My mum’s mix tape - Shazam can’t identify the bloody music … is there a way of figuring it out?

[immorethanmysize]

Cleared out my mum’s house a couple of years ago as she has early onset dementia, now in a care home with very late stage dementia at 60.

Im missing her so much it hurts just now, sitting looking through some of the things I kept - including a few mix tapes from before I was born (1991) - majority is 1980s, but there’s two songs I can’t work out at all.

One is a pop song I think, with pan pipes and the lyrics sound vaguely like ‘I close myself and …’ (no idea). The tape’s a bit knackered, it’s about 37 years old. The other is an instrumental - that sounds a bit Irish or Scottish, it’s guitar and violin music. It sounds like it could be a waltz or a soundtrack to a film.

any guesses are more than welcome!!

Shazam hasn’t got it at all, sadly.

It’s helping a bit as I can hear my mum singing a bit, and it gives me an idea of what she was like before I knew her … I’ve attached photos of the playlist.

She did have a few records I remember where it was like cover versions of chart songs - hits 45 or something? I’m not sure if half of these are off that - it’s hard to tell, several were definitely covers but the sound quality’s so bad it’s hard to work out what’s a cover and what’s just a bit too high pitched!

Are there websites I’ve not tried that might work? I’d upload a recording onto here but no idea how!!!

Glad you found out what it was. Obviously I was not present to hear the conversations your mum and granny had re:"the power cuts", however, I wanted add the following information, particularly as I helped care for my MIL through several years of her dementia and can empathise with your situation & desire to converse with your mother.

During the 1980s, there were miners strikes, but in this instance the government of the time was much more prepared for it than they had been during the 1970s, where powercuts had become a way of life over a period of several years. Thus in the 1980s, powercuts per-se were not a "thing".

However, it is etched on my brain from a physics class at secondary school (this would have been around 1993) that when we were studying electricity and looking at how the national grid functioned, our teacher mentioned how sudden surges in demand for power had cause temporary blackouts - he sited the first screening of The Thorn Birds as one example of this, where a vast number of people in the UK got up to put the kettle on at the end of the program.

I never knew what the program was as my parents didn't watch it, so all of this passed me right by, but it has gone down in history as one of those memorable occasions, as explained in the link below.

I say all of this in case it is something you may wish to chat to your mum about, as she may well recall the circumstances (apparently at the time of it happening it was big news the following day).

https://www.drax.com/power-generation/9-of-the-biggest-tv-moments-in-uk-electricity-history/

I'm not sure how you do it but a friend put an unknown track on chat gpt and it got it straight away!

Sorry just seen your last post. Glad you've got them!

@GlessJinn , hi can I ask how you knew ? Do you remember it?

I am from that era, but didn't recognise the song immediately. I was listening to the uploaded track and somehow picked up the lyrics and googled them. Ta da! Most chuffed with myself ☺️

I knew it instantly from the clip OP uploaded. The song holds special meaning for me and it's instantly recognisable.

Such a lovely thread

This is like the threads where OP's child has lost their teddy and posters help to find a replacement. Love it!

Glad pps identified the two tracks for you OP. I was once at a private gig China Crisis played, sometime after the peak of their 80s fame - the keyboard player was a friend of a friend! The Thornbirds was massive when it was on TV.

I listened to the link and knew it was China Crisis but saw that I've been beaten to it.
🙏