Because I had a sick day...
and on sick days I sometimes go through old diaries, boxes of stuff, photo albums and tape collections and get nostalgic... I found a tape of the JJJ hottest 100 from 1991, when the world was still big and exciting to me, and there to be conquered. I remember staying up 'til the wee hours to tape it off Rage in the weeks after I finished school. Back then I had the arrogance and abundance of youth and I was still forming the ideals and friendships that have remained with me to this day. .
There was a time when that tape, and the bands on it, meant everything to me. Even now, the long dead and forgotten songs of that era (Lock It by the Falling Joys, Birdhouse in your Soul by They Might be Giants) make me smile. When my beloved childhood cat was dying of cancer, Tomorrow Wendy('s going to die) was going round and round in my head on the day she was put down.
At the time, I would've made lifelong friends with people who liked the songs I liked on the list (what am I talking about - I did!)... conversely, I might have spurned people who didn't care for this music, and what it represented to me. In fact, I distinctly remember how little time I had for the mainstream music bores that made up 99.999% of the population. That might seem shallow, but in this day of Big Brother and brazilians I can think of far far shallower (and more callous) criteria by which to measure (and shut out) people. No, fuck it, I'll be blunt. If you didn't like this music and were a boring bogan who preferred, say, Gina G or Barnesy or whatever was on Fox FM at the time, you could fuck off. This method of friend selection worked well at the time, and I think I'd still apply it today. Music should be everything, no matter what age you are.
The tape was from a time when they still rated the best songs 'of all time', rather than that particular year, but of course it was peppered with era-specific anomalies like Prince's Cream, and stuff by The Clouds, Jesus Jones and Tall Tales & True that probably now gathers dust under the stairs of Fitzroy houses. Today I found the complete list for 1991 on the JJJ website. So, to remember a time when music was the great fucken leveller - here's the list:
1. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
3. Nirvana - Lithium
4. Hunters And Collectors - Throw Your Arms Around Me
5. Andy Prieboy - Tomorrow Wendy
6. Smiths - How Soon Is Now
7. Stone Roses - Fools Gold
8. Cure - A Forest
9. Violent Femmes - Blister In The Sun
10. New Order - Blue Monday
11. Cure - Just Like Heaven
12. REM - It's The End Of The World
13. The The - Uncertain Smile
14. Nick Cave - Ship Song
15. Janes Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
16. Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
17. Janes Addiction - Jane Says
18. Violent Femmes - Add It Up
19. Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
20. Falling Joys - Lock It
21. Violent Femmes - Kiss Off
22. Billy Bragg - Sexuality
23. Jam - That's Entertainment
24. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
25. Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
26. Dead Kennedys - Holiday In Cambodia
27. Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O Mine
28. Pixies - Debaser
29. Smiths - This Charming Man
30. Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven
31. Church - Under The Milky Way
32. REM - Losing My Religion
33. Clouds - Hieronymous
34. Died Pretty - DC
35. Cure - Primary
36. Smiths - There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
37. Cure - Close To Me
38. Boys Next Door - Shivers
39. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Give It Away
40. REM - The One I Love
41. Ratcat - That Ain't Bad
42. Sinead O'Connor - Troy
43. Cure - Boys Don't Cry
44. Cure - Lullaby
45. Hunters And Collectors - Talking To A Stranger
46. They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul
47. Radio Birdman - Aloha Steve And Danno
48. Cure - In Between Days
49. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
50. This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren
51. Tall Tales & True - Trust
52. Triffids - Wide Open Road
53. Hunters And Collectors - The Slab
54. Soft Cell - Tainted Love
55. New Order - True Faith
56. Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
57. Billy Bragg - Waiting For The Great Leap Forward
58. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
59. Doors - The End
60. Metallica - Enter Sandman
61. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
62. REM - Orange Crush
63. Metallica - The Unforgiven
64. Massive - Unfinished Sympathy
65. REM - Fall On Me
66. Straightjacked Fits - Down In Splendour
67. Clouds - 4PM
68. Cure - Pictures Of You
69. Frente - Labour Of Love
70. Church - Unguarded Moment
71. Neds Atomic Dustbin - Grey Cell Green
72. Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
73. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
74. Cure - Love Cats
75. Billy Bragg - Levi Stubbs Tears
76. Nirvana - Come As You Are
77. B52s - Rock Lobster
78. Doors - LA Woman
79. Dinosaur Jnr - Freak Scene
80. Def Fx - Surfers Of The Mind
81. Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drum
82. Ride - Vapour Trail
83. Yothu Yindi - Treaty
84. Only Ones - Another Girl Another Planet
85. Dramarama - Anything Anything
86. Wonderstuff - Size Of A Cow
87. Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil
88. Nick Cave - Mercy Seat
89. Metallica - One
90. My Bloody Valentine - Soon
91. Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven
92. Public Enemy - Bring The Noise
93. XTC - Dear God
94. Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation
95. Jesus Jones - Info Freako
96. Go Betweens - Cattle And Cane
97. Clash - London Calling
98. U2 - Bad
99. Nick Cave - Deanna
100. Prince - Cream (the biggest bum note of the list, for my money)
posted by susanna @ 7:29 pm
8 Comments:
I get it. So much. You know that.
It's a simple fact that I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for music.
Prince bum cream.
*ROFL*
Birdhouse was surely earlier than that. I remember it being released when I was at school. You can be Blunt if you like, I'd rather not be.
I met Gina G once, though. And the Clouds. A friend of mine had a big crush on Jodi. So if you happen to be reading, Mr Spoons, Lise says hi.
Of course, if I found a tape nowadays, I'd have to hope I followed it by finding something to play it on.
ian - yeah, birdhouse would've been earlier than that. it was released when i was still at school, and i've got a few years on you. but i can't really comment on when that UK education system releases its brats into the big bad world.
anyway - lots of things on that list were released before you were BORN, if you look. i'm sure the doors song on the list pre-dates you, for starters... so i'm not sure i get your point. it's supposed to be a 'best songs of all time' not of 'that year' list.
ok i get it - 'that era'. yeah, well, an era's as long as you want it to be really, isn't it?
S, you conjured up memories I'd forgotten, just through the words 'Jesus' and 'Jones' and thinking of Concrete Blonde...The first real record I ever bought (vinyl, not cassette) was They Might Be Giants Flood. It may have come out earlier, but it's so of that era to me.
I can remember going to Missing LInk as a fifteen year old (91), and gingerley stepping over the scary mohaired punks in the doorway to buy it.
That list is brilliant...I have friends who are six years younger than me and had their older brother's copy of that cd, and they still talk about it...it binds us even though I am technically 'Gen X' and they 'Gen Y'...it's funny how if you looked at the current JJJ Hottest 100 now, to me it's mostly semi-commercial shite.
You were right: I loved that post, esp. because it confirms my theory of the best music of our gen. being made in 91/92.
I've counted a grand total of 4 things on that list that are older than me. Now hand over my pension!
Susanna- That was probably my favourite post of yours so far. :)
I actually feel kind of bad that I don't have as much time as I used to for music. Hopefully once my honours year is done I'll be right back into it.
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