RECORD STORE TALES #1101: In The Mix – An Uncle Paul Story

At the dawn of the new millenium, technology was on the move!  I now had a CD burner on the family PC, and had just discovered this new thing called “Limewire“!  I was just starting to download all sorts of rare music, from out-of-print songs to live performances.  I had burned my first mix CD and was just starting to dip my toes into this new world, when Uncle Paul and Aunt Maria came over to visit one Sunday afternoon.

I was eager to show Uncle Paul what I could now do with a computer and an internet connection.  Making a custom CD was such a revelation back then.  It seems mundane now, but it truly was new and exciting in the year 2000.  For Uncle Paul, the wheels in his head started turning.

“Can you make me a CD?” he asked.  “With anything I want on it?”

“I can try!” I responded.  “What songs do you want?  Make a list…”

He only wanted two songs.  I wish I could remember what they were.  I know they were both car songs.  That’s all I can remember.  Two classic car songs from the golden age of rock and roll.

I searched for the two songs on Limewire, found decent copies, and began downloading.

“You still have about 70 minutes of blank space on this CD, what do you want to fill it up with?” I asked him.  I hated wasting valuable blank CD real estate.  Once you burned a CD, that was it.  You couldn’t go back and add to it.

“Can you repeat each song, twice?” he asked.

“Sure can.  But you’ll still have over an hour of blank space on the CD.”

“That’s OK,” he said.  “I just want each song, twice.  That’s all I need.”

“Really?  I can repeat them as many times as you want until the CD is full.  If you want me to,” I said, trying to convince him.

“Twice each is fine.  Can you do that?”  That’s all he wanted!

One the songs were downloaded, I started up the burning software.  Track 1…song 1.  Track 2…song 1 again!  Track 3, song 2, and track 4, song 2.  That was it.  It burned in no time, and we tested it.

“Thank you Michael!  This is exactly what I wanted.”

You’re welcome Uncle Paul.  A simple request that provided all the entertainment he needed.  A happy man, and a happy nephew to have done this one small thing for him, that he appreciated far more than it warranted.  He was a good uncle.