I look at a mixtape as a kind of movie without pictures. It should ebb and flow the way a movie does, with the talky parts balanced by the action. And like a great movie, it should contain two or three strong, memorable sequences around which the rest revolves.
Sometimes a mixtape (or a movie) is born from the desire to create just such a sequence. You fall in love with the alchemy between a series of songs, decide they’d be perfect about three quarters of the way through Side B, then seek out filler to occupy the rest of the space. That might not be the ideal way to create your masterpiece, but it happens that way quite a lot.
But today’s post isn’t about one of those inspirational sequences. It’s about the filler.
Sometimes it’s a throwaway song that winds up hitting the truest target. ‘In a Lonely Place,’ a Smithereens duet with Suzanne Vega from their great album Especially For You, was an afterthought on a mixtape I made for my sister. So I was shocked when she gushed about it several days later.
This song became the focus of that whole tape for her, and my masterful sequence — the specifics of which are now lost to time — was an afterthought. That works for me.
I turn around to see you
And if I do or not, it all depends
I was born the day I met you
Lived a while when you loved me
Died a little when we broke apart
Yesterday, it would have mattered
Now today, it doesn’t mean a thing
All my hopes and dreams are shattered now
I’m in a lonely place without you
I’m in a lonely place without you
I walk the streets alone at night sometimes and think about you
I look as strangers pass, and wonder how I’ll live without your love
I was born the day I met you
Lived a little when you loved me
Died a little when we broke apart
Suddenly, this world’s no longer bright
I’m alone and lonely every night
Won’t you bring back your love that’s out of sight?
I’m in a lonely place without you
I’m in a lonely place without you
Meet Me In Montauk 
I remember Amy loving this song, and playing it repeatedly. It is a great song. One that finally made me learn to distinguish The Smithereens (who I like a fair amount of the time when I hear them) with the Smiths (who I uniformly dislike).
🙂 So maybe the blogger gods didn’t want me to steal today’s SOTD thunder, which is why they refused to enable this video to post in my response to yesterday’s “lemon.”
Regardless, I couldn’t be more pleased to find this song featured during “mixtape” week, as, filler or not, it is the essence of the mixtape in my world – a song I didn’t know before receiving my gift and one I only ever knew in context of that tape, which, as Dana said today and I admitted on yesterday’s post, I played incessantly while writing my honors thesis. Hell, I might not have ever graduated if not for this song!
Another fascinating aspect of exposing the gift recipient to music he or she doesn’t know, is that sometimes (often) the songs are not identified by anything more than their title. This causes the listener to have to investigate (or just ask the mix tape master 🙂 in order to have her curiosity sated.
Seriously though… just close your eyes and listen to this song – how could this song be filler?!! From 1:25 – 1:55 (ish) – pure musical nirvana. I ADORE this song. Thanks, Clay, for featuring the flip side of the lemon experience 🙂
I’m enjoying this week’s theme, and I am loving my new gift of the 1945 club that was given to me for my birthday. A combination of artists born the same year from Van Morrison to Carly Simon and Bob Marley (the only one not living today 😦 ) I can see why you like this song Amy, but I’m sure you would have graduated anyway 😉