Mix It Up

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." -Victor Hugo

As "High Fidelity" has made it infinitely clear - in case we didn't already know - a good mix tape can be a life-changing experience. "Making a mix tape," protagonist Rob Fleming says, "is like writing a love letter."

To be sure, as a tool of seduction, mix tapes (or mix CDs, MiniDiscs or MP3s) are among the most effective. But that's not all they're good for. They can also evoke and express a whole universe of other feelings. They can be about sustaining a mood or tone. They can be expressly for conjuring a sense of nostalgia. Or they can simply be a collection of songs by artists as diverse as Stephen Malkmus, Run-DMC, Let's Active, Depeche Mode and Chet Baker that you enjoy hearing in one place.

One of my favorite tapes combined songs that contained sampled sounds up against the source tracks. For instance, Beck's "Jack-Ass" co-opts the opening riff of "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" by Van Morrison's early band Them, and the two tunes dovetail nicely. Another very cool segue is electro-loungers Thievery Corporation's dulcet bossa nova "So Com Voce" alongside the theme song from the hard-to-find soundtrack of the French film "Betty Blue." I also put the Beastie's "The Sounds of Science" back to back with the Beatles "The End" trilogy.

Sometimes the most unlikely combination of tunes sound as if they were composed with the other in mind. I once placed John Lennon's bleak "Isolation" next to Louis Armstrong's blissful "Potato Head Blues." I'm not sure why, but these two disparate songs, the former with its cold-stop ending that leads seamlessly into the latter, complement each other in ways near impossible to describe.

Recently, my 15-year-old cat Blake died unexpectedly of a very virulent form of cancer, and I felt, and still feel, an ineffable sadness. Not knowing what else to do with myself on a blue Sunday afternoon, I put together a mix that allowed me a truly cathartic listening experience. What follows are the contents of that tape:

1. "My Mummy's Dead," John Lennon. A sad and short (and strangely recorded) lament from his "Plastic Ono Band" solo album. It felt like a good overture.

2. "Sand and Water," Beth Nielsen Chapman. I hadn't been familiar with her stuff, but hearing this song at the end of an "ER" episode the night after Blake died inspired me to make this tape.

3. "The Ballad of Easy Rider," the Byrds. One of my all-time favorite songs. I'd like this played at my own funeral. A real drag I won't be there to hear it.

4. "Everywhere," Billy Bragg. A sad tale of a Japanese-American boy during World War II who's jailed for looking too much like the enemy while his best buddy dies overseas in a foxhole. Eventually, Lee, in all his guilt and grief, hangs himself, and beyond the grave we hear the refrain: "Oh, little slanty eyes / can't you forgive and forget? / And he said, 'Oh, mister friendly ghost / can you catch water in a net?'"

5. "Walk Down That Lonesome Road," James Taylor. One thing's for certain - we walk into and out of this world alone. This song, which Taylor sang at comedian John Belushi's funeral, is a good intro for the next three tracks.

6. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," Bob Dylan. An obvious choice, but a great song nonetheless.

7. "Many Rivers to Cross," Jimmy Cliff. Ditto.

8. "I Feel Like Going Home," Charlie Rich. This is the demo version on the Silver Fox's "Essential" compilation. At the end of this incredibly raw and moving rendition, Rich, who died in 1995, calls out with a sense of tragic finality, "And that's it!"

9. "Pretty Little Cemetery," Ron Sexsmith. This sullen and straightforward tune, about a father taking his little son to a graveyard, seems at first almost too simplistic. But in the vivid middle section, the son, pointing at the cemetery, informs a nearby elderly couple: "This is where we go to when we die / my papa told me so. / The old man says, 'Yes we know.'"

10. "Cold Cold Ground," Tom Waits. This continues the grave (pun intended) thread of the previous song, especially the line: "The cat'll sleep in the mailbox / and we'll never go to town / till we bury every dream / in the cold cold ground."

11. "Black Eyed Dog," Nick Drake. A chilling and spooky song from a chilling and spooky late artist and current VW spokesman.

12. "'Til I Die," the Beach Boys. Written during a time of his life when he was mostly bedridden, my favorite Brian Wilson song is a sobering look at the ephemeral nature of things: "I'm a leaf on a windy day / pretty soon I'll be blown away."

13. "Days," Kirsty MacColl. Since the Scottish songstress' death in a boating accident late last year, this already affecting version of the classic Kinks song has taken on added poignancy: "And though you're gone / you're with me every single day, believe me."

14. "Clang of the Yankee Reaper," Van Dyke Parks. Despite its solemn lyrics ("The good old days are dead"), this obscure song by cult artist Parks brightens the mood of all that's come before with its upbeat, almost cartoony, musicality.

15. "Somewhere Beyond the Sea," Bobby Darin. This song has always been around, it seems, and has been covered by hundreds of artists in as many languages (check out "La Mer," the French version by Charles Trenet). But it wasn't until I heard it on an old X-Files episode in which Scully's dad died and was laid to rest in a lake that the tune really got through to me. Don't let the brassy arrangement and Darin's Sinatra-isms fool you - this song is serious. It's also the right note on which to end my mix tape.

Eliot Wilder has his own Web site at www.eliotwilder.com

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