Cocktails and Records

The Easybeats
She’s so Fine

Another delve in the mix tape box (sorry) came up with this early tune by The Easybeats.* I don’t think ‘She’s so Fine’ charted in the UK, but it was a bit of a ‘hits and memories’ radio perennial when I was growing up. Once you hear it you’ll know why – it’s 2 minutes 9 seconds of catchy pop perfection. And just listen to that scream five seconds in. What a way to open a song!

‘She’s so Fine’, The Easybeats, from Easy, 1965

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* bunged on the end of a tape after ‘What I like about you’ by the Romantics, but never mind.

Split Enz
Strait Old Line

The mood being ripe for mix tapes, I reached into the old shoe box full of the blighters that is hidden under the stereo and randomly plucked one out to accompany the washing up. The lucky tape started with a lengthy version of Julian Lloyd Webber’s ‘Variations’ so Mr C. made me put it straight back where it came from.

The second tape was a compilation I remember taking to a party when I was about 16. It contains some fabulous stuff – Martha and the Muffins, Mental as Anything, the Swingers, The Beat, the J. Geils Band…  Sadly once again, I screwed up with the music as this was 1991 not 1981 and everyone but me and my friend Scott thought that it was crap. I was made to play Bryan Adams instead.

Anyway, that’s all rambling. The point is that this mix tape contained the mighty Split Enz and that’s what you’re getting today.  All requests for that bloody Robin Hood song will be ignored.

‘Strait Old Line’, Split Enz,  from Conflicting Emotions, 1983

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Although the lovingly crafted mix tape will always have a special place in my heart, there are some good commercially produced compilations available. One of my very favourites is Space Invasion, a Ronco LP from 1980. It has many, many merits:

1. A high-tech space invaders themed cover which advertises ‘20 galactic hits’.
2. Quite possibly the most wide-ranging selection of music that I’ve ever seen on the type of record that boasts ‘as seen on TV’ on the cover: from The Shadows, Elton John and Sheila B. Devotion to OMD, The Carpenters and Hawkwind, all your favourite space themed hits are here.
3. It features not one, but two space themed songs by Dollar.
4. And the magnificent ‘Eve of the War’ and ‘Forever Autumn’ from Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds.
5. It strategically places the relatively rare ‘Theme from the Space Invaders/Firecracker’ by Yellow Magic Orchestra between Hot Chocolate and Deep Purple.
6. It cost a mere £2 from Walthamstow Market.

So do you have any compilations that can beat Space Invasion?!

Early last year, much to the amusement of the Significant Other and my family, I dedicated a substantial part of my suitcase to carting my complete collection of lovingly compiled mix tapes back to the UK from Australia.

After a recent post on this site about vinyl brought up the subject of mix tapes (with many thanks to The Ill Man) I found myself getting nostalgic about mine and thinking that after all that effort, I really should play the damn things.

So I have just spent a pleasant evening rifling through the mix tape box and thought I would share a couple of my favourite sides. These were put together by myself around 1992/3 and I think they provide a delightful reminder of those often forgotten pre-Britpop 90s.

Unnamed mix tape #1, Side B
[where the young Cocktails and Records rocks out and dips her toes into 80s alt. rock]

1. Bastards of Young – The Replacements
2. F-Sharp – Nude Swirl [yes, who?!]
3. Killing in the Name Of – Rage Against the Machine [why, oh why, what a rubbish song]
4. Sliver – Nirvana
5. Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely – Hüsker Dü
6. The Honeymoon is Over – The Cruel Sea
7. Her Jazz – Huggy Bear
8. Supermodel Superficial – Voodoo Queens
9. Aloha Steve and Danno – Radio Birdman [top Australian (kind of) punk track from 1977]

Unnamed mix tape #2, Side A
[where the young Cocktails and Records reads the NME too much and goes all fey]

1. We Are Not Adult Oriented – Stereolab
2. Run – Spiritualised
3. Slow Emotion Replay – The The
4. I Hang Suspended – The Boo Radleys
5. Defective – Medicine
6. [an unidentified and unmemorable song by Boyfriend labeled '???']
7. Why Are People Grudgeful? – The Fall
8. Razamatazz – Pulp
9. Carwash Hair – Mercury Rev
10. Dream all Day – The Posies [forgotten classic of the 'power pop' genre]
11. Alison – Slowdive