It’s interesting to refer to a particular time as my
generation. It is interesting because no
one has an exact frame of exactly when that is except for me. Obviously,
everyone that is about my age, give or take a couple of years, considers the
same period of time our generation, give or take a couple of years. But what exactly are we talking about when we
talk about our generation. I like to
think that it is the period of time when we really became cognizant of our
surroundings. But, at the same time, I
think that is different when you are talking about different for different
people and referring to different things. For example, when I think of
football, I would consider the 1990 Raiders-Bills AFC championship game that
the Bills won and subsequently went on to lose the Super Bowl as the beginning
of my generation. I pick this particular
game because I can vividly remember this game and everything thereafter, but
everything before this game is pretty foggy. I was 9 years and 3 months old
when this game took place. Baseball, I took to a bit earlier. I pretty vividly
remember the 1989 season that culminated in a devastating earthquake hitting
the San Francisco bay just prior to a scheduled World Series game between San
Francisco and Oakland.
Trying to classify my generation in terms of music is a bit
tougher, though. I mean, I vividly
remember rocking out to MC Hammer and Boyz II Men as a kid, but everyone did
that. I remember being in the car or on
a boat listening to The Boss when I was like 6 years old. I don’t think that during those times I
really had a good grasp on what I liked and what I didn’t like. I just sort of
went with the flow and jammed out to whatever everyone else around me liked. It wasn’t until the Pearl Jam album “Ten”
came out that I can really remember liking something because I liked it and not
just because everyone else did. That album was released in August of 1991, but Jeremy wasn’t released as a single (and
video) until the following summer, 1992.
Don’t get me wrong here, though.
I’m not suggesting that everyone in the world didn’t like Jeremy, Black, and Alive, they did. Everyone
did. As a matter of fact, that is
probably the sole reason why had to bug my mom go out and get this hard rock
record by some band called “Pearl Jam.” But, what happened with this record was
something that I don’t really remember happening before. I began to explore the
record. I found songs on this record that I actually liked because I listened
to them. Songs like Release and Oceans and of
course Porch, which opens with the
phase “What the fuck is this world coming to”, a phrase (and a particular word)
that is sure to catch the attention of any eleven-year old kid. So, I guess
when I refer to my generation, in terms of music, it would be everything from
the summer of 1992 and on.
Speaking of kids being drawn to things that are a little too
grown up for them, this song was on the soundtrack to the 1995 movie Kids, A movie about teen-age sex, drugs
and violence which we all saw for the simple reason that it came attached to a
notorious NC-17 rating. At a time in life when one of the most fun things to do
was sleep over at a buddies house, drink mountain dew until your eyes cross,
and watch MTV until the wee morning hours, this song got the very occasional
airplay. I think that was one of the main reasons that I liked this song so
much when it came out. It was a time
that was very different from now. This
song would play on MTV or I’d hear it on REV105 and it would leave me clamoring
for more. Today if that happens, you just hop on the computer and tapitty-tap,
clickity-click you can listen to it until you are so sick of it you never want
to hear it again. But, in 1995 you only
had a couple of options. You could head
to the record store and buy the CD with what is left of your extremely limited
funds or you could just wait until it comes on MTV again. Well, I never believed the band Folk Implosion
had much more to offer than this song, so they just simply weren’t worth
spending my last $10 on their CD. So, I heard this song infrequently until,
soon enough, MTV and the radio stopped spinning it and it slipped from my mind
completely.
Strangely enough, this song made a triumphant return, and
one that put it in my music collection for good. I am watching AMC one night
and they have this bit going called “long live cool”. It was basically just a bunch of Steve
McQueen and Robert Redford movies playing for a weekend. Reason enough for me
to tune in, I suppose. So I’m watching
and at each commercial break there is a promo that shows clips of the movies
and Steve McQueen standing by cars and looking awesome showing you what movies
are coming up. Guess what song is used
as the promo music?
This song may have been a bit more popular than the last at
the time it was making a brief stint on MTV, but, nonetheless, faded into
oblivion every bit as quickly and completely. Sucked Out, interestingly, never
really faded away for me. I really have
no idea why, because its not that great or anything, but I just always kept it
in the back of my mind that I would like to pick up this album some time. I never got around to it, but it does now
have the distinction of being one of the first songs I ever spent like a half
hour downloading once I learned about napster.
yeah, yeah, yeah..
no need to judge me. While this
song may not be a cool alternative rock song and would probably be considered
something more along the lines of adult contemporary, you gotta admit that it
is a pretty good adult contemporary song.
The song itself is really quite catchy and Harriet Wheeler has a pretty
awesome voice. Also, I totally had a big
crush on her when I was like 13 years old.
So, there’s that.
Coming off of sixteen stone, an album that pretty much
everyone I know either owned or, at least, knew very well, it was really
interesting to see how they would follow it up.
In all honesty, I never really got into sixteen stone all that
much. Glycerin and comedown were cool,
machinehead rocked and there was other decent stuff, but I never owned the
record and just never really felt that burning need for it. But, I can vividly remember after that album
everyone thinking Bush was the next big thing and the release of razorblade
suitcase was hotly anticipated. This
song was the first single off that album and was followed up by greedy fly and the
insanely disturbing video attached to it.
After these two awesome songs came out, I liked Bush way more than I
ever had before and they had some really awesome momentum. Frustratingly, there was no other single off
the album and the rest of the album really wasn’t all that good. As a matter of fact, I can’t name another
song off the album and I own it. Anyways,
it didn’t really matter. Around the same
time some dorky kid from Chicago let us all know that the world is a vampire
and completely owned this genre for the next year. Also, Oasis.
Speaking of Oasis, have you ever noticed that in the video
for “Don’t Look Back In Anger” Noel Gallagher plays lead guitar AND sings while
Liam just stands around looking like a big douche? I had never noticed that
until just this moment.
Meandering a little bit further down this old memory road, I
just came a cross another one hit wonder.
This time from that period in time when MTV was really starting to be
taken over by shows, but for a brief period VH1 carried the video playing torch
for a while. I never really did get this song, but it never really
mattered. It’s still a jam. This song
was also one of those interesting songs that finds its way onto more than a
couple different radio stations. -- I remember
this summer quite well. It was the
summer that I was 15 years old and I had just gotten my first ever job at the
local Taco Johns. Probably the most fun
job I’ve had to this day. I worked there with a couple of buddies and outside
of Taco Tuesday (when I’d call in sick) and a couple busy rushes we basically
had zero customers. All we did was create our own tacos, eat potato ole’s and
jam the radio. Sadly, that Taco J’s no longer exists. I assume it was because they had, like I had
mentioned, zero customers. Funny, I blew
that summer’s savings buying a sweet new bicycle. The following summer I got my first car and
that bike I spent a summer working at Taco John’s for laid dormant and
useless. Welcome to the work world.
anyways... whether you remember any of those or not, I hope at least one of them is a jam for you.
Until next time..
Peace Out!
-@chadmiller16
