Last week on #NinetiesFriday I was so happy talking about my visits to the record store and those wonderful Albums I bought of which I still know every single lyric.
I even still frequently listen to certain songs from those albums, full disclosure that does not apply to Seal, to be honest.
He is one of those artists that outgrew my musical taste, not that there is anything wrong with his music but well it just does not do it for me anymore.
I Tried To Think
That got me thinking, or at least an attempt to think.
Was there any more music back in the 90s days that I LOOOOVED back then and really have not played since?
That is kind of a tough question.
Because if you have not played a band for 25 years, how will you remember now that you liked them back then?
That requires some heavy brain computing. Now the first one that came to mind were these guys.
That 1990 album Shake Your Moneymaker my best friends favorite and I probably heard it at his place a 1000 times. That was fine, except he really wanted to be a singer and sound like these guys.
The Black Crowes - Hard To Handle
Maybe that is the reason why I never played them again after leaving my hometown and seeing our friendship fade. But now that I see the list of songs on the screen I go damn they were not bad at all.
Then when I play a tune..... I hear my long last pall Arjen´svoice trying to overrule the singer and it is all coming back to me now.
The Black Crowes - She Talks To Angels
That is really a decent song, but can´t get him out of my head (Nope that is Kylie from 2001 so no room for her here)
And in the end, these were not even the guys I was talking about in the title. The band I really liked in the 90s but I don´t think I ever played again (except in the tribute article to my brother) were ...... well let´s do a little visual hint first.
Remember those guys?
They seemed to come out of the blue and were there at #1 all over the world in 1993 with a song showing the Names & Faces of kids that were reported missing in the US.
Now the song wasn´t bad, and adding those kids definitely was not a gimmick, but the combination did make them one of the biggest one-day flies of the era.
These guys have been making music since 1981. They had 5 releases prior to this seemingly sudden success.
But back in those days, success meant having a hit single. That indeed did not happen till 1993 when "Runaway Train" reached the No. 5 position on the Billboard Hot 100.
Their Album Grave Dancers Union had a couple more songs entering the Billboard Modern Rock charts like "Somebody to Shove" and "Black Gold".
Can you believe it? That shit was modern at the time.
Now I ain´t gonna play those songs now, for the simple reason I did not play them back then.
I have been in the record store, listening to that Grave Dancers album, more than once. I was not impressed.
So WhyWhy Am I Whining About Them Now
I was coming to that.
The album that kicked off their career might have not been on my radar but the album before it sure was!
If it was up to me I probably plug them all, I loved this album and now after 25 years it still sounds damn good.
But I will try to limit myself to my favs.... I said try didn´t I?
Nice guys don´t get paid, this song sounds like a draft of a song they later perfect. That song will be about pearls, but this was already such a gem:
Another song I will never forget was WE 3.
Maybe because I was in love with someone else's girlfriend for so long, till I made her mine.
But still, that was not the best song on the album neither was the only song that got a video.
I have to agree with these guys whoever they may be:
The Windsor Star wrote that "'Gullible's Travels' is one of the best half-dozen rock tracks of the year."
The song is secretly deeper than the melodic sound suggests, it talks struggle between fate and free will, “Took fate by a neck and you’ll never look back, You’ve forgotten more than I ever knew.”
And I am still puzzling because of course there is a reference there to Gulliver´s Travels:
No Hipste(a)r
Now I am not trying to be a hipster calling out that I discovered these guys before they had their first hit song. Because I did not I just liked that "Horse they rode in on" album, and check that album cover that´s no horse.
Am I Done Now?
Nope, as Novastar said in early 2000 The Best Is Yet To Come.
The Best & Still I Did Not Play It For Decades
These Asylum Boys had one album that shone bigger than any of their other albums in my humble opinion.
Let Your Dim Light Shine talked about Misery, about a factory to built Misery and call it frustrated incorporated.
What other song would you be playing, living on your own for the first time in a city where nobody even knows your name?
Songs about a "Bittersweetheart", something that I must have been for many later on in life, and promises broken. All themes that were featured in the years to come.
I was losing them, the eyes of a child. My eyes were watery and small, my wallet always empty just like my bed. At least during those first couple of months in that new town, but that all changed soon when I found the club I would grow up to become their resident DJ.
Still, at eighteen years, I think I sometimes still saw the world through the eyes of a child.
That song is by the way the perfect built-up to saving the best for last.
Storytelling through a song, Chris de Burgh and Leonard Cohen are masters but these guys on this album did a wonderful job and the cherry on top of the Asylum (yes I like that word) was this song:
Two of those songs actually became Billboard Toppers
- "Misery" - From the album "Let Your Dim Light Shine," this song reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- "Just Like Anyone" - Another hit from "Let Your Dim Light Shine," reaching No. 15 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
And after that.....
Nothing Happened although they are still together, few bands that I listened to back then can say that.
But why?
Why do I never play these guys anymore?
Overkill, Maybe?
I just forgot about them, possibly.
No longer quite my taste, certainly.
It´s all of the above and then some, when I now listen to these songs I still think they are awesome. But at no point in my current life, do I feel the mood anymore to seriously put these songs on.
They are memories, like pictures from too long ago where you wear clothes ...... and that hair???
These songs are like friends you meet at the high school reunion, faces and names that take minutes to place in what is left of your mind.
While they are all so happy to see you.
For them, time stopped back then when they had the best time of their life.
A time that had the most awesome songs ever.... "do you remember those wonderful days when Runaway Train was #1 in the Top 40?"
Am I gonna pop their bubble?
Tell them "What´s your age again?
Tell them that a String Of Pearls was a far better song.
And explain that the music they play when friends visit is as outdated as their lives.
Of course I am because I am an asshole!
You just enjoyed the first post in the series: 𝑻𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝑻𝒉𝒆 90𝒔
A series inspired by #NinetiesFriday that will run for at least 3 more episodes unless I get cancelled after this pilot ofc.
Thank goodness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!
#NinetiesFriday was brought to you by
WTF do I do on #NinetiesFriday?
Well, don't do what I do because I just stole the below as it is good enough for copy/pasta!
But some ideas are music, movies, television, sports, or really anything Nineties related.
I assume movie, tv, or music topic reviews or talk will be most common, but you could also talk about a sports memory or something else.
Think the Pop Culture of the times, but it would be great to hear about little known and interesting bands or entertainment items. Don’t forget to use tag #NinetiesFriday
