Happy Early Valentine's Day....

Various Artists: TINA'S ALBUM/BOISE IDAHO 1977-1982 (a mix tape)
including Journey: "Lights"
Barclay James Harvest: "Hymn"/"Spirit on the Water"
Renaissance: "Northern Lights"/"Ocean Gypsy" (live)
Genesis: "Afterglow"
Boston: "Used to Bad News"/"A Man I'll Never Be"
Illusion: "Everywhere You Go"
Journey: "Patiently"
Fleetwood Mac: "Silver Springs"
Shoes: "Too Late"/"In My Arms Again"
Kate Bush: "The Man With the Child in His Eyes"
Camel: "Breathless"
Todd Rundgren: "Saving Grace"
Genesis: "Your Own Special Way"
Gentle Giant: "On Reflection"
Genesis: "Ripples"
Journey: "Feeling That Way"/"Anytime"
Renaissance: "Ashes are Burning" (live) (opening)

Here's a quick look at summa what I was listening-2 right after highschool, Btween '77 & '82, Cms like 10,000 yrs ago now -- the more accessible stuff, the stuff that wouldn't scare people outta the house. Some of it also coincides w/ my 1st Dream Job, working in The Musicworks record store in Boise (Shoes, Kate Bush & Fleetwood Mac come from this).
Much of this music is also connected 2 the weirdest & possibly worst relationship w/ a woman that I've ever had. So, Happy Early Valentine's Day.
Tina was the redhead I fell 4 after my highschool sweetheart broke my heart. The match was doomed from the start, Bcos Tina's 1st boyfriend was my best friend -- & he warned me she was nuts. He had no idea how right he was.
But Tina & I were both lonely, young & stupid. We put-up w/ each other 4 almost 3 yrs, thru yelling arguments & tears & break-ups & make-ups. She made me crazy, & not in a Good Way. Inna lotta ways, actually. In addition 2 making every day a Crisis, a Drama, also while allegedly w/ me she apparently slept w/ enuf other guys 2 field at least the offense 1/2 of a football team. I lost track after awhile. All this while refusing 2 have sex w/ me. We didn't have sex 4 the last 9 mo's we were "2gether." (I didn't cheat on her -- possibly cos I could never tell if some1 was intrested -- still can't.)
& why did I put up w/ this crap 4 3 yrs? Bcos I was DUMB. Ain't love grand?
My best friend told me I'd B achieving a minor miracle if I ever got Tina's clothes off. Well, getting her clothes off wasn't that tough. I was proudly able 2 proclaim that I'd per4med a minor miracle within 2 wks of meeting her. The Rest took awhile longer....
At some point in the proceedings I figured out that Tina -- tho loud -- was painfully shy. That during sex she preferred 2 B Somewhere Else, so that she wouldn't B Mbarrassed. So I assembled the songs above, those from my collection that she played over&over, so that during intimate moments she could clamp the headphones over her head & I could continue w/o Mbarrassing interruptions....
I wish I could report that she was worth the trouble -- I don't really remember. MayB she was 2 the OTHER guys on her football team. I remember us 1nce interrupting a session long enuf 2 go out & eat pizza, then continuing where we left off when we got home, the only time THAT'S ever happened 2 me, which indicates there musta bn SOME kind of inspiration there....
But I doubt that I was a very inspiring partner either. It took me YEARS 2 figure out how things were sposta work & how 2 make my partner happy. Until I was 35, as a matter of fact. Ghod knows I TRIED. But there were YEARS of thrashing & flailing & laughing & Mbarrassment. Ghod, biology can B brutal.
So, if Tina wanted music so she could lie back & think of England, who was I 2 object?
So what if this particular selection is a little high on the melodrama? ("Hymn," "Afterglow," "A Man I'll Never Be," "Patiently," "Silver Springs," "Your Own Special Way," "Ripples" -- probly the whole damn thing.) Tina was definitely a Drama Queen & I'm 1 myself a lotta the time. So what if there's 2 much Journey & Boston & Genesis & 2 much Art Rock in general in this selection? (Hey, watch yr mouth -- middle-period Genesis was pretty great, I've gotta write them up sometime....)
I like 2 think the inclusion of more down-2-Earth trax like those by the Shoes & Todd Rundgren help balance things out a bit. The Shoes songs R breathy, heartbroken brilliance, & Todd's "Saving Grace" is merely the best thing he's ever done, "A song for our generation," as he wrote in the liner notes 4 SOMETHING/ANYTHING?
This is the only mix tape or CD I've ever made 4 NE1. My highschool sweetheart 1nce told me that Mike Oldfield's OMMADAWN (Side 1) was great music 2 have sex 2, but she never tried it on me. (She also Bqueathed me Gentle Giant's "On Reflection." Probly a good thing she never heard "Funny Ways"....)
My X-wife's mix CD would B 75 mins of nothing but Alanis Morrisette's "You Oughta Know."
If I were 2 assemble a mix CD 4 my current/most recent girlfriend, it would include Rod Stewart's "Handbags and Gladrags," all of Nick Drake's BRYTER LAYTER, & Caravan's "All the Way (With John Wayne's Single-Handed Liberation of Paris)." & I would wanna add Blue October's "Calling You."
The downside of all this? Well, these 20 songs sometimes make me think of a psychotic redhead from my distant past. I haven't Cn her or talked 2 her since 1982. Last I heard, she had married a distant friend of mine & they were living w/ her even-more-psychotic mother -- the alcoholic mother who had twisted her Byond repair 2 Bgin w/.
Even after she was married, she kept calling me, saying that I was more attractive 2 her now that I was Off Limits....
I've never dated another woman named Tina. They're all Trouble.
I've never dated another redhead. They're all crazy, Rn't they?
...Hey, wait. My mother was a redhead....