Thursday, February 03, 2005
Vintage mixtape action #3. Now to continue what looks like this blog's theme of 2005 - rifling through my old cassette tapes. By 1987, I had already experimented with multi-tracking by using my parents' stereo to play a backing track while I recorded a second track using the built-in mic on my ghetto blaster. I was also quite good at manipulating the record and pause buttons so I could record very precisely with no obvious clicking sounds coming out on the tape. But appropriately for one so egocentric, I didn't get into other people's songs for quite some time. Instead I recorded my own songs and bizarre radio plays. One was called "The First World War: The Sound of Its Music" and consisted of me banging on saucepans and making bomb noises that don't transcribe very well. My mother can be heard in the background pleading: "Melissa! Stop that!"
I started to make my first mixtape by randomly flicking through radio stations and recording random bits of any songs I liked. Later on side 1 and side 2, I used the Australian top 40 countdown on 3KZ as my main resource. It has really got me thinking about the excitement of saxophone solos, but that's a matter for another post.
1987 - The Honey Roll Megamix (my first ever compilation)
SIDE 1
Begins with the chorus from "Honey Roll" by Elton John: "I saida honey (ahh), I saida honey (ahh), I saida honey (ahh), I saida honnnnn-air-hey, come awwwn do the honey roll with meeee...."
Fades with a harp effect, as if to signal a flashback... (I'm not quite sure what fluke created this effect, but it's quite striking!)
Same song plays in background.
Mel's brother miT, aged 5 (belligerent): "Well I'm coming too - if you don't mind."
Mel, aged 10 (disgusted): "ohhh no..."
Song suddenly cuts off as Elton warbles "honnnnney roll".
Mel's mother: "Well put some shoes and socks on, and a proper top."
Cut to classical music, possibly something from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Mel's younger brothers can be heard brawling in the background.
Mel, aged 10 (fake English accent): "Hello, I am Anastasia Tassiopolis, and I am hosting this program, A Medley of Hits with AT. As you know, a medley is a lot of different things put together. In this case it is songs, all jammed together into one huge song!
Accent slips to American for some reason. Pauses to recover previous fake accent.
Which our recorders have been very lucky to be able to do. I hope you have a good evening listen... listening to this wonderful (pauses, because she was ad-libbing this entire speech) creation that we have made. Goodnight.
Some song that I still don't know to this day, and I never worked out the lyrics. It goes "something blah, julie girl, something my mind at ease / do we go on as two / or do we all have a blah blah blah". Try looking that up on Google. I did.
Say Say Say - Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney
Reasons - John Farnham (this was during his Whispering Jack renaissance)
Some song that sounds like it's by a 60s girl group and goes "Only one / You're the only one like you / This crazy heart is aching for ya / Only one / Now there's just one thing to do / I will follow you if you something something..."
Electric Blue - Icehouse (my favourite song at the time)
I Hope I Never - Split Enz
Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac
Lady in Red - Chris de Burgh
It's Still Rock'n'Roll to Me - Billy Joel
Some song that goes "Don't tell me now, it's too late, late, too late"
I Only Wanna Be With You - Dusty Springfield
Bridge to Your Heart - Wax
The Power of Love - Huey Lewis and the News
Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac (two choruses edited together)
Your Wildest Dreams - Moody Blues
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
Electric Blue - Icehouse (I told you it was my favourite song!)
Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel
Lady in Red - Chris de Burgh (God help me.)
She's Like the Wind - Patrick Swayze
I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
Love in the First Degree - Bananarama
Man of Colours - Icehouse
Walk the Dinosaur - Was (Not Was)
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
SIDE 2
I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie Minogue
Heaven Is a Place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
(I've Had) The Time of My Life - Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes (when I recorded it, this song had been number one for ten weeks running. Nobody was gonna put this baby in a corner.)
Faith - George Michael
Pump Up the Volume - M.A.R.R.S.
Love in the First Degree - Bananarama
Whenever You Need Somebody - Rick Astley
Some People - Cliff Richard
Anything Goes - Geraldine Turner (this was the title track of the Australian cast recording, recorded later from our LP)
I started to make my first mixtape by randomly flicking through radio stations and recording random bits of any songs I liked. Later on side 1 and side 2, I used the Australian top 40 countdown on 3KZ as my main resource. It has really got me thinking about the excitement of saxophone solos, but that's a matter for another post.
1987 - The Honey Roll Megamix (my first ever compilation)
SIDE 1
Begins with the chorus from "Honey Roll" by Elton John: "I saida honey (ahh), I saida honey (ahh), I saida honey (ahh), I saida honnnnn-air-hey, come awwwn do the honey roll with meeee...."
Fades with a harp effect, as if to signal a flashback... (I'm not quite sure what fluke created this effect, but it's quite striking!)
Same song plays in background.
Mel's brother miT, aged 5 (belligerent): "Well I'm coming too - if you don't mind."
Mel, aged 10 (disgusted): "ohhh no..."
Song suddenly cuts off as Elton warbles "honnnnney roll".
Mel's mother: "Well put some shoes and socks on, and a proper top."
Cut to classical music, possibly something from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Mel's younger brothers can be heard brawling in the background.
Mel, aged 10 (fake English accent): "Hello, I am Anastasia Tassiopolis, and I am hosting this program, A Medley of Hits with AT. As you know, a medley is a lot of different things put together. In this case it is songs, all jammed together into one huge song!
Accent slips to American for some reason. Pauses to recover previous fake accent.
Which our recorders have been very lucky to be able to do. I hope you have a good evening listen... listening to this wonderful (pauses, because she was ad-libbing this entire speech) creation that we have made. Goodnight.
Some song that I still don't know to this day, and I never worked out the lyrics. It goes "something blah, julie girl, something my mind at ease / do we go on as two / or do we all have a blah blah blah". Try looking that up on Google. I did.
Say Say Say - Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney
Reasons - John Farnham (this was during his Whispering Jack renaissance)
Some song that sounds like it's by a 60s girl group and goes "Only one / You're the only one like you / This crazy heart is aching for ya / Only one / Now there's just one thing to do / I will follow you if you something something..."
Electric Blue - Icehouse (my favourite song at the time)
I Hope I Never - Split Enz
Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac
Lady in Red - Chris de Burgh
It's Still Rock'n'Roll to Me - Billy Joel
Some song that goes "Don't tell me now, it's too late, late, too late"
I Only Wanna Be With You - Dusty Springfield
Bridge to Your Heart - Wax
The Power of Love - Huey Lewis and the News
Little Lies - Fleetwood Mac (two choruses edited together)
Your Wildest Dreams - Moody Blues
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
Electric Blue - Icehouse (I told you it was my favourite song!)
Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel
Lady in Red - Chris de Burgh (God help me.)
She's Like the Wind - Patrick Swayze
I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
Love in the First Degree - Bananarama
Man of Colours - Icehouse
Walk the Dinosaur - Was (Not Was)
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley
SIDE 2
I Should Be So Lucky - Kylie Minogue
Heaven Is a Place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
(I've Had) The Time of My Life - Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes (when I recorded it, this song had been number one for ten weeks running. Nobody was gonna put this baby in a corner.)
Faith - George Michael
Pump Up the Volume - M.A.R.R.S.
Love in the First Degree - Bananarama
Whenever You Need Somebody - Rick Astley
Some People - Cliff Richard
Anything Goes - Geraldine Turner (this was the title track of the Australian cast recording, recorded later from our LP)
