Mixtape Evolution Pt. 2

After a year of two of mixtape rookie regret, I decided to re-do my Christmas comps.  Now, I had been making mixtapes of non-Christmas music for several years, so it wasn't inexperience with mixtapes in general, just lack of a good Christmas library.  When time for version 2 came, I had added a few more Christmas CDs to the collection, and I also borrowed a bunch of Christmas records from a buddy.  Lennon.  The Boss.  Beach Boys.  This may have been when "A Very Special Christmas" entered the picture.  The first year I produced "Christmas Music I" and "Christmas Music II", retracking and replacing the old tapes.  These were pretty good, but I still was prone to artist overkill - too much Beach Boys, too much Mannheim Steamroller.  No, not too much Elvis - you can't have too much Elvis :-)

And, along with artist overkill, I included songs that may have been OK at first, but over time I grew to hate.  Did I say "songs"?  I meant "song", as in "Grandma Got Run Over...", well, you know.  Ugh.  I quickly got to the point of never wanting to hear it ever again.  But it was on my awesome mixtape!!  What to do?

Christmas Music I

Well, what I did was endure for a few years.  And make "Christmas Music III" a year or so later, and then "Christmas Music IV".  You can see by the cassette case inserts that I, II, and III used the same early laser printer font, and IV branched out to some other wild and crazy typestyle.

Christmas Music II

These weren't bad, really.  They were enjoyable apart from some minor aggravations (which, after all these years, I still unwittingly introduce from time to time).  I find it amusing that I have the songs listed on the CD inserts but no artists.  Due to space, I'm sure, but some of the songs I have no idea who the artist is.  And I'm not sure I have a cassette player in the house.  I think maybe my son's truck still has one.

Christmas Music III

So, these sufficed until the CD years, when these did serve as the basis for the track sequence on my first two comp CDs, that I still play to this day.  We'll talk about them in a later post.

Christmas Music IV

But, how on Earth will I go from a 90-minute cassette to a 76 minute CD?!?!  I'm losing 14 minutes of music!  More to come...