Living in Oblivion: The Mix Tape Project, Redux

Back in mid-September, I started a small music project. I have a number of favorite mix tapes, and hardly anything to play them on. The cassette deck stopped working in my Mazda a while ago, and that's where I typically listen to most of my cassettes and CDs.

So I decided to move into the modern world and create a digital playlist based on my collection of mix tapes. All I managed to do back in September was take some photos and start making some notes to myself. Over my holiday break, I completed the project!

My husband has commented that I've been absolutely obsessed over this project, and in my defense, I'd like to point out that it actually turned into THREE separate projects. Which is why it has been taking so long.

1. The first was to digitize a new playlist based on the cassettes. All of the original songs from the cassettes came from CDs in my own collection. So it would just be a matter of tracking down the songs, importing them into the computer, and organizing them into a playlist.

2. The second was to begin work on digitizing a playlist of all-time favorite songs, a project that I am calling Songs2SaveMyLife. These are the songs that, if I looked like I was dying of depression, you should play them for me and they are guaranteed to restore me to my normal happy self. It was originally a list of 25 songs that turned into more than 200, and now tops out at several hundred songs.

3. The third is that my oldest sister, who dearly loved music, passed away this year. She had a tremendous collection of music CDs, mostly country. And I ended up with quite a few of those, many of which were never even opened. I have been going through them, listening to some, and trying to decide which ones to add to my digital collection.

So I borrowed a DVD writer to use over my holiday break, and every day or two, I take a stack of CDs and digitize them. So far, I've digitized all or parts of more than 100 CDs. Each one takes anywhere from about 4 to 12 minutes to copy. A conservative estimate (using 6 minutes per CD as an average) is that I have around 11 hours into the actual digitizing itself.

Actually FINDING which CD I want has been its own little quest. For instance, the Roxette tune I was looking for (It Must Have Been Love) came NOT from the only Roxette CD I own, but from the Pretty Woman soundtrack.

Tracking down Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes took me to Paul Simon's Negotiations and Love Songs, a CD I can't believe I didn't get to digitizing until now. A quest for old-school Dolly Parton sent me to a 2-CD RCA Years retrospective that contains all of her gems.

And don't even get me started on Tina Turner. How can I have never digitized Proud Mary until just this moment now? As I worked through the process, I got out every 80s compilation I ever owned (including the multi-CD classic 80s set Living in Oblivion), and blessed the day I bought them!

The DVD writer that I borrowed had some problems importing the last few songs from several of the CDs. This would not be a problem except that Limahl's Never Ending Story was one of the ones that didn't import. My 80s mix tape playlist wouldn't be complete without it!

Then I remembered that the old computer I have sitting around has an internal CD/DVD writer. So I put the CD in, and like magic, imported the last few songs. Put a thumb drive into the slot, exported the few songs onto it; moved the thumb drive to the newer computer, imported the songs into iTunes. Bam!

I alphabetized all of the CDs I got from my big sister, and went through them with a fine-tooth comb. I digitized every Josh Turner, Alabama, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Alison Krauss. The emerging collection has the feel of two streams that have come together, each retaining its own characteristics, as they merge into a single river of music.

Some of my sister's CDs were played hard and put away wet, as they might say if they were horses. The ones that WERE open, some were covered in finger prints and other sticky stuff (including, I think, cat barf). And so I had to wash several of those before even touching them. (Put a bit of dish detergent or baby shampoo in a little bowl of water, soak CD for a minute, then rinse and wipe off; dry gently with a special cloth.)

After I digitize a stack of CDs, I sit on the bed with my computer (and the cat usually under the blankie with me) and add them to my big spreadsheet. Information I add includes the name of the CD, the artist, the copyright year, the release date, how many songs are on it, and the date it was digitized.

Sometimes I read up on the music a little. For instance, a CD I inherited from my sister was Common Thread, a country music artists' tribute to the Eagles. Here is a neat tidbit I learned: Travis Tritt asked the original Eagles (who had split at the time) to appear on a video for the album. They did so, and enjoyed playing together, and that eventually caused them to get back together.

The Eagles' next album and tour was called Hell Freezes Over, because that's when Don Henley said they'd get together again after they broke up in the first place. My husband and I saw the Eagles on the tour after that and they were FABULOUS. So I would like to add a personal Thank You to Travis Tritt and Common Thread.

There is space on the spreadsheet for me to put an X beneath the column of each playlist that each CD has been added to. Yes, I like to keep things organized. I highlighted the ones belonging to my sister in blue, the new ones I added from my own collection in purple, the stack my husband finally brought me of his own CDs to add to our collection in light orange.

The current status of the playlists is this:

1. The 80s mix tape playlist is done, and it includes 151 songs, or 10 hours and 25 minutes of music. I updated my little pink iPod shuffle so that it now contains that playlist only. You may see T. Tiger enjoying those tunes in the photo above, as the little Red Shirt wonders why that itty bitty record player JUST WON'T SPIN!!!!

2. The Songs2SaveMyLife spreadsheet and playlist have taken on a life of their own. It is absolutely incomplete but currently weighing in at 263 songs, or 18 hours and 49 minutes, of music. There are things I will have to purchase to make it whole - all items I still need are highlighted in teal - and so now I'm making a whole separate list for that!

3. There is now quite a bit of digital music from my sister's collection, and I look forward to listening to it. When I visited my sister, I rode around with her in her car as she played her CDs, with the sun roof wide open and the tunes on high. She often had a favorite new song on her mind. I have a particularly fond memory of us in her car, riding down along the Susquehanna River, with me standing up through the sun roof, taking pictures of the river bridges with my camera, her holding on to me, the music blasting, us laughing oh laughing always laughing, and her saying, Oh do be careful, Mom will kill me if I let you fall out the top of this car!!!

So that is the update on how and why we are closing out the old year by adding NEW music to enjoy. New music, new year, new attitude! (Well, maybe mostly the same old attitude; I'm not much for change.) And SOMEbody tell that Tiger how to listen to a pair of ear buds, please! :-)

The soundtrack song for this posting about music is Patti LaBelle, with New Attitude. Aw, heck, let's give this a second song. Let it be that Travis Tritt song with the Eagles: Take It Easy, from Common Thread; yes, the song that brought the Eagles back together again. . . .

And now, let's listen to some MUSIC!!!!