Anatomy of a Mixtape - Olive Juice '87 Part IX "The Final Stretch of Side A"
"The Final Stretch of Side A"
Track #8 - “True Blue”
Just as quickly as the mood got creepy with some deep Depeche Mode, we take a sharp left to get out of the woods. No worries that the Juice might be an over-obsessed lover, that’s a different OJ. Straying from the 80’s New Wave/Alternative music vibe, Olive Juice drives to the lane with an easy Madonna lay-up. “True Blue, baby, I love you.”
Sure, lyrically, this song sums up the entire purpose of this tape in one catchy pop song, but even though it’s the album’s namesake, I think we all know that “Live To Tell” is the real winner from this album. However, when it comes to lyrics, a song about distrust, lies, and childhood scars would probably have ruined the mood Olive Juice had so carefully created up to this point (sans creepy Depeche Mode mood). So I give him credit for resisting any urge that may have been bubbling under to include “Live to Tell”.
Track #9 - “I Want You”
This is about the time I’m starting to question whether or not we’re profiling a high school-aged kid. This is some pretty sophisticated listening. Dead or Alive had a big hit in ‘84 with “You Spin Me Round” but committing to and sticking with their later releases, like this follow up from 1986, takes a larger investment than what your average suburban high school kid might be willing to make in a band fronted by the poor-man’s Boy George.
Track #10 - “Just Can’t Get Enough”
Going back a few years, this is the first single from Depeche Mode to be released in the U.S. and comes from their debut album in 1982. The song follows the theme of what Olive Juice has been expressing throughout this entire mixtape thus far but it is recognizably older than most of the selections to this point on the tape.
It’s also the second song from Depeche Mode on this mix and it’s my belief that Olive Juice was strategically working up to this moment.
And two things are becoming clear, which I will get to in a minute.
Track #11 - “See You”
This is the follow-up single to “Just Can’t Get Enough” and the first from Depeche Mode’s second album.
Lyrically, this song deals with the desire of just wanting to see someone with the promise of no touching, holding, or kissing. The goal is simply to be able to see someone.
And here ends side A. With a double-shot of Depeche Mode.
And it ends almost perfectly timed to coincide with side A running out of tape, which is incredibly hard to do. In fact, it’s almost impossible to do without meticulous and careful planning by laying out the tracklist previously, tracking the timing of each song, and tallying up the total run time while taking into consideration the few seconds of space between each one, ensuring that you don’t surpass 45 minutes. You’ve also got to be careful that you do not overestimate the total time to avoid leaving an awkward amount of dead space at the end that is too long to ride out, yet too short to add in one more song.
And you only get one chance to make it happen without screwing it up.
This feat is worthy of Olive Juice high-fiving himself and taking a victory lap around his bedroom before starting in on the second side. And I hope he did.
So, as I mentioned, there are two things that have become apparent, or that are at least possibilities to be considered, by the end of the first side.
The first one is something that I’m quite certain of which is, Olive Juice is a huge fan of early and mid 80’s New Wave, but the person who he is making this mix for is not. Not that they don’t like 80’s New Wave, more that they’re probably not familiar with it.
I’ve come to this conclusion because the mix starts out with three Top 40 songs, all of which are dubbed from the radio and one of which, Olive Juice gets the title wrong. He doesn’t own these songs in his collection and is guessing at titles.
But he knows he has to start the mix out like this, because it’s his way of luring the listener in. Leading off with mainstream pop, Olive Juice is trying to gain the acceptance of the listener by giving them something familiar to listen to that’s in their wheelhouse of musical taste. He will then make a calculated shift to get really personal with selections from his own music collection, which we now know includes a deep appreciation for Depeche Mode who leads the league in songs included on “Olive Juice ‘87”. I don’t even think there will be a close runner-up.
The second possibility I’ve considered by the end of side A is that there is a strong chance that Olive Juice is gay and this tape is for another male. As I mentioned, outside of the opening three songs, the bulk of these tracks are deep cuts in a genre that has a loyal fan base made up of musicians, artists, theater students, and the LGBTQ community — all groups that tend to have a deeper passion and devotion for musical artists and their songs.
This could also be the reason for the use of the code for “I Love You” in calling this “Olive Juice ‘87”. Was this all to be on the “DL”?
I’m also going to bring up that it’s quite possible that this mixtape was produced in an effort to save a relationship that, at the time, was on the rocks.
Was there trouble in paradise?
Is “Olive Juice ‘87” a Lloyd Dobler moment, holding a boombox over his head in Diane Court’s driveway, cranking Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” to get her attention in “Say Anything”?
“If You Leave”, “King for a Day”, “It Doesn’t Matter”, and “See You” — all songs that could be used to express feelings of staving off an imminent break up.
But is that their purpose here?
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