While unpacking some boxes I stumbled across an old mix-tape that I had made my wife back before she was my wife, and probably even before she was my girlfriend. The time lines of these things get mixed up. It definitely wasn’t the first mix I had made her, and this one was definitely aimed towards love songs, so maybe she was my girlfriend. Who knows anymore? Frankly, besides me, who really cares?

I was always a huge fan of the mix tape and now that we live in a mp3 world I have more than once sighed sadly over its death. A tape was able to say so much more than an mp3 mix ever will. Careful attention had to be paid to the various starting and ending points of sides. Time had to be watched carefully or you’d wind up with too much blank space at the end, or even worse, you’d cut a song off in the middle. No more with the mp3 mix - you just throw songs in haphazardly until you stop.

Oh well, this tape was a good one. I listened again last night and found only a couple of spots that could have been changed.

Side A

“Down That Dusty Trail” - Robert Earl Keen
“Smiles Like a River” - Leon Russell
“Best of What’s Around” - Dave Matthew Band
“You Look Like Gold” - Ben Harper
“Sunshine of My Love” - Stevie Wonder
“I Don’t Love You Much Do I” - Guy Clark
“Wildflowers” - Tom Petty (my favorite Petty song ever)
“Sweet Surrender” - John Denver(One of two songs I wish I had left off the tape. The lyrics are sweet but the music completely kills the mood)
“Barometer Soup” - Jimmy Buffett
“Walkin’ On Sunshine” - Katrina and the Waves
“How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” - Marin Gaye
“If I Had a Million Dollars” - Barenaked Ladies

Side B
“The Way You Do The Things You Do” - Jerry Garcia Band
“A World That Swings” - They Might Be Giants (this has since become “our” song)
“Fearless” - Pink Floyd
“If I Needed You” - Townes Van Zandt
“Tupelo Honey” - Van Morrison
“Landslide” - Fleetwood Mac
“Simple Man” - Lynard Skynard (I could probably do without this song now, but at the time I really loved it.)
“Love Like We Do” - Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians
“10,000 Miles” - Mary Chapin Carpenter (I had no idea at the time, but this song never ceases to make my wife cry, for reasons of her own.)
“It Had to be You” - Harry Connick, Jr.

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