SIDE B
FOREVER

MAXELL UR 90 · DUBBED 10.14.94 · 12:47 AM

Songs for the
walk home.

For Mara —
who always took the long way.

NR-94STEREO CASSETTE DECK
POWER
−20−70+3
LVU
−20−70+3
RVU
A

songs for the walk home

oct. '94 / for M.

000 TAPE COUNTER
DECK READYSIDE A · STREETLIGHTS COMING ON

Sound off — press play; headphones reward the hiss

90 MIN.IEC TYPE INORMAL BIAS

start the first song
at the pharmacy sign

Owner
E. Rowan
Copy
1 of 1
Noise red.
Off

Side A

Night walk / outward

tap a song to hear the tape race there
(the gap on #4 stays)

PROGRAM 26:26 · AZIMUTH SLIGHTLY LEFT · LEVELS HOT

THE NOTE THAT STAYED IN THE CASE

I made this because
I couldn't say it.

CASE POCKET / NEVER SEALED

Mara,

You said the walk from Bellweather to your house felt longer after dark, so I timed this to it. Track one should start when the pharmacy sign disappears behind you. If you walk slowly, the drum break in “Borrowed Sweater” lands at the railway bridge.

I put “The Long Way” last because that's what you always choose, even when it rains. Maybe you like having more streets to think on. Maybe you just aren't ready to be home.

The little click before track four is me changing my mind about a song. The hiss is the radiator. The muffled voice is my mother asking if I have school tomorrow. Keep those in. They're proof it happened in a room, at night, while everyone else was asleep.

Anyway. For the walk.
— Eli

DESK LAMP / 12:47 AMpress the shade

RECORDED AT 12:47 AM

One room,
two sleeping parents,
forty-five minutes a side.

The deck sat on a milk crate between a borrowed receiver and a lamp with a scarf over it. Every track was ridden by hand: record, pause, wait for the college-station DJ to stop talking, release.

Source
WBRD 88.3 FM + three scratched CDs
Deck
Northstar NR-94, left channel temperamental
Tape
Maxell UR 90, drugstore three-pack
Monitor
One foam-cup headphone, right ear only

WHAT THE TAPE REMEMBERS

Accidental liner notes

00:03

Radiator knock

Three soft knocks under the opening guitar, exactly on the offbeat.

11:56

DJ bleed

“—and you're listening to—” survives for half a second before the pause key catches it.

18:41

Kitchen light

A door opens downstairs. Eli pulls the record level to zero until it closes.

25:58

Thumbprint

Red marker on the clear window: evidence the label was written before the ink dried.

END OF SIDE · AUTO STOP

Some messages only make sense
when the tape is already turning.