songs you put at the end of mixtapes

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when you know you only have a minute or less, what do you use:

-snippets of classical music?
-bits from comedy albums?
-4-track recordings of you playing the casio?
-everything from the "bleeeaaaaarghhh" 7"?

― tony bleach (blackshoeswhitesocks), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)

The last time I made a mix and this arose, I chose a song from the Comedian Harmonists compilation.

― Yancey (ystrickler), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:49 (twenty-three years ago)

The "YOU must decide what your life will be..." monologue from the end of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls works nicely.

"History of Rock 'n' Roll" by XTC.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:55 (twenty-three years ago)

i usually turn on the tube and find some old movie and sample a bit of dialogue. sometimes pertaining to a mixtape theme.
or filthy noises, aquarium bubbling, throw a microphone outside my window and tape the crazy spanish people screaming.
once when my girlfriend was a long ways away for a long time, and i was taking care of her cat, i taped some of his purrring. sappy , i know i know.

― kephm, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Joan Of Arc "I'm Certainly Not Pleased With My Options For The Future"

La Lengua Asesina "Hotel Opera" (sometimes at the beginning of the side, w/ the reprise at the end)

Sparklehorse "Box Of Stars" (as above, sometimes pt.1 and 2 bookending a side)

― Al (sitcom), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Nothing's typical, but the Residents' Commercial Album has come in handy more than once. ¥

― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 18:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I just threw on a spoken sample from the new St Etienne album:

"The world began in Eden, and ended in Los Angeles"

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I usually use the bit about The Gush from Blue Jam.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll usually play "Goodnight Now" by Cheap Trick at 45 rather than 33. Or a Simpsons quote from Songs In The Key Of Springfield.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:08 (twenty-three years ago)

My last mix tape had DJ Shadow's "What Does Your Soul Look Like?" as the last proper song, and ended with a sample of Ralph Wiggum from the Simpsons saying "I bent my Wookie!"

I also really like ending mix-tapes with some of the inbetween tracks from Kool Keith's Sex Style album...my favorite being the "I'm comin' over, I'm gonna stop at the store and get some strawberries and I'm gonna put a cherry in your butt" one. :D

― nickalicious, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:09 (twenty-three years ago)

My favourite short song sources: 1) Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, 2) Alastair Galbraith. I haven't bothered filling up that space on the last couple tapes I've made though, I kind of like the sound of that softly hissing void.

― Poppy (poppy), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:31 (twenty-three years ago)

"After Hours" by the Velvet Underground

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I usually put on something with a long droney ending, or just a droney thing itself -- like flowchart. That way only more drone gets cut off if it terminates early.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:38 (twenty-three years ago)

You can tell I haven't made a mix tape since 1990:
"You Always Sing the Same" - Red Hot Chilipeppers
"Brick Wall" Big Boys

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 19:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Usually I leave it blank, but I have turned on the radio to talk shows/sports broadcasts/commercials/&c. to fill up the space, or just let the needle on the turntable play that sound of the stylus stuck in the run out groove over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

― Vic Funk, Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to put "Brighter Now" by the Razercuts when i only had a minute or so left at the end of a tape...

― Baxter Wingnut (Baxter Wingnut), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Ode To The Man - the thing on the end of Promenade by The Divine Comedy: "Happy the man and happy he alone, he who can call today his own. He who secure within can say 'Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today'" Lawrence Olivier reading Dryden I believe though can't quite remember

If it's the end of Side 1, then I put on this thing that I found on an old kids tape that says "When the music stops, turn the tape ove for Side 2" then plays a short little tune

― jamesmichaelward (jamesmichaelward), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:48 (twenty-three years ago)

actual short songs : various by angry samoans, half japanese, bbc rad. wkshp
other stuff : sound FX records (the police & ambulance sirenS are good for tapes you know people are gonna listen to in the car), irritating cut-up pieces i.e. 1 or 2 phrases recorded off the radio repeated over & over (when i put these on tapes for people i always notice that they've stopped the tape before it gets to the end)

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 20:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Artists with short songs--depending on the mood of the tape it could be Guided by Voices, Palatka, Assfactor 4, Dropdead, Forcefield...

Otherwise it's usually AM radio static or a clip from some speech or another--a classic was Jello Biafra making an ass out of himself about the Challener explosion.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 21:05 (twenty-three years ago)

usually a song that ends with noise. last month i finished a tape off with jim o'rourke "life goes off." it worked pretty well

― Brock K. (Brock K.), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 21:14 (twenty-three years ago)

The Minutemen are always gd for filling up those awkward gaps at the end.

I hate mixtapes where you only get abt half the song before the tape runs out. V. sloppy.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 22:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I haven't made a mixtape for years now, but if I did so tomorrow I would probably put "Goodbye" by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore at the end. "Yield it, yield it!"

