Originally published via Armageddon Prose Substack:
“April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain”
-T.S. Eliot
One of the lingering regrets of my life is that I never produced an angst-ridden, hormone-fueled high school mix tape in the cruel grip of springtime for a girl with whom I was hopelessly enamored yet didn’t know how to impress my feelings upon so that they would be reciprocated, so I channeled them through the artform of music by compiling what was, in the days of cassettes, called a “mix tape” in a desperate bid to express myself, in the process creating an artifact of undying devotion that would be looked upon fondly in perpetuity by all involved parties.
Having never done any of that, at the tender age of 37, here is my sweet redemption, the first and last (digital) mix tape I’ll likely ever make, which I dedicate to my wife, a living saint.
Track #1: Leaving on A Jet Plane, John Denver
Track #2: San Francisco, Alkaline Trio
Track #3: Are You There, Margaret? It’s Me, God, The Lawrence Arms
Track #4: Another Girl, Another Planet
Track #5: Tonight, Tonight, Smashing Pumpkins
Track #5: Accident Prone, Jawbreaker
Track #6: Black Box, Tony Sly
Track #7: Blinded, Third Eye Blind
Track #8: Heart-Shaped Box, Nirvana
Track #9: AM/PM, American Nightmare
Track #10: I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash
Track #11: I Guess This Is What Brains Look Like, Anorexic Olsen twin
Track #12: Wagon Wheel, Old Crow Medicine Show
Track #13: Stuff’s Weird, Mischief Brew
Bonus Track: Closer, Nine Inch Nails
Feel free to let me now where I went wrong in the comments and berate me for being an emo hipster.
Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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