Edwardian Jackal: ...night sound mix tape one...

Hard to define, but the "night sound", to me, is the music that defines the quieter pop melodies for those of the nocturnal persuasion. It's music of introspection while driving around in the dead of night. Local stations in the late seventies/early eighties, like KBIG or KOST, would just stack them up. Nicely, the DJs didn't interrupt too often. The music, windows down, late summer breezes mingled with ocean and dry brush so well.

The song that I identify most is Paul Simon's "Slip Sliding Away". It clearly typifies all of my criteria above. It is a song of introspection. It just stops short of being melancholy, and more about the way things are.

I drove all around Orange County in the family's yellow Dodge Horizon. It had a working cassette player and radio - which is all that was needed. The seats were flat - and you would get shin splits from the unresponsive gas and over-done brakes. The smell of my mom's coffee, all over that car, would constantly push out the vents. There was still residual odor from the days she used to chain smoke.

As long as I had the music, it didn't matter much. There are great places to drive through Sunny Hills, Anaheim Hills, Huntington and Newport. Gas was cheap - cheaper than food. It was easily the one thing you could rely on getting in the late eighties without issue.

Here's a sampling of songs that still make great mix CDs today for me:

PENULTIMATE NIGHT SOUND:

- "Walking After Midnight" - Patsy Cline

- "Overkill" - Men at Work

- "In Your Eyes" - Peter Gabriel (also "Don't Give Up")

- "Walking in Memphis" - Marc Cohn - but he doesn't have an official/allowable version on yT

- "In the Air Tonight" - Phil Collins (also "One More Night")

- "Don't Stop Believin'" - Journey

- "Free Bird" - Lynyrd Skynyrd

- "Easy" - Commodores

- "Oh, What a Night" - The Dells

OTHERS: