I feel that it is time again to share what gems from the 90s are getting me through me week…
Donna Lewis: I love you always forever (1996)
I really loved this song. It was one of those that the lyrics were fast and strung together and it was great fun to sing along to. So much so that I taped it off the radio and put it on a mixed tape. Remember taping things off of the radio? Man, those were the days. It was the only way to get a single. Well, except to buy a single tape at the store, but who did that…. Listening to this song will always make me think of my junior year of high school cruising around in Clifford (my big red jeep). I’m pretty sure that I still have the tape as well.
Ugly Kid Joe: (I hate) Everything About You (1992)
Oh my, Ugly Kid Joe. A dumb name for a band that I really enjoyed back in ’92. Well, I didn’t really like the band, but I really liked this single. And it got a LOT of airplay. For those who are wondering, a quick wiki search told me that while they broke up in 1997, in May 2010 they announced via their my space page that they’re going to do a reunion tour. I probably won’t go.
The Mighty Mighty Boss Tones: The Impression that I get (1997)
Who did NOT love Ska music? Certainly not me! And those late nineties were the years. While I never got super in to TMMBT and I stuck more with my Christian ska bands, this song was everywhere. This song immediately took me back to 1997 and the rebel that I thought I was for liking ska and punk. Makes me want to skank a little.
I don’t know if anyone else is enjoy my trips back to the 90s, but I sure am!
I’m dedicating this week’s Flashback Friday to 1997. I graduated HS in ’98, so the summer and fall of ’97 has a lot of memories leading up to and beginning my senior year. Because I was in the band (nerd alert), the summer and fall months have a lot of memories of summer long practices, band camp, and football games. During those times there was a lot of cramming into someone’s car, or hanging out by someone’s pool with the radio blasting. It’s hard not to make permanent associations from music to these times. At least for me. So here are 3 songs I heard this week that take me back to those months… and i wanted to include a photo from that time... but there are no photos from 1997 that I am comfortable having on the internet.
Verve Pipe: Freshmen
This song came out that summer, and my bff Rachel and felt that it was a good song to nominate and vote for our senior class song (which happened like the first week of school, I think). You know, it talked about being young and freshmen and thinking you knew everything, and then later realizing you were wrong. (Ironically, at that time we were thinking how mature we were as 17 year olds starting our senior year. HA!). However, this song did not make the vote. But Rach and I dubbed it “our senior class song” and I will always think of her and that year whenever I hear it. And the disdain we felt for our actual senior class song. Which I also heard this week….
Dave Matthews Band: Crash
That’s right. Our senior class song was Crash. You might be thinking, “this is not an appropriate senior class song- why would it have been nominated and won?” If you are, welcome to my club. Rachel and I were quite taken aback by this. It has NOTHING to do with anything that a senior class represents…. It was just the most popular song at the moment by one of the most popular artists of the late 90s. Stupid. And the administration let it win. And then, part way into the year someone on the administration actually listened to it. And realized it was wildly inappropriate- and then we weren’t allowed to play it at any event. Stupid. I wasn’t a Dave fan then, I’m not one now…. There. I’ve said it. I grew up in the 90s and I don’t like DMD. You may now cast your stones…
Bruce Springsteen: The Secret Garden
Of course, it’s hard to listen to this song without associating it with Jerry McGuire. I loved this song, and it was really the first song by the Boss that I was ever into. (my appreciation for him has since grown immensely). That song was on the radio ALL THE TIME. And I’m pretty sure that it was the first song (at least, the first one I remember) to incorporate audio clips from the movie into the song. I would now say that sort of ruins the song. But when I was 17- I thought that was AWESOME. This was a simpler time when I loved cheesy music and I didn’t think Tom Cruise was a db. The version that now gets radio play is now the original; they no longer play the one with the lines in it. But still, hearing it takes me back.
Come with me, on yet another journey into the 1990s. I know, I can’t let go…. Here are some of my favs from this week:
4 Non-Blondes, “What’s Up,” 1993
I think I mentioned that 92-93 was the first year I really started listening to top 40 radio. And this song takes me right to that year. If you can’t place this song- b/c the title is not necessarily helpful, maybe these few lines will ring a bell: “so I wake in the morning and I step outside, and I take a deep breath and I get real high, and I scream from the top of my lungs… what’s going on?.... hey….”
Des’ree, “You Gotta Be,” 1995
This was a mid-nineties classic that had staying power for several years. I think it was, at one time or another, every high school girl’s anthem. You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together…. You gotta be bold… love will save the day!!! Who WASN’T reciting that?!?!
LFO, “Summer Girls,” 1999
Slipping in just at the end of the decade, this summer from 99 was an instant classic/overplay. Some songs remind me of stuff throughout the year, and very few songs remind me specifically of summer. This one does. I worked as a lifeguard at a camp through the summers in college, and didn’t always stay up to date on music. But this is one tune that broke through into the wilderness. Pretty much every time we left site in my coworker Tif’s car, this song was playing. It was the jam of that summer. I mean, who doesn’t like girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch?
I mentioned earlier this week that this time of year gets me nostalgic- so here are Tif and me, the summer girls of '99. (we were going to Players'- a club in state college that no longer exists. this is on the front steps of the church camp where we worked. That's right.)
So, for the last month or so I’ve been listening to 90s music nearly every day. It’s a great blast from the past. I also find that I get the most nostalgic around this time of year. I think it’s the anticipation of summer. Even though summer is nearly identical to winter now that I have a job that isn’t tied to a school or university (with the exception of whether I drive home in the dark or the light), I still get that feeling of anticipation around the end of May/beginning of June. I can’t help it. The weather is warmer, the sun is shining, I’m wearing flip flops (though not at my job…). It’s glorious.
I’ve previously made mention to the tube, a specific memory triggered by the spring weather. Now, combining the spring/summer weather with the music of the 90s is even more memory triggering. I can’t help but think of all the things that marked the end of the school year, and the beginning of summer- prom, parades, camp, vacation- all the good things.
This week to mix it up I listened to an 80s station for a few days. It’s amazing how different the memories are for just that decade. While the 90s marked my coming of age- growing into adulthood- the 80s remind me of such different things. I don’t have individual memories tied to songs the way I do of my teen years. Instead- I hear a song from the 80s and it makes me think of things like the house I grew up in that we moved out of when I was 11, or riding in the backseat of my mom’s old Honda. They just remind me of being a kid. Which is a good feeling.
I’ve decided that we don’t pay enough attention to the 90s. And as long as the internet brings me good 90s music, I think that I will continue to share a few of the highlights of my week… I realize I should just let them go- but I’m nostalgic for the good old days (would I go back and relive the 90s again? Heck no. but it’s fun to reminisce). A little 90s side note- I apparently dated myself last night out with friends when I referenced bringing a boom box to an event. That’s right.
Meatloaf- I would do anything for love (but I won’t do that) - 1993
Oh my gosh, I loved this song. Why? I have no idea. It was just so darn dramatic. And that video! I loved it. It must have been around 1993 or 1994 is when I got into watching the VH1 top 10 countdown each week on Sunday mornings. We didn’t have cable at my house (a cruel trick my parents played on my when I was nearly 12) but every other weekend we’d spend Saturday nights at my dad’s house- camped out on the sofa bed with a sweet cable television in front of us. Sunday mornings while getting ready for church I’d have the VH1 countdown on. I have NO idea how long this song was on that- but it felt like an eternity. And I was not complaining. I LOVED it. It’s not a short song either- they probably edited it on VH1. I know they did on my station here the other day. I watched the clock- they cut it after 5 minutes but the song was obviously not over. I still might argue that nobody makes a ballad quite like Meatloaf (or plays a man with boobs either).
Savage Garden- I want you - 1997
If you’re not sure what this song is- you might remember it as the “chicky cherry cola song.” It was fast, hot, and ridiculous. And I couldn’t get enough. I had the cd. Hearing this song (and the whole album) immediately takes me back to my senior year of high school- friends, events of the year, my boyfriend (I felt certain that Truly, Madly, Deeply was about our love and may have been one of our first slow dances together. Yes. I remember that.). Oh Savage Garden, where have you been the last 13 years of my life? I had no idea I was missing you!
Elton John - Candle in the Wind – 1997
Not the original Elton John tribute to Marilyn Monroe, but the 1997 version that he remade for Princess Diana. (Goodbye English Rose) Confession: I heard this song the other day and it was LITERALLY the first time that I actually let it play the whole way through. In the height of the fall of 97 I was feeling overexposed to Diana stories, and didn’t like that the song was different, because I had always liked the original. So, whenever it came on the radio, I skipped it. Who really knows why. But now, actually listening to it- I couldn’t just hear it without remembering hearing about her death (we were @ my dad’s cabin in the mountains when we saw it on the news), remembering the funeral (I recorded it to watch later, I think I eventually threw away the tape), or thinking now that I have more of an interest in the royal family how tragic an event it really was. Elton moved me a little bit this week. I’m not going to lie…
Lately at work I’ve been listening to an internet radio station that plays all 90s music. I’m loving it. I love that it tells me the artist & the year of each song- it’s a little game I like to play with myself- I try to guess the year based on the life events that the song reminds me of. And I go back to the time…. (we all do it, Kenny Chesney just made a song about it)
I think 90s music will have that kind of memory jog for me more than the music of any other decade. I still love the 80s music- but particular songs don’t necessarily draw up certain memories- mostly because I was too young in the 80s for those specific correlations.
