There’s no question that one of the biggest draws to the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy, still in theaters, is the soundtrack riddled with upbeat songs that you can bop your Earther or Xandarian head to. The songs not only provide the movie with a jazzy, slightly off-kilter beat, but they also serve to propel the tale of Guardians’ Star-Lord, whose last gift from his mother was the “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” cassette tape featuring the songs from the soundtrack. The songs hail from those far off times known as the 1970s and 1980s, begging the question as to what Chris Pratt, the man behind Star-Lord, would have on his own Awesome mix. Pratt recently spoke to IGN about a mix tape he once created, and it turns out that he and Star-Lord have similar musical sensibilities.
Pratt reveals to IGN that he once created a mix-tape for his brother that included songs that made Pratt think of him. (Collective awwww!) This in itself was a labor of love. Some of you reading this might find it hard to fathom, but creating a music compilation was once an arduous feat, sometimes requiring painstaking hours of cueing songs to just the right moment to record to another tape. And the order of the mix! Oh, that was incredibly crucial. None of this CD burning nonsense! When we created a mix for someone, the recipient knew it was akin to completing a labor of Hercules. The receiver of the gift knew they were adored.
Anyway, as it so happens, most of the songs on Pratt’s mix hailed from the 1980s, just like Star-Lord’s Awesome Mix. According to Pratt, he included Starship’s “We Built This City,” Run DMC’s “Tricky,” Madonna’s “Like A Virgin,” and USA for Africa’s “We Are The World.”
The inclusion of “We Built This City” makes me chuckle because A) I sadly know all of the words to the song and B) it’s kind of a foretelling nod to Pratt’s role as Star-Lord. (Starship! Get it? I know, terrible.)
So, the question we’d like you to answer in the comments is what would be on your very own Awesome Mix? As for me, I know that my mix would also include a ton of 70s and 80s jams, just like Star-Lord and
Pratt. As a child of the 1980s, my older brothers exposed me to a lot of what they were listening to, including a bunch of Led Zeppelin, so “The Immigrant Song” is a must.
I have a crazy love for the Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man,” so those have to be on the mix.
And just to shake things up a bit, I would throw in the Human Beinz’s “Nobody But Me” from the 1960s.
So, again, what’s your Awesome Mix look like?