My wife and I moved recently and that means Iâve become intimately reacquainted with all my stupid stuff â I mean, treasured possessions.
Among my things was a box of cassettes. Although I didnât own a cassette player, I couldnât bring myself to throw them away.
So instead of getting rid of stuff, I bought a cheap tape player from Amazon. Soon, I was listening to music I hadnât heard in a long time while I packed up my CDs and records. (I still have players for both of those.)
Itâs not like I couldnât just cue all this music up on one of the 5 million available streaming services â even the bootleg live Phish concert tapes I have are all available online â but I guess I just like the nostalgia of listening to music on cassettes.
I had a few âgreatest hitsâ-style tapes: Bob Dylan, Mott the Hoople and Tchaikovsky. I listened to them each once. I prefer Bob Dylanâs more obscure songs and even his later music to most of what was on his âgreatest hitsâ tape. Somebody mustâve accidentally taped over Mott the Hoopleâs âAll the Young Dudesâ because thereâs, like, a four-minute blank space where the song should be. And I even cranked Tchaikovskyâs Violin Concerto in D Major one night.
Like any kid growing up in the â90s, my collection also included Nirvanaâs âMTV Unplugged in New Yorkâ album, (which is still incredible) and a single of Notorious B.I.G.âs âMo Money Mo Problemsâ which, like most people who were teens in the â90s, I can still rap all the lyrics to. Randomly, I also had the comedian Steven Wrightâs absurd but still hilarious âI Have a Ponyâ album. (Wrightâs quip âYou canât have everything, where would you put it?â definitely hit me as I was packing boxes and boxes of stuff.)
Most of these tapes got just a single play on my recent cassette resurgence, but Iâve been playing a few of them pretty frequently. And pressing rewind on a couple choice cuts.
Here are my current favorites:
âGreat Big Boyâ â Leo Kottke
I know about Leo Kottke the same way I know about 90% of the music I listen to: because of Phish. Kottke has toured and recorded with Phish bassist Mike Gordon on numerous occasions. Heâs an incredible guitar player, a quirky lyricist and he sings â or grumbles. I like his voice actually. But the quality I most like about Kottkeâs music is his âbreezyâ almost Caribbean vibe he infuses in his playing. My favorite song on Kottkeâs 1991 album âGreat Big Boyâ is the first song, âRunning up the Stairs.â Itâs got that breezy quality to it, great for relaxing outside on a summer day. And his song âSummerâs Growing Oldâ will surely be a bit more poignant in a couple of months.
âHouse Music All Night Long: Best of House Music Vol. 3â â various artists
I found this tape in an antique store in Amish Country, which seems to me like a fairly unlikely place for a tape of early â90s house music bangers. House Music Vol. 3 kept my wife and I energized as we packed â and unpacked our stuff. And my wife particularly likes singing the line âYou in my hut nowâ from the song âIâll House Youâ by Richie Rich and the Jungle Brothers. Iâll probably wear out Side Two before Side One. The entire side is pretty great but my favorite has to be âVoodoo Rayâ by A Guy Called Gerald. It sounds as fresh in 2024 as it did in 1990.
âThree Flew Over the Cuckooâs Nestâ â Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Banjos, Celtic music and a dorky rap song? Yes, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones truly have it all. Actually this album is full of spacey, funky, jazzy grooves â and the aforementioned dorky rap song. But itâs quickly becoming a patio hall-of-famer, especially late at night. Fleckâs side two opener âInterlude (Return of the Ancient Ones)â will transport you to another dimension for a few minutes. And, yes, I know about Bela Fleck because of Phish.
âPhish Live at Walnut Creek Amphitheater, July 22, 1997â
OK, Iâm just going to get this one out of the way. I have quite a few live Phish tapes, mostly from one of my cousinâs collections. This one is a pretty famous concert from one of Phishâs most beloved years. A torrential thunderstorm broke out during the concert and an audible crack of thunder appears during âTaste,â adding to the intensity of the set.
âIn Flightâ â George Benson
Bensonâs 1977 album has perfect summer vibes. Another âbreezyâ jazz guitar player with lots of funk to add some depth. Iâve nearly worn out the rewind button on âThe World is a Ghetto.â
Mikeâs June 2024 Mixtape
This one is pretty rare. Only one copy exists. I discovered a record function on my tape player and resurrected one of my favorite teenage pastimes: making mixtapes. This one includes âAugust Againâ by Kiefer; âThe Free Designâ by Stereolab; âUmmhâ by Bobby Hutcherson and Harold Land; âThat Summer Feelingâ by Jonathan Richman; âGarden Partyâ by Ricky Nelson (which I know about because Phish covered it in during a Madison Square Garden concert); âLoose Fitâ by the Happy Mondays; âadoreuâ by Knxledge; âWhat Would I Want? Skyâ by Animal Collective; âShip of Foolsâ by the Grateful Dead and, potentially the greatest rap song about the Chicago Bears, brats, Stanley Tools, Tom Berringer and Brian Dennehy ever recorded: âDennehyâ by Serengeti.
Mike Andrelczyk is a staff writer for LNP | LancasterOnline. âUnscriptedâ is a weekly entertainment column produced by a rotating team of writers.