If for no other reason, it's good to post just so I can get Glenn Beck's pumpkin head off the front of my blog.
I've been reclaiming my teenage years via musical time travel lately. Digital technology is kind of magical in that it allows to find, download, and listen to that one song, the one you liked fourteen years ago when you heard it on the radio that one time. It allows you to get that one song without having to buy the whole album. Bad for the music industry but good for me. So, as I said, I've been revisiting my musical past - mostly late high school and early college. My tastes have always been disappointingly mainstream. My friends were always the ones who knew of obscure indie bands and eschewed the top-40 pap on the radio. My friend Brad ran a dance club for years and was immersed in music in general. He's forgotten more than I ever knew. My friend Jeremy does a weekly music show for Oregon Public Broadcasting and had far more sophisticated musical tastes than me from the get go. Nevertheless, I always kinda liked pop music. I tried to enjoy the more obscure stuff and sometimes did - but more often than not, my CD collection was composed of pretty middle of the road music. Sigh. Never was cool, I guess.
Anyway, most recently I bought:
"Birdhouse In Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants
My friend Tony introduced to me to their album Flood in 1990 or so and I loved it. The songs were quirky and odd but still listenable. TMBG had several singles off this album besides this one. I loved them all.
"Just Like Heaven" by the Cure
I was late coming to the Cure. In junior high, they were just "stupid wavers" to me and it wasn't until high school that I came to appreciate them. The album, Disintegration, is pure late 80s/early 90s goodness. Does anyone remember the song "Lullaby" from this album? Freaked me right out.
"Summertime" by the Sundays
Though my friend Jeremy was a big fan of the Sundays, he hated this song because it sounded nothing like the "real" Sundays. In other words, it was too pop, too accessible, and it got played on the radio. Perfect for me.
"No Rain" by Blind Melon
This song smells like Ricks College and tastes like Craigo's breadsticks. Few things take me back to 1991 faster than this song.
"More Than Words" by Extreme
It was wildly overplayed when it came out and the band members' long, luscious hair seems kind of funny now but I can still listen to this song over and over again. I'm not embarrassed.
So that's been my trip back to the 90s for the last couple of weeks. It's been fun. I spared you the Guns N' Roses this time around.
7 comments:
So much to love....Extreme! The Cure! I think I might have been born in the wrong time because I LOVE THIS STUFF! :)
Funny how hearing a song takes you back a few decades! One of our favorite CDs is "Monster Ballads"... Guns-N-Roses included.
My gorgeous BYU roommate had a lovelorn RM play "More than Words" for her on the guitar--and tell her that he wrote it for her. Then it started turning up on the radio (and in the food court, and the elevator, etc. etc.) and he couldn't escape his shame. I'm thinking we should have turned him in to the honor code office.
Oh, and speaking of musical time travel, I just downloaded "At This Moment" by Billy Vera and the Beaters. You're probably just a few years too young for this (since I was only 14 at the time it was super popular), but I can't hear that song without zipping right back in time to the junior high dance when the guy I liked dumped me for my used-to-be friend Jenny. I can still see his blonde mullet as he slow danced with her to that very song. Nothing like adolescent heartbreak (along with a Very Special Family Ties episode) to sear a song into your brain.
If you liked Guns 'n Roses have you checked out Nyceria? You'll love the lead guitarist!
I do not see an exceprt from a Barry Manilow album there ! ;o)
I was way into the Cure back then but now it gives me the jeebies.
HATED "More than Words" then; hate it now.
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