Together Forever: The Wedding Mixtape

I was ready to concede right away; I just didn’t have much of anything on topic for weddings. Of course I took this literally (I mean, look at what I’m doing with this project – if I’m not overly literal, who is?). There’s Pretty Thing, my favorite Bo Diddley recording, which I would play at any wedding in which I was put in charge of the music (as the bride walked down the aisle, of course)… Bryan Ferry talked about taking wedding vows in Let’s Stick Together… And of course there’s Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups, which Jonathan Richman says he recorded in the 70s only because he heard that Iggy Pop liked the song…

Then I saw that BD’s list had some stuff that was not necessarily about the ceremony itself, just about being married. It occurred to me that extending the meaning could include quite a few more songs about husbands and wives, marriages, being together forever, etc. But a lot of those—like Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together by Len Bright Combo, and Married With Children by Oasis—are more about unhappy marriages potentially splitting at the seams. As such, I could have possibly held them back for the Divorce theme, which is next on the list, and they might have fit in just as well. Others—including Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys and Semaphore Signals by Wreckless Eric—are simply dreams about the possibility of someday getting hitched. Meanwhile, the 70s funk classic leading off the mixtape is all about not getting married, and getting shacked up instead. Turns out to not be a bad tape at all, but I’m left feeling a little dissatisfied (and, it’s a little too short), so I will take the hit on this one.

The Wedding Mixtape

Shack Up – Banbarra
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Beach Boys
Pretty Thing – Bo Diddley
Let’s Stick Together – Bryan Ferry
Peggy Sue Got Married – Buddy Holly
Chapel of Love – Dixie Cups
Melancholy Serenade (Honeymooners Theme) – Jackie Gleason Orchestra
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together – Len Bright Combo
Married With Children – Oasis
Wedding Ring – The Stingrays
Semaphore Signals – Wreckless Eric

Here is a link to BD’s winning wedding tape.

Whoa Dad: the Fathers Mixtape

The Vietnam War flick Apocalypse Now did more for Jim Morrison’s career than anything he did himself while he was still alive, bringing The Doors to a generation of teenagers too young to have known their seamier side in real-time, even if they remembered their Top 40 hits from always being on the radio. The oedipal pomp-rock opus that ended the film (“The End”) paved the way for more pop music daddy dissing in subsequent years.


But your dad won’t understand
That our love is true
And I can’t leave you here
So he...can hit on you
--24 HOURS TO VEGAS (1984)

Daddy likes men
--WE’RE A HAPPY FAMILY (1977)

Dear Daddy, I write you, in spite of years of silence
You cleaned up, found Jesus, things are good or so I hear
This bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient feelings
Like father, step-father, the son is drowning in the flood!
--SAY IT AINT SO (1994)

“The Mad Daddy” is the Cramps’ tribute to the Cleveland beatnik DJ and original horror movie host Pete “Mad Daddy” Myers, who debuted on WJW in Cleveland in 1958…Just like in the Notorious B.I.G.s “Big Poppa,” in Ella Mae Morse’s “Shoo Shoo Baby”, references to “papa” and “daddy” are clearly terms of sweetheart endearment. Or are they? The WWII soldier sayanara song never properly resolves this question…Spoonie Gee’s “The Godfather” serves the same purpose as Roxanne Shante’s “Big Mama” (see the Mothers Mixtape), at least in terms of boasting his parentage of rap. His paternal claims came earlier, in 1987, but eight years after the pioneer MC’s first record…

The Fathers Mixtape:

The Mad Daddy – The Cramps
Diddley Daddy – Bo Diddley
The End – The Doors
Shoo Shoo Baby – Ella Mae Morse
24 Hours to Vegas – The Huns (Iowa 1984)
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – James Brown
Daddy and Home – Jimmie Rodgers
Big Poppa – Notorious B.I.G.
Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway – Gerry Rafferty
We’re a Happy Family – Ramones
Son of Byford – Run DMC
Listen to Your Father – Feargal Sharkey
The Godfather – Spoonie Gee
Papa Was a Rolling Stone – The Temptations
Whoa Dad – The Trashmen
Gone Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes
Say it Aint So – Weezer