Most of the physical mixtapes that I’ve put together over the years were made up from songs that I heard on albums. Many of those albums would be obscure references to the (imagined) typical reader of this blog and the friends to whom I gave these mixtapes. I did my humble best to expand their musical horizons. But lest you think I only listen to strange music, I spent many years listening to Top 40 radio stations. Two of my favorite stations were WLS in Chicago, with my all-time favorite disc jockey, Larry Lujack, also known as Superjock. If you are interested in knowing more about Lujack, there is a lot available on YouTube. I haven’t listened to much of it, so I don’t know how it has held up over the years. Next, I listened to WBZ in Boston. I heard the station on my first transistor radio in my bedroom at night when conditions were right to receive their 50,000 watt radio signal. I think that I liked that station so much because I knew that I was one of a only a few people in my school who even knew the station existed.
I tried picking songs for this mixtape from the top of my head, and then checked to make sure that they were indeed Top Forty songs on the U.S.A. Billboard lists. As expected, by me, around half of them had made it to #1. They were Love Will Keep Us Together, American Woman, I Want o Hold Your Hand, I Get Around, Sleepwalk, Come Softly To Me, Honky Tonk Woman, and Total Eclipse Of The Heart. The rest of the songs here include a couple of songs that made it from #2 down to a #40, Movin’ Out (Anthny’s Song). I hope you enjoy this mixtape
As part of my new mixtapes project, I have asked select friends to curate playlists for me. This mixtape is specially curated for us by Norm. He quickly became a true friend and confidant 7 years ago when I correctly recognised a floppy disk for what it was. Since then, he has seen me through all my ups and downs through perfectly timed memes, several postcards, lessons on the American presidency, and music, music, music. When not spreading positivity by sharing his song of the day on Twitter, you can find him blogging at Classical Gasbag.
This Labyrinth I Roam 