Anybody remember back in the day when you used to make tapes for your
friends and especially lovers? A lot used to go into those 60 or 90 minutes.
It was like laying one's soul on the line, expressing a love for music and
sharing a side of oneself. It was DJing before there was DJing 'cause it was
all about sharing and turning people on to what you liked. I had a couple of
friends who always made the freshest tapes for different occasions and I
still hold onto 'em like worn jewels (DJ Headd and Steve Holloway this goes
out to you). I still have tapes that mix everything from the Clash to
Scritti Politti to Grandmaster Flash. Too bad these days we've sort of let
others take over that job. I don't know if I'm unique in this respect but
I'm almost insulted to pay money for CD series like 'Another Late Night' or
'Inspirations' or 'Whateva' (that's my title) which are essentially mixed
tapes by currently trendy artists. Is this cashing in or what? If it isn't
then I'd like to see Johnny Cash do one, or how about Gil Scott Heron? These
guys would laugh at the notion 'cause it's a pretty vain concept. Granted,
there are some decent tracks featured on some of these CDs but none that we
don't discover on our own if we're so inclined. It privileges the artist a
bit too much in my opinion. We all have influences and inspirations, which
is the universal quality of music. I say, make your own late night comps
from an old vinyl collection and by some good weed or dontate to a charity
with the money saved.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Apr 03 2002 - 08:48:17 CEST