One Year of the Mixtape

Celebrating a year of news, reviews, and interviews of music makers and soul shakers.

One year ago, I started The Mixtape.

Over the last 12 months, it’s been a blast sharing stories, reviews, interviews, and just random thoughts with you on a mostly weekly basis. Thanks for coming along for the ride and I hope you stick around for even more of whatever this is.

To celebrate the first year, here’s a mixtape of first songs: some of my favorite album-openers spanning all genres and eras.

Since I started making mixtapes in the ‘80s, I’ve put a lot of time and care into the sequencing of each tape. Of course, that first song is the most important piece.

First, some guidelines.

A perfect opener requires more than just a great song. It has to be a statement of purpose for the album that follows, and that album must live up to the opener's promise.

For example, AC/DC has many blistering kick-off songs in their arsenal. “Thunderstruck” is inarguably one of the most powerful openers of the rock era. Still, it’s not included here because the album in which it is housed, The Razor’s Edge, falls short of the expectations thrust upon it, while Back in Black more than delivers what “Hell Bells" portends.

Conversely, many fantastic songs just happen to be the first song on an album, but that doesn’t mean they’re great album-openers. They can stand on their own just fine, but this mixtape is about songs that fit with the album that follows and either stands as a sort of thesis statement or at least gives you the first taste of the journey ahead. “Welcome to the Jungle” does just that. It’s a perfect setup for a trip through the seedy underbelly of LA’s Sunset Strip in the 1980s; one that didn’t glorify the partying of their peers, but instead reflected a burned-out, strung-out, tired, bored, and dark nihilism that lingers long after Appetite for Destruction concludes.

For this mixtape, I’ve stuck to studio albums. It was tempting to include live LPs, and by leaving them out, I’m robbing myself of the opportunity to include such majestic openers as “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” and “Statesboro Blues,” among others. However, sequencing an album and a live show are two different things.

While I usually sequence these mixtapes to be listened to in order, by the very nature of this one, it’s OK to just hit shuffle since they’re all strong openers (although I did, by obsessive-compulsive habit, arrange them for flow anyway—yes, I’m hopeless).

Thank you to all the subscribers who joined me during my first year here on the Mixtape, and I hope you’ll stick around for what’s in store: more news, reviews, and interviews with music makers and soul-shakers. As always, feel free to spread the word.

Apple Music listeners can access this Mixtape here.