Elf Mix 2

 Dear Blog,

I made a compilation CD many years ago, when I was approximately 19 years old. The only thing written on the disk is the title Elf Mix 2, in scrawling red marker. I've recreated the mix as Spotify and YouTube playlists, depending the reader's preference. Also, here is the song list: 

Miserlou - Dick Dale

Fire - Jimi Hendrix

Mr. Brightside - The Killers

Drain You - Nirvana

Say It Ain't So - Weezer

The Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie (Nirvana Unplugged Version)

Have You Ever - The Offspring

Jeremy - Pearl Jam

Within You Without You - The Beatles

Romeo's Seance - The Juliette Letters

Black Angel's Death Song - The Velvet Underground

I Fought Piranhas - The White Stripes

I Can't Quit You Baby - Led Zeppelin

Daze and Confused - Led Zeppelin

Warmth Of The Sun - The Beach Boys

Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg (famously heard in Deliverance)

I have two observations. First, I'm quite a consumer of music. I listen to multiple genres of music every day, usually several hours per day, ranging from baroque, electronic, bluegrass, classical guitar, traditional and modern folk, acapella jazz, barbershop, indie pop, hard rock, blues, jazz piano/trio, musical theater and some others. I have been heard to say that some music is 'good' and other music 'not great.' I wouldn't identify as a music snob, but I'm sure at least a few people have considered me one. 

Also, I've noticed that many people my age and older, Millennials and Generation X, they are often very self-conscious of their young adult and late adolescent selves. They hide their journals, their drawings, their love letters, pictures of their hair. 

Somewhere between these two observations, one might expect me to have great distaste for my late teenage mix tape, to poo-poo it as adolescent pop punk bullshit. But no, it's amazing. Every song on it is fantastic. I would say its only flaw is that it's almost all Up tunes -- that is, I didn't take it down a notch until the second to last song, perhaps except for Within You Without You at track 9. I can give myself grace to have missed that subtle and important point in making a good mix-tape, on my second ever. 

Teenagers know quite a lot. They feel quite a lot. It's all real, and their ability to express it is truly something to be respected. As we age, we ought pay more attention to the youth, especially if it is our own teenage selves. Everyone, love your youthful constructs. Read the journal, show the drawings to friends. Listen to your old crush songs, and old breakup songs, and old dance like your hip doesn't hurt all the time yet songs. 

Your Obedient,

-Ian Hogan, PhD