Sixty Minute Tape, Song 8: Marshall Crenshaw, “Little Wild One (No. 5)”

Late in 2016, I posted on Facebook about the contents of a mix tape I put together sometime in early 92.  It’s the only sixty-minute tape of its kind in my collection.  I’ll be re-upping modified versions of those sixteen posts over the coming weeks.

In the fall of my senior year of college I bought Marshall Crenshaw’s third release, Downtown. While fairly different from the power pop of his debut disk, I have taken immense pleasure over the years in its ten shimmering tunes. The first three songs on side two–yes, I still think of it as an LP–may be my favorites, especially the wonderfully titled “I’m Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee).”  This is the leadoff track.

It’s also one of the few songs I put on two mix tapes.  Here’s it’s the last song of Side 1, so I don’t automatically hear the first song of Side 2 play in my mind when it ends.  What I do hear is the song that followed it on the other tape, a tape I recorded down at WTLX that winter of 85-86, one that’s unfortunately broken now.