December 31, 1988

The Train Trip Mix

This is the earliest mix tape I made still in existence. I made this tape to listen to on a school trip by Amtrak from Boston to New York, circa 1988.

While I still like all the songs on this tape, I would never put these songs together on a mix today. Some of the segues are terrible. Also, some of the classic rockers are SO overplayed now ("Rock and Roll", "Start Me Up"), they simply are burnt out!

The tape does tell a chapter of my history: Some of these songs are from CDs (Traveling Wilburys, The Beatles, Tracy Chapman), but some are on 45s (Adam Ant, The Beastie Boys). I was getting to know and love classic rock standards, but I was also trying out new music (Beastie Boys, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman). I was collecting remixes on 12-inch singles (Peter Gabriel, Simply Red), and I had already raided Mom and Dad's LPs (Harry Belafonte).

Side A

  1. "Day-O" Harry Belafonte live at Carnegie Hall
  2. "Don't Bring Me Down" Electric Light Orchestra
  3. "Rattled" Traveling Wilburys
  4. "Start Me Up" The Rolling Stones
  5. "For What It's Worth" Buffalo Springfield
  6. "Sunshine Of Your Love" Cream
  7. "I'm Not Your Man" Tommy Conwell & The Young Rumblers
  8. "Rock & Roll" Led Zeppelin
  9. "Gimme All Your Lovin" ZZ Top
  10. "Face the Face" Pete Townshend
  11. "Goody Two Shoes" Adam Ant
  12. "Paul Revere" The Beastie Boys
  13. "The Way You Make Me Feel" Michael Jackson (end of song cut off)
Side B
  1. "In Your Eyes [remix]" Peter Gabriel
  2. "What I Like About You" The Romantics
  3. "Superman" R.E.M.
  4. "The Right Thing [remix]" Simply Red
  5. "Desire" U2
  6. "Money (That's What I Want)" The Beatles
  7. "Sympathy For The Devil" The Rolling Stones
  8. "Talkin' About A Revolution" Tracy Chapman
  9. "Is This Love" Mr. Mister
  10. "If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)" Sting
  11. "Like A Rolling Stone" Bob Dylan
(90 Minute Sony Cassette tape)