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 22:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I prefer to put silence. I don't like having to compromise my mix by sticking in something short at the last moment, and I don't like planning them out enough in advance that I can get the times exactly right.

― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 22:42 (twenty-three years ago)

"Dark" or "Streetlight" by Low

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 14 November 2002 00:17 (twenty-three years ago)

The Undertones "Casbah Rock" (0:47)
Trip Shakespeare ". . . Down the Dusty Road" (0:48)

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 14 November 2002 00:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I put on something that I don't know if she'll like or not. If she doesnt she only gets half the song, no harm done. If she does she can get the whole thing on the next one.

(I only make mixtapes for my fiancee.)

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 14 November 2002 00:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"slush", Bonzo Dog Band. It can end anywhere and still be sad and evocative.

― matt riedl (veal), Thursday, 14 November 2002 01:10 (twenty-three years ago)

"Evaporated" Ben Folds Five. Which should end all albums ever.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 14 November 2002 01:18 (twenty-three years ago)

"Thoroughly Lost to Logic" by David Sylvian

― bahtology, Thursday, 14 November 2002 02:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Used in the past: The radio interludes on Bruce McCulloch's Shame Based Man, a poor 1991 sleepover party recording of me and a friend singing a Cult song in shouty whispers (so as not to wake up her mom) and then breaking down in giggle fits.

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 14 November 2002 02:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I like Jamesmichaelward's idea, as "tape-compromising" as it might be. At the end of Side A I like to use the "flip over the record" track from L.L. Cool J's Radio album. Shit's still dope. Or the "Main Title" theme from the Powerpuff Girls soundtrack City of Soundsville.

If you have hardly any time left, you really can't go wrong with the opening guitar parts from "Stairway to Heaven" or "Sweet Home Alabama" and then fading them down. They'll hate you but it'll be worth it. Or do a Pause button infinite loop of "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satisfied I'm on my way I've seen all good people turn..." until the tape runs out.

― Matt C., Thursday, 14 November 2002 02:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Blue Jam

"What am I, fucking Noddy?"

Perfect.

― Charlie (Charlie), Thursday, 14 November 2002 04:01 (twenty-three years ago)

matt c. that opening bars of "stairway" gag is MINE! 'cept what i would do is cut to gunshots or screaming or something after 3 seconds.

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Thursday, 14 November 2002 04:07 (twenty-three years ago)

i just leave it blank. dont force it!

― todd swiss (eliti), Thursday, 14 November 2002 05:47 (twenty-three years ago)

i've finally remembered what i've used: snippets from slayer songs!(especially that ridiculous multitracked guitar from the opening of the first song on 'divine intervention', and the soundbite from 'decade of aggression' that goes something like, "this is a song about a man named ... ed, who used to sleep and dance with the ... dead!") hee hee hee!

― tony bleach, Thursday, 14 November 2002 05:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I just remembered also: I once ended a tape with Blur's "No Distance Left To Run" but cut it off after the first line.

"It's over..." - geddit? WELL DO YOU?

― Charlie (Charlie), Thursday, 14 November 2002 06:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Quentin Crisp's "Stop the Music for a Minute" off the Pillows and Prayers compilation... EVERY TIME!

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 14 November 2002 07:49 (twenty-three years ago)

(that quentin crisp bit is originally off a album called "miniatures" which has 50 [i think] possible end-of-the-tape selections)(well maybe a bit less 'cause some of them are rub.)

― unknown or illegal user (doorag), Thursday, 14 November 2002 07:53 (twenty-three years ago)

And they've released a sequel as well.

Another favourite (for the end of side 1, if Crisp is on side 2) is that "Spongbake" thing stuck on the end of some Saint Etienne single or other.

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 14 November 2002 08:31 (twenty-three years ago)

A track which is basically Yoko Ono flushing a toilet.

― nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 14 November 2002 10:26 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

I seem to use "Built To Spill - Carry The Zero" to finish an inordinate amount of mixtapes.

― AlienBoy (AlienBoy), Monday, 7 July 2003 06:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Vanilla Ice--'Having a Roni'

― oops (Oops), Monday, 7 July 2003 06:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I seem to be using King Crimson songs a lot, long instrumentals where it's not too bad if a minute or so get cut off.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 7 July 2003 06:56 (twenty-two years ago)

"1977" by the Clash is just over a minute, so that usually fits in nicely. Or one of the instrumental bits on the Rushmore soundtrack.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 7 July 2003 08:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Marching band music, Christopher Howell promotional flexidiscs for Reader's Digest comps, Cheech and Chong skits, Prison Worksongs, Steve miller - "Threshold", The Swim - "Bongo bongo", DJ Deeon intros, hip hop acapellas and Turkish Village Music...

― Jacob (Jacob), Monday, 7 July 2003 09:53 (twenty-two years ago)

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