Mixtapes are crafted according to a number of rules and guidelines, the most important of which is this: Your opening and closing songs must feel like opening and closing songs.
And that goes for Side A and Side B, though the opener of Side A and the closer of Side B must really feel like an opener and closer because they serve as the beginning and end of the whole tape.
Nothing is worse than a mixtape that begins or ends with a song that belonged somewhere in the middle of the pack.
It gets a little more complicated that that, though. One caveat that’s very important to me is that the great beginning song and great ending song you pick to bookend your mixtape must not be the opening or closing songs on their original albums.
That makes things a bit tricky. Because plenty of artists kick their albums off with wonderful opening tracks, and finish them with wonderful closers. But all of those songs are off limits.
Why? Because R.E.M.’s ‘Begin the Begin,’ say, is the fabulous start to Lifes Rich Pageant, not to some random mixtape. You don’t want to steal somebody else’s moves.
‘Gramarye’ by Remy Zero is the seventh track on their Villa Elaine album but it kicked off a mixtape I made for a friend of mine years ago. The way the mumbled words float over the hesitant piano tracks before the song kicks in with a grungy vengeance struck me as a very good beginning.
Here they come and they might as well
Too many birds in my confusion now
Now they’ll circle over this house till we take them in
You show me a sign to rise up from the world we know
And she’s strung out on life
He soon rolls his teeth
Spilling out from a mouth fit to overflow
Back into me
She moves and it’s fire fire underwater
Speaks of its flame she speaks my name
Well they all really want you
If only you that wanted them
Lights move in the chalk lines
Chains that define who I am
Here we are again how could I have seen?
Always she’s driving how could I have known?
Right through the strangest calling I should have known
Straight through the sound gramarye, I’ve found
See how she’s driving me down
Straight from the sound
She’s seen as a bright sun to anyone
Hollow and mined
With the weight of the world
Trailing out till the last train
Discovers me
Alive on Vine
She moves and it’s fire fire underwater
Speaks of its flame she speaks my name
As you move in a chalk line
Change in the dream that I am
Here we are the same
I used to see something in the idea
But only once did my hands reach
Anything beautiful
Now she’s turned away
And I, ooooooh
We move in it’s fire show me a sign, fire underwater
Speaking its flame, it speaks my name
She proves soon roll its teeth the liar,
On every one of them we are the same
Lights move in a chalk line
Change in the fire who I am
Here we are again
How could I have seen? always she’s driving
How could I have known? right through the strangest calling
Straight through the sound,
Gramarye, I have found,
See how she’s driving me
Always she’s driving
Back through the strangest calling
Straight through the sound
Gramarye, I found
See how she’s driving me down
Meet Me In Montauk 
You could release this blog post as your memoir. I may love the first six paragraphs of this entry as much as anything you have ever written š
What was the title of this mixtape?
Meanwhile, in a random blog about mixtape songs, you have managed to introduce me to both a song and a band of which I have never heard. On first listen, I’m intrigued. I like it – don’t love it – but could see it (and other songs by them?) growing on me. What’s the deal with this band? Is this one of those groups you secretly love and by whom you own five albums (despite the fact that your closest friends have no idea who they are) or is this one of those albums you picked up on a whim?
Couple of questions:
1. Who is this band?
2. Who was the “friend” recipient of this tape?
3. What do you do if the theme of your mixtape is great song openers and closers? Huh, rule boy?
I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Remy Zero. They released only three albums, one of which I own, in the late 90s. Villa Elaine is a consistently good album. Lead singer Cinjun Tate is probably best-known for being married (for 11 months) to actress Alyssa Milano.
I made this tape for an old high school friend. While I still have the complete lineup of the tape (in an Excel file) I do not have the title. That was probably written by hand.
And I would never create a mixtape of great opening and closing tracks!
I feel like the old man in Moonstruck “I’m so confused”