Jamie Hayes: “Good Morning, You’re 20!”
Coming up in the late nineties and having a penchant for dating musical types, i have more than a few mixes to choose from. But one stands out in particular, from my first love, who also introduced me to great music. It is a fabulous tape. My boyfriend delivered it, along with breakfast in bed, on the morning of my 20th birthday (hence the title: “good morning, you’re 20!”). In the mix you can hear the excitement and enthusiasm in the tape of being young, newly in love with each other, and in love with music. While the relationship didn’t last, the tape did, staying in heavy rotation all the way until last year when i finally got an ipod.
the mix was so great that i wanted to know about every song and artist on the tape. it introduced me to artists like ike & tina, delroy wilson, the rezillos, tito puente, and lee morgan –the best musical primer a girl could ever want! and so i began to ask questions: who is susan cadogan? and i learned that a huge part of her magic is thanks to lee perry, which of coures opened up a whole other world, and led to endless questions. ike & tina beget questions about the ikettes, which got me into girl groups like the shangri-las. tito puente and mongo santamaria led me to la lupe, hector lavoe and willie colon, etc, etc.
after the breakup i came to find out that almost the entire mixtape was made from the extensive record collection of my ex’s friend and bandmate, Ethan D’Ercole. I was lucky enough to go straight to source, working with Ethan at HiFi Records in Chicago and getting a chance to learn more and more about music, minus the relationship drama. This lead to other friendships and relationships with other lovers of music, slowly building my own collection, making my own mixes, and finally deejaying and writing about music.
when i was twenty and in love it seemed like such a tragedy that it didn’t last forever, though with hindsight i see that crazy, intense first loves really can’t. but this tape serves as a document of that amazing openness and exuberance of time, and more importantly, it reminds me of how the past begets the present - first love as the beginning of self-discovery.
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Soul Brothers Six: Some Kind of Wonderful |
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Jamie Hayes’ interests lie at the intersection of fashion, art, culture, and identity. She studies this intersection through her work as a fashion designer, costumer, wardrobe stylist, journalist, and deejay. She lives and works in Chicago.
They were into you, so they made you a tape. Today you don't have a cassette player, but you still can't toss that mix. We share the stories and the soundtrack to your earliest loves.
thursday afternoon just got a little brighter.
I love this tape and your description of it - what a great birthday present.
wondrous
The Meters and James Brown AND Alton Ellis! That’s one bad-ass mixed tape.
Wooo…I haven’t heard the Bar-Kays in years. Thanks!
I’ve been enjoying the heck out of this mix. When I was 20, I met a girl and we listened to many of these same artists. We’ve been married for 15 years.
I’m a fiftysomething who linked to this from “Very Short List” — you ex had great taste and the fact that it sent you on an even more impressive musical journey is a tribute to yours! Thanks for sharing…it’s the kind of music exploration I’ve tried to instill in my own children.
I just e-mailed my friend about this site. I thought you’d like to know that I told her that stories compounded with the mixtapes prompted me to say, “…it’s breaking my heart, which means a lot coming from someone who hasn’t experienced any real emotion other than coolness in over 2 years”. Thanks for reminding me of the person I used to be. Someone with a heart, and a mix tape.
What a mix! I’m having a blast going through it song by song, searching for info on the artists, and discovering what CD’s I can purchase. Yummy.
Thank you so much for sharing!
This is my small-world moment: I know Ethan D’Ercole, and have been close friends with his brother Jed since nursery school. I even found a Jed mixtape from high school after I saw this site and decided to dig out my old Memorex box. But this Ethan-influenced one is better (sorry, Jed!).
jamie…reading this just made me realise how lucky i am to be dating the man whose record collection your mix came from. boy, what would i do without ethan’s the clean ‘compilation’ for sunday morning purge-the-tables-of-piles-of-paper fests? maybe i should tell him…
This is the coolest mix tape. Reminds me of my early days in radio (late 70s) when I would dig through the archives and come up with cool stuff - James Brown, Alton Ellis, Bar-Kays, Eddie Floyd…but I think this is the first time I ever heard the ORIGINAL “Some Kind of Wonderful” by the Soul Brothers Six. I do remember being a DJ when Grand Funk RR’s version topped the charts and playing it constantly - yes they did a pretty good knock-off.
And wow, what a great musical journey to send you on…if I’m ever in Chicago again I’m coming by Lill…I mean, hey, if nothing else to drop you a mix tape!
Wow, I can’t believe this tape ended up here. Hi Jamie. Thanks so much for posting this. I was very proud of this mix, and I have to give props to Ethan for introducing me to much of the music on here.
Funny that the music you fall in love to someone with lasts longer than the love itself.
Anyway, glad this brightened other people too.
Jamie, what a great post, and one that really captures how cool Ethan and all his cronies were, and still have to be. My friends and I used to love when they came thru Columbus, OH, where I lived at the time. Not only was the dude always super cool, but he was always so damn classy. Fun to see that he still has that magic. -SKN
this is great. i love the random Ramones song thrown in there. also, it’s funny to think Andrew Bird used to play in the Squirrel Nut Zippers.