i-eye Day 84 - Throwback Thursday - Mix Tape

I went rummaging again and turned up this. Thanks to KangaZu for hosting Throwback Thursday.

A friend brought the Walkman back from Japan in the mid 1980s - how amazed I was at the size of it - how on earth could something so small play music? If only we knew.

But in it was a mix tape! A mix tape made for me on 9th May 1985 by a gorgeous young man I had been desperately trying to impress. The mix tape signified that he also wanted to impress me - result!

The art of the mix tape is lost on the young of today - do they just send a link to a Spotify playlist? They have no idea about agonising over song selections - not too revealing, fast song then slow song or fast side and slow side? Should it have a theme? Of course you only put on cool songs, no Billy Don't Be a Hero. Fiddling about with the tape machine trying to press record at the exact moment - you didn't want too long a crackly intro but nor did you want to cut it off, and the dilemma of being left with 2 minutes at the end of one side - do you leave a gap, or have half a song, or put on Ain't No Sunshine AGAIN!

It was truly a skill and an art.

So this mix tape was the start of five bitter sweet years, that ultimately led me to Huddersfield. I listened to it in all its imperfect perfection and had a nostalgic and wry smile  - then I looked around at the way things turned out in the end, and smiled a bigger smile.