderkiss '65 - White Zombie
Low Self Esteem - Offspring
Groove Is In the Heart - Dee-Lite
and drumroll please...
You Don't Know How It Feels - Tom Petty
Who could be bothered to push the rewind button to hear a song when 2 tracks later you can hear it again! Ironically, Tom Petty's Wildflowers cd wont play in my stereo, or computer...worn out perhaps???

Another great example of my obsessive nature can be found on Best of GNR Mix.
Side A:
November Rain

Side B:
Live and Let Die
Don't Cry
Estranged
Patience
Welcome to the Jungle
Paradise City
Sympathy for the Devil

I should mention that November Rain is recorded not once, not twice, but as many times as you can fit on one side of a Maxell 90 minute tape, 5.0279 times in a row to be exact. Laugh all you want, but I think this idea is genius. At ANYTIME while listening to Side B I could switch sides and hear November Rain! Brilliant! This was especially handy when being driven around by my parents while confined to the backseat. If left up to them and their fast forwarding and rewinding skills I could potentially arrive at my destination before hearing the key track. I was just making it easier on them, and I'm sure they loved every 8 minutes and 57 seconds of it. I was so ahead of my time.