What we have is a tape found by Oscar over at Black Market Pop, presumably at the St. Paul Goodwill outlet. I didn’t ask. Either way, this tape has made its way up here from Chicago and is in remarkably good shape for probably being 26 years old and finding its way to me without a case. (The lack of case is what makes me think it’s from the Outlet, by the way.)
photo by Oscar
I’ve ripped it exactly as it played into the computer. This means you’ll hear Baby, Don’t Break Your Baby’s Heart by Kashif fade in and disappear for about 30 seconds. We’ll never know why. Hit play below to follow along:
The first song fades out as the comes in, a pretty uncommon thing for a radio tape like this. I know I never did any fancy fadework with my own tapes; they were all full of messy pause button work and missing intros/outros to get rid of the goddamn DJ or commercial. Next up is another forgotten jam, I’ve Been Watchin’ You by Randy Hall, followed by Ray Parker’s much-better remembered tribute to the afterlife and Huey Lewis.
This is the point where the tape fades into what is probably the start of a “Saturday Night Live (Ain’t No Jive)” mix from the Hot Mix 5:
It’s also the point where the jams start to come fast and furious and I can’t identify them all. For example, we start out with some classic sounding Chicago house mixed seamlessly into another song I don’t recognize before landing on Too Tough by Angela Bofill. The 12″ mix of Situation by Yazoo pops up and quickly becomes Reach up by Toney Lee. Knock Me Out by Gary’s Gang is next. Incidentally, they look like this:
Believe it or not, they’re not from Chicago even with that whole gangster image.
We get a taste of In The Name Of Love by Sharon Redd, then a taste of Rodney Dangerfield (!!) giving his first shoutout to our mix hero, Mickey “Mixin” Oliver. He’s the guy up there with the beer and moustache. He’s also the guy mixing Miquel Brown into New Order with No More Words by Berlin tossed in for good measure.
Listen! You get a hear a bit of live beatmatching as Native Love by Divine sneaks in. I feel it’s my duty to put this here:
The tape fades out just as The Glamorous Life by Sheila E. kicks in. End of Side A. Tune in tomorrow for Side B.