Rock and Roll History: The 90's!!!

[ABlairican Pie]

1990 was a year that did not begin with the same sense of dread and gloom that began previous decades. For once, people all over the world (at least in the Western Hemisphere) rejoiced over the crumbling of the Berlin Wall and the liberation of people in Eastern Europe. Communism was collapsing.

Americans paid little attention to the bloodshed taking place in Panama and Central America. As long as the bad guys were taken out, everyone could rest easy.

Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister of Great Britain.

And how about that music!! Paula Abdul, Milli Vanilli, Warrant, Slaughter, and tons of other great artists!! It was a golden time in MTV-Land. The hair was high, the dance moves were stunning, and the spandex was oh-so-tight.

What more could anyone want?

[ABlairican Pie]

The year began with tragedy, as promising young lead singer Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone, the exciting and innovative band from Seattle, died from a heroin overdose at the age of 24. Wood was a flamboyant frontman who idolized Queen's Freddy Mercury and was charismatic in concert. Wood's death occured just as Mother Love Bone had released their first major label album, Apple. Music industry interest was huge for this band who had emerged from a small town that was totally separate from the hype and glitz of Los Angeles. It was extremely disappointing that a new band on the rise would suffer such a devastating loss.

It looked as if this were the end of Mother Love Bone. In fact, it was just the beginning-- in a new incarnation, with a new lead singer, in another eighteen months, everyone would be talking about this band and their passionate music.

[ABlairican Pie]

Who knew where Mother Love Bone would have gone had Andrew Wood had lived? In fact, everyone would know where in fact the band did go. But for now, he left us with some great songs from the post-humous release, Apple.

This song is beautiful and so excellent:

Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns

Chloe don't know better
Chloe just like me, only beautiful
A couple of years of difference
But those lessons never learned
Chloe danced the tables in the french quarter
Always been given so I can't always make her laugh
But I'm proud to say
And I won't forget
Time spent laying by her side
Time spent laying by her side
And dreams like this must die


You ever heard the story of Mr. Faded Glory?
Say he who rides a pony must someday fall
I been talkin' to my alter
Life is what you make it
And if you make it death well then rest
your soul away
Away away yeah child
It's a broken kind of feeling
She'd have to tie me to the ceiling
A bad moon's a comin' better say your
prayers
I wanna tell her that I love her
But does it really matter?
I just can't stand to see you dragging down
Again
So I'm singing
This is my kinda love It's the kind that
moves on
It's unkind and leaves me alone
Yes it does
I uses to treat you like a lady
Now you're a substitute teacher
This bottle's not a pretty, not a pretty sight
I owe the man some money so I'm turnin
over honey
You see Mr. Faded Glory is once again
doin' time
This is my kinda love
It's the kind that moves on
It's unkind and leaves me alone
Yes it does
Like a crown of thorns it's all who you
know
So don't burn your bridges woman cause
someday, yeah
Kick it!
Baby i said com' on, com' on, com' on,
com' on yeah I said baby don't burn your
bridges woman

[ABlairican Pie]

This is Shangri-La

i've been around the world and i wrote a million songs
it's all a bore to me
i've slept in the gutter and i've lied to the dogs
it never bothered me
the sheriff he came to with his little boys in blue
they been lookin for me
but with my crystal sheen guitar i'm another ego star
so give it to me......

get me to the stage - it brings me home again
this is shangrila
i'm trippin on it now - it brings me home again
this is shangrila
i look bad in shorts but most of us do
don't let that bother me
i'm the football who is who, i don't believe in smack
so don't you die on me
cause love is all good people need
music sets the sick ones free
without love no one ever grows nothing ever sings

this is shangrila
you have gathered for the feast
the bread is my body... the wine is blood
get me to the stage - it brings me home again
this is shangrila
i'm trippin on it now - it brings me home again

[ABlairican Pie]

Stargazer

crazy, crazy i'm the boy
who defies all
lift me higher than anyone
and hold my arms
woman, woman she outta mind
and simply out of soul
she gets me higher than anyone
i miss her so
stargazer you call the shots
and i take um
stargazer won't ya kick with me
(again)

dancer dancer i'm all wrong
she thinks she's young and wise
she dance around my cable car
and fix me up with a guy - why?
chorus
stargazer you cry in blue
anything i've ever seen
ain't as good as you
i'm not trying to push your feelings (inside)
but i know you hold me like a putty in yo' hands
cry for me and rub it in
cry for the saviors and the prophets son
dream of me and julie ann
ah xana come back again
(repeat last two lines)

