20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Memories of my magical mix tape summer
Re your article ('I threw it in the bin with everything else he gave me': the mix tapes that defined our lives, 16 July), a boy called Richard (very handsome and funny, although endearingly modest and shy) pushed a cassette through my door during the summer of 1983 when we were both about 17 or 18 and 'just friends'. It featured the song You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing.
He made me laugh so much and I was definitely in love with him, but I think neither of us knew quite how to act on our feelings. The line 'To you I guess I'm just a clown who picks you up each time you're down' struck me at the time as being a reference to how much he made me laugh, but now I realise that it was probably a plea to take him seriously.
I've just turned 60 and heard the song played recently. It stopped me in my tracks, transporting me right back to that gorgeous, magical summer of laughter and flirting that somehow never became anything more. And all the more magical for that I and address supplied
To make a mix tape was an art form. There were only between 30 and 45 minutes each side, which required a good knowledge of the tracks to be put on to each one. Following that, how do you get the attention of the audience? Starting with a banger and trying to hold that for a couple more songs before easing off a bit.
Towards the end of each side it was vital not to cut off any song but, if possible, to fade out. Even better if the tracks were finished just at the right moment before the tape ran out. A mix tape was a work of art, a work of love. You had to know your audience, your music and had to time it perfectly. I'm an avid lover of this lost art WagnerBoulogne-Billancourt, France
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