Dreams Continue by Pete

My first mix, for October, is called Dreams Never End. I posted a detailed description of the inspiration behind it earlier this month (page 2). However, I did not include the track list because my wonderful mixee, Caiti, had not yet received it and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise of receiving a brand new mix tape in the mail. I say “mix tape” because it actually was recorded on a cassette tape.

The concept behind it is sort of playing out my fantasy of growing up in the 80’s. I was born in ’86 and only spent the first four years of my life there, but even through the early nineties, much of what came out of the 80’s played a crucial role in my upbringing. So now that I am older, I look back on those days with great nostalgia—when the world was still so new and exciting; hence, my obsession with the 80’s. Throughout high school my tastes evolved from Duran Duran to Joy Division (thank you, Matt). During that same period I came across a film that encapsulated those feelings and well, for lack of a better phrase, changed my life. The film, which will go unnamed to spare myself the shameful embarrassment (most of you will get it after the first glance), had the most personally profound soundtrack I’d ever heard. So much so, that it dictated where I went to college, what I studied, and why I relocated to Los Angeles. I fell so in sync with the protagonist that now I imagine myself in his shoes. This mix is one I would have created in October of 1989, at approximately age 21, because it’s mostly what I was listening to at 21.

I tried my best to make the mix as authentic as possible. The tape cassette used was one I bought from a flea market that the seller had used to bootleg Van Halen’s 1984 (one of my all-time favorite albums btw), so, according to him, it’s legit. Rather than replace the insert with the track list written on it, I blacked it out as much as possible and wrote my title in between the lines. The only thing unauthentic about it is the marker. Realizing that Caiti may not have a tape player readily available, I mailed her a CD copy as well.

Photo Credit: Emma Walker

Every song chosen was released before October 1989, including The Replacements’s 1989 album Don’t Tell A Soul, and The Cure’s Disintegration (another one of my all-time favorites). I used the long version of “Pictures of You” because the shorter radio version wasn’t released until 1990.

The story behind the music is kind of a coming-of-age tale. Side A chronicles my early “emo” teen years, when I was so naïve and head over heels for every pretty girl who paid me attention. It starts out bright-eyed but then gets progressively more serious. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is sort of that bittersweet turning point when I begin to realize just how dangerous love can be.

Side B begins dark and turns damn near manic-depressive. From the confusion is born a new outlook on life, culminating in “We’ll Inherit the Earth,” an anthem that closes the chapter with the promise of a greater future. I will be an adult then and begin my journey—my life’s work—my conquest for world domination. And my pursuit for love will boil down to a glass of Replacements: either there will be nothing more musical to look forward to, or it will become the start of a beautiful and everlasting relationship with a band upon which I can rely for the rest of my days.