Last weekend, I asked Dan to make me a "mix tape" for my birthday road trip to Sun Valley. I suppose the term "mix tape" is obsolete and has been replaced by "mix iPod playlist," but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it. I had no idea that Dan would put so much pressure on himself to make me the best mix tape/playlist in the world, worthy of High Fidelity standards ("That is such a good movie," said Dan with a sigh).
Dan made my birthday playlist Saturday morning, right before we left for Sun Valley, but he was reluctant to let me listen to it.
"What's the point of making me a birthday playlist if you won't let me listen to it?" I asked.
"You might not like it."
Within the next few minutes, Dan told me not to play it all; then he told me to look at it first; then he stopped me from looking at it because it wouldn't be a surprise; finally, he let me play it. No, I didn't look at the list first. I wanted it to be a surprise too, and it was my birthday after all.
After a few songs into the playlist, Dan said sheepishly, "It's mushy."
Ummm . . . here are some examples of the songs from my birthday playlist: "El Scorcho" by Weezer, "Check the Rhime" by A Tribe Called Quest, "This is Love" by P. J. Harvey - it might have "love" in the title, but it opens with, "I can't believe life's so complex/When I just wanna sit here and watch you undress."
"Real mushy," I said.
Of course, the song selections were also some of my favorites, proving that Dan knows me pretty well. I guess you could say that's a little mushy.
For instance:
"How did you know this is my favorite Incubus song?" I exclaimed when I heard the first few bars of "Love Hurts." "You must listen to me!"
"It's pretty hard not to when you say over and over, 'I like this song,' every time it plays."
When "Fell in Love With a Girl" by The White Stripes came on, Dan reiterated, "See, it's mushy."
Dan confessed he couldn't figure out which Green Day song to include so he finally settled on "21 Guns." The title may send up red flags to anyone who doesn't know the song. (I can hear it now, "He made you a playlist for your birthday and included a song about guns?)
But first consider the lyrics: "One, twenty-one guns/Lay down your arms, give up the fight." It's the perfect song for a closet liberal, pseudo hippie pacifist (Am I describing myself? You decide).
I think Dan actually chose this song, not because of political or violent implications, but because we saw American Idiot last summer on Broadway, and this song was part of the stage production. And of course, our journey down New York memory lane was completed with Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind."
Dan took his creation of the perfect birthday "mix tape" very seriously. He made sure every song on the playlist had some sort of significance either to me personally or to our history together. I'm not sure what that means when one of the songs on my birthday playlist turned out to be "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead. But I've never really tried to hide my neurotic tendencies.
"Do you want me to make you another one?" Dan asked as the last song ended.
Don't worry, Dan. You'll get your chance again next year.
"The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. It takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick it off with a killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch. But you don't want to blow your wad. So then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."
-- Rob Gordon in High Fidelity (2000)
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