And in the 2000s (and I guess now the 2010s), I don’t listen to music the same way I did in the 90s. Now I listen more to specific albums and artists, but in the 90s is when I started listening to top 40 radio regularly (rather than listening to oldies w/ my parents, who, like me now, couldn’t let go of the songs of their youth). It’s when I bought my first tapes and cds with my own money, when I started driving, and when I went through highschool and some of college. I think those might be the years that the most specific memories are formed. I mean- in HS and college you do things and hang out with friends in ways that just cannot get duplicated in your 20s. It’s just not the same. Those mixed tape days are gone.
Now I listen to music more for quality, creativity, longevity, and creative talent. Then? If I made me bop in my seat and stick in my head- I LOVED it!
So, as I’ve been listening to the 90s station, a few specific songs caught my attention more than others, and reminded me of certain things that cannot be duplicated. I’d like to share a few that have come across the airwaves.
Boyz II Men – Motownphilly (1991)
Now, pretty much any of the BIIM songs that come on catch my attention, but this one might be my favorite. Back in the day it reminds me of the BIIM concert that I went to w/ my youth group friend, Emily. I think it was the first concert I ever went to (@ the York Fair!). Probably 1992. Classic. (a more recent memory of this song though is from 2001 when I was studying in Philly and some friends and I did a dance to this song for talent night. It was outstanding.)
Paula Abdul – Opposites Attract (1990)
Immediate response: 4th grade dance recital song. I can remember the outfit- pink spandex tank top w/ orange and purple spandex shorts (one color/leg) held up w/ lime green sequined suspenders and a purple beret. The only part of the dance I remember? When she says “you take 2 steps forward, I take two steps back” – we did that in the dance. Of course. We were 10 year olds.
TLC – Scrubs (1999)
Freshman year- spring semester. We watched TRL and the top 5 countdown on MTV EVERY AFTERNOON in our door room. This was on both nearly every day that entire spring. There was a lot of dorm room dancing that year. (also in the top 5 that spring- Miami by Will Smith- 2 of us went to Florida for spring break that year- couldn’t have been more perfect)
Man, I could go on all day about 90s music. But I won’t. Check back again for some more highlights of this decade of yore that I will reminisce about for the rest of my life as “the good old days.”
A month ago (or more), I saw U2 in concert. I've been wanting to blog about it, and just never made the time. So, while it's not super fresh in my mind- I think I could still string together a few thoughts.
I've always wanted to see them (well, since I was in college and really knew who they were) and thought just one time I'd spend the money and go. So, when my friend Gretchen asked me last spring if I wanted to get tickets with her for the September show in DC, I said yes.
We were hoping to get mid-level tickets, but by the time her mom was able to get through (she went along with us and was our ticket purchaser extraordinaire) all that was left was 7 rows from the top, or field level. I was interested in going, but not $200+ interested... so we opted for 7 rows from the top.
it was an adventure getting there (I have never seen a metro car so full), and adventure ordering food (it took them 20 minutes for our $7 fries and $10 chicken fingers), and we were finally at our seats.
It was an awesome show. Great stage- great set list- my one complaint (besides the drunk dancing woman in front of me) was that there was an echo from where we were sitting so it was hard to hear when Bono spoke. But DEFINITELY worth it (cost wise- i spent more $$ seeing David Cook this summer...) and I would for sure go again. A lot of my friends/acquaintances have asked "why do you/people like U2? what's the big deal?" Here are my reasons.
They have been playing music together since 1976 with no member changes. How many bands have been doing that?
They have both sincere ballads and crazy pop/rock. A nice variety.
They use their fame to do good in the world. I know some people who don't agree with this- they want their singers to just sing and their actors to just act- but I say- if you're famous- why not use it to better the world.
they put on a crazy good show
they let people into the inner circle of their stage by random selection (My friend Gretchen got to do it once)
i think their message and the music points to something bigger. some say it's Jesus, some say it isn't, I think it very well might be.
Jim Wallis wrote a blog about the concert the next day (he's better than I am) and I think he said it well. Take a gander.
To cap it all off, we walked the wrong way out of the stadium towards the metro, had to turn around and haul it back... we got on the last train out of the stadium about 10 seconds before it pulled away. Left York at 2:30 pm, got home at 3:00am the next day. Still... worth it!
Here's the crazy stage lit up
You can sort of see the band here.....
This is with or without you, in the encore. Probably my favorite moment of the show. The sound is terrible- but I think you can still see the effect.
