This cassette had a slew of songs on it by popular artists that were hot in and around 1985. I was really young and didn't pay attention to the radio or watch MTV, so I didn't know that any of these songs were hits until years later. I thought they were made exclusively for the Ford mix tape. They were songs like "Oh, Sherry" by a fired up Steve Perry, 'Til Tuesday's heart wrenching ode to speaking,"Voices Carry", an extended version of the Cosby Show theme jump off for some fucking reason, and "Headed For the Future" by Neil Diamond. The Neil Diamond song really had me fooled because the lyrics had so many references that could easily have passed for travel metaphors (like "Yeah, we're headed for a new place/ a step at a time/ We're gonna take a long ride"). I thought there was a chance that maybe Neil had an '85 Ford airlifted to his mansion in England where he spent time really getting to know the car well. Running his hand over the hood, sitting inside the car, turning the wipers on and off- he needed to really feel the essence of the car that he in turn, thought was "headed for the future". Of course, I was mistaken. Neil probably wouldn't even piss in between two parked '85 Fords, let alone sit inside one and write an original song dedicated to it.
Over the course of my youth, I probably heard that tape a thousand times, easily. Whenever I hear any of these songs now, I think of my family's countless trips to the Jersey Shore, or when we went to Amish Country (where they probably know nothing of mix tapes in general), or even if we were just going to Shop Rite. Sadly, when I think of anytime spent inside of a car when I was a kid, it has the shittiest soundtrack of all time. It's etched into my brain, more than likely until the day I die. It's my curse and I try to live with it every day the best I can.
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