This time around I pillaged a favorite mix from the early 1980s.

The source for this mix is You Better Move On, an analog cassette I made from my vinyl collection in, I believe, 1982. For today’s release I collected mp3s of all the songs, deleted a few for reasons of continuity and length, then produced this new version which fits on an 80-minute CD.

In this era Marti and I were living in downtown Washington, DC. We rolled in a 1983 Toyota Cressida – my company car – which boasted a killer sound system, complete with equalizer. “Don’t touch my levels!” I would fill a cigarette case with joints, jam a vial of Peruvian marching powder into the change pocket of my jeans and pump up the volume as we made epic road trips northbound on I-95, destined for Maximum City, Woodstock or New England. This Maxell Silver C90 was always in the CaseLogic tape case.

Listening now, it’s clear to see the theme is about splitting up – even though Marti and I had been together happily five years, married just a year before. I, however, had survived a couple of short-term starter marriages from the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. Some of the attendant angst from that period must have been reverberating here. Artists include Willy DeVille, Little Steven, Ry Cooder and Warren Zevon, among others. Even The Beatles and The Rolling Stones put in appearances, rather rare for my mixes in those days.

For a limited period you can download an mp3 file set of this mixtape HERE (Click me).Enjoy!

01 Looking For The Next Best Thing
- Warren Zevon
02 I Wish You Could Have Seen Her Dance
- T-Bone Burnett
03 She Can’t Dance - Marshall Crenshaw
04 Inside Of Me
– Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul
05 That Summer Night – Buck Dharma
06 You Keep Running Away – 38 Special
07 Bad For Good – Jim Steinman
08 Hold On (To What You Got) – Gary U.S. Bonds
09 Anna (Go To Him) – The Beatles
10 You Better Move On – Mink DeVille
11 Go Home, Girl – Ry Cooder
12 Highway Patrolman - Bruce Springsteen
13 The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest
- Bob Dylan
14 William Brown - Randy Newman
15 Never Too Late For Love - Warren Zevon
16 Waiting For The Moving Van - David Ackles
17 Please Call Me Baby - Tom Waits
18 Guardian Angel – Mink DeVille
19 You Better Move On – The Rolling Stones
20 Harlem Nocturne (Live) – Mink DeVille

This mixtape by Phil Demetrion. Original mix c. 1982. Compiled March 24, 2011 – Paris.

Download an mp3 file set of this mixtape HERE (Click me).