Anatomy of a Mixtape - Olive Juice '87 Part X "Flip the Tape"
“Flip the Tape”
Side B:
Track #1 - “Stuck With You”
The second side of “Olive Juice ‘87” starts with the familiar formula we heard on the first side where Olive Juice kicks things off with a mainstream pop hit. On side B it’s “Stuck with You” by Huey Lewis and the News. Huey was red hot in the mid 80s thanks to the #1 single from the “Back to the Future” soundtrack. In fact, “Stuck With You” is the follow up single to “The Power of Love” and the second #1 single for Huey & Co.
Is Olive Juice pandering to the object of his affection here again? If so, it’s worth noting that this one is NOT taped off the radio.
Track #2 - “No One Is To Blame”
Interesting song choice. One that moves away from the theme of love and tackles those of infidelity, shyness, and the complicated times in life where one can look but cannot touch.
But when putting together a mix, sometimes the mood of a song can prove to be more powerful than the song's lyrical content. Remember, we talked about situations like this on side A where emotionally, “Live to Tell” could have played stronger than “True Blue”.
And if that was Olive Juice’s intention here, then I would go back to side A and personally would have picked “Live to Tell” by Madonna over “True Blue”.
But maybe I’m not the best person to take advice from on this. At one point in a past relationship that I was trying to get back on track and used “mood over lyrics” as a guide, I included Neil Young’s acoustic trilogy from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s “4 Way Street”. I still feel confident that I nailed the mood and showed the sentimental side I was going for when the trilogy kicked off with “The Loner” and smoothly moved into “Cinnamon Girl”, but I failed to consider how the chorus in “Down By the River” would be taken, especially the repetitive line,
“Down by the river, I shot my baaaaabbbyyyyyyy…”
And what I didn’t thoroughly consider was how that might actually bring down the mood I had so carefully crafted. I’d spent a painstaking amount of time figuring out the perfect tracklist, timing it as close to the end of the tape as I possibly could, all to have it come crashing down to an unceremonious end by picking the wrong song.
Track #3 - “Mad About You”
After deviating from the vibe and common theme of unquestionable love with some sentimentality from Howard Jones, sentimentality that might have inspired more doubt than faith, we’re back on track with Belinda Carlisle and a song of reassurance. As if to say, “Hey babe, no worries, I’m mad about you.”
Track #4 - “All The Love”
Unquestionably, The Outfield’s biggest hit was “Your Love” but “I don’t want to lose your love tonight…” may have sounded too desperate at the time, especially if this relationship was on the rocks.
If that was indeed the case, “All the love, all the love in the world, all the love, I’ll be sending you girl…” was a much better call. Scott Zolak may not agree. But anything less, with only one song separating that and Howard Jones, would have completely undone all of side one. You don’t want to confidently spend the better part of 45 minutes (in tape time) intricately building the walls of love, only to discover you measured incorrectly.
But regardless of Outfield song choice, maybe Olive Juice did measure incorrectly or ran out of supplies. Because with that, merely four songs into side B, here ends “Olive Juice ‘87”. At least as the producer intended it to be, as there are no more songs written out on the cassette cover jacket.
But what’s interesting is that, while songs chosen by Olive Juice for this personal mix do not go on, before I hit “stop” on the cassette player, I discover that there is actually more music that follows.
So I keep listening, because of course, I’m curious about what follows, as if I’d stumbled upon a secret Last Will of Testament that a family never knew existed, or I’ve uncovered a mysterious double-life carried out by a close friend. What is hiding on the remaining 25 minutes or so of this Maxell tape?
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