For all you Steve Winwood fans, here’s a link to a free download of his latest single “I’m Not Drowning” from his new cd Nine Lives.
http://columbiarecords.com/artist/winwood/download/
Hopefully we’ll be able to provide more of these in the future.
Kyle
Sometimes you discover a song in the most unlikeliest of places – a figure skating exhibition.
Such was the case for me when I heard “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. It was a #1 hit in the UK for Baz Luhrmann in 1999. Yes, you could cast a vote for it as one of WYEP’s Top 100 Songs of the 90s.
This lyric has quite a history. The Sunscreen Speech goes back to a 1997 column in a Chicago newspaper. A commencement address that never took place, but perhaps should have. The essay actually called “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” was written by Mary Schmich and was popularized in music by Baz Luhrmann. Mr. Luhrmann added the opening words to the song: “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’99″.
The song just recently re-entered the UK Singles Chart.
Lines like this continue to hold true today:
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing everyday that scares you.
Sing.
Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
Barb S. – Sunday Mix Host
I would urge that when thinking of the best songs of the 90′s for our current poll that you give a nod to the tragically under-appreciated songwriting talents of Brad Nowell and his group Sublime.
I’m not going to vote on this poll because I would simply be copying the tracklist of 40 oz. To Freedom, or that of Sublime.
I realize that for a thousand artists the 90′s were a prolific period. You had your Smashing Pumpkins, your Pearl Jams, your Rage Against the Machines, your Faith No Mores, your REMs, your DMBs, your Black Crowes, your Nirvanas, your Ugly Kid Joes (haha no….. okay, maybe I loved them ), your Flaming Lips, your Portisheads, your Bob Dylans (Time out of Mind), your Eric Claptons (“Tears in Heaven” – hate on that song and we’re no longer friends), your Princes (link not entirely related), your White Stripes, and so on all cranking out gems, but looking back, nothing is more “Nineties” to me than Sublime.
I’m sure it has something to do with turning fourteen and all of a sudden hearing a song about a hooker on the radio, but something about their self-titled disc jumped out and grabbed me. I didn’t get into Sublime until after Brad Nowell (lead-singer/songwriter/guitarist) passed away from a heroin overdose. Their fame, in fact, skyrocketed with the posthumous release of Sublime just two months after the incident. Hearing “Wrong Way” and “What I Got” naturally led to their back-catalog, two albums that did not disappoint. Instead they opened up a world of other music to me. I grew up on classic rock – the Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. That’s all I ever really wanted out of life: some girls, the hammer of the gods, and to not go batcrap crazy but still have my pudding.
From Sublime you get to the Grateful Dead, you get to Bad Brains, you get to Bob Marley. I cannot stress enough how mind-blowing that synthesis of influences was for me. That’s like traveling in three different directions at once. And all of it couched in stories of the streets written with a keener eye and quicker rhyme than any of Nowell’s contemporaries could offer. Brad Nowell was a musical genius. He infused his music with an all-pervading sprituality and generosity of insight. It’s unfortunate that because of his band’s skate-punk tendencies they don’t get any respect. You have to look past the fact that he was, at times, a dirtball and a junkie to see that Bradley was a journalist and poet and Southern Californian prophet. A definite inspiration.
I would recommend that you give a listen to the following tracks before our poll ends:
Don’t Push - 40 oz. to Freedom
Badfish - 40 oz. to Freedom
40 oz. to Freedom – 40 oz. to Freedom
Pool Shark – Robbin’ Da Hood
Greatest Hits – Robbin’ Da Hood
STP – Robbin’ Da Hood
Boss D.J. – Robbin’ Da Hood
What I Got – Sublime
April 29th, 1992 – Sublime
Under My Voodoo – Sublime
Santeria – Sublime
&
Pawnshop – Sublime
You will be glad that you did. You can’t leave Sublime out of the 90′s equation.
PS – I made a great Sublime mix cd if you’re interested in going a little deeper into the band’s catalog.
Surgeon General’s Warning: There is some explicit language on all of Sublime’s records.
Pavement had received alot of critical praise for their release “Slanted and Enchanted” in 1992. It’s still a great release, but Pavement would become more focused and sharper with the sophomore release, “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”.
Once again, growing up in the 90′s, I remember hearing it first when I saw the video. It was on MTV’s “120 Minutes”. The video featured the band going into a barber shop and one by one getting their haricut. Crazy things happen as each member steps up. One seems to turn into a gorilla as he sits down, while another starts drinking the blue liquid that the combs are stored in. Someone else sneezes out a kitten, and Stephen Malkmus, the leader of the band, has a crown put on him. It was goofy and fit the band perfectly. The song just makes me feel great every time I hear it to this day. It’s just one of those songs that makes you smile.
Pavement put out three more full lengths, and Stephen Malkmus has had a successful solo and fantasy baseball career. It all started for me, though, with this song.
-Andy , Tuesday Evening Mix
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