[ABlairican Pie]

Another groovy song:

Stardog Champion

San Francisco, where the flowers bloom in spring
I said, fade to winter - and see what disease brings
Augustino, with his eyes once a shining sea
I said he's half a shadow - God don't let that be me
I'm a Stardog Champion

West Virginia, that's where my father lies
He was a wartime hero, the kind that money buys
It's a diamond bracelet, for my mommy's memory
That's all she wrote boy - that's all she wrote for me

I'm a Stardog Champion
I'm a Stardog
That's right

And the children
They used to sing of love
With Grace
From the Lord above
I said the children they used to sing out loud
Sing it loud

[ABlairican Pie]

Band pic:

[ABlairican Pie]

An album cover of Andrew Wood's previous band, Malfunkshun:

[ABlairican Pie]

Andrew and bandmate:

[Steve M.]

Originally posted by Captain ABlairica
1990 was a year that did not begin with the same sense of dread and gloom that began previous decades. . . .

And how about that music!! Paula Abdul, Milli Vanilli, Warrant, Slaughter, and tons of other great artists!! It was a golden time in MTV-Land. The hair was high, the dance moves were stunning, and the spandex was oh-so-tight.

What more could anyone want?

Plenty. After signs of rock renewing itself in the late eighties, it was back to business as usual. Style trumped substance, entertainment outweighed art, and theatrics were more important than musical virtuosity!

The problems in rock that began back in the mid-seventies grew to major troubles by 1990. Veteran bands still ruled the roost, allowing few new bands a chance at rock stardom; those few new bands that made it were disposable hair bands, and the very few new bands that deserved success were confined to stations with alternative radio formats. You know what alternative rockers and their fans were called at the time? Losers!!

With little record company money going to promote new bands, and with an emphasis of videos over touring (which new bands depend on for growth), rock's growth was stunted. It was stunted even further by established acts being unable to afford taking on tours warmup acts in need of a big break.

And of course, there was the emerging rap juggernaut. Because of rap's commercial breakthrough, not one rock album was able to top the album charts in 1990.

Had rock literally died? Did it suddenly cease to exist? Did anyone even care about it anymore?

[Steve M.]

Several great rock and jazz artists died in 1990. Among them was Rick Grech.



Rick Grech (1946-1990)

Grech, a classically trained cellist and violinist, was also a great rock bass player who played in Family, Blind Faith, Ginger Baker's Air Force, and Traffic. He also wrote classic songs such as "Second Generation Woman" and "How-Hi-the-Li," and he lent his talents to stars such as Rod Stewart and Muddy Waters as a session musician.

Alas, he became addicted to drugs and drink, and by 1977 Grech quit the music business in an attempt to leave his addictions behind. He'd abused his body one time too many, though, and on March 17, 1990, Richard Roman Grech died in the hospital of his hometown of Leicester, England, of liver and kidney failure at the age of 43.

Ironically, one of Grech's greatest moments was his stirring violin solo at the end of Family's song "The Weaver's Answer," which symbolized the dying of an old man.

[ABlairican Pie]

Originally posted by Steve M.
Plenty. After signs of rock renewing itself in the late eighties, it was back to business as usual. Style trumped substance, entertainment outweighed art, and theatrics were more important than musical vrituousity!

The problems in rock that began back in the mid-seventies grew to major troubles by 1990. Veteran bands still ruled the roost, allowing few new bands a chance at rock stardom; those few new bands that made it were disposable hair bands, and the very few new bandsthat deserved success were confined to stations with alternative radio formats. You know what alternative rockers and their fans were called at the time? Losers!!

With little record company money going to promote new bands, and with an emphasis of videos over touring (which new bands depend on for growth), rock's growth was stunted. It was stunted even further by established acts beign unable to afford taking on tours warmup acts on in need of a big break.

And of course, there was the emerging rap juggernaut. Because of rap's commercial breakthrough, not one rock album was able to top the album charts in 1990.

Had rock literally died? Did it suddenly cease to exist? Did anyone eve ncare about it anymore?

Of course when I said, what more could people want, I was being ironic. And speaking of losers...

[ABlairican Pie]

You were proudly a LOSER if you bought this t-shirt from...

[ABlairican Pie]

...Sub Pop Records, the fledgling independent record label from Seattle that catered to fans of that loser music from the Pacific Northwest. The label, founded in the late 80's by local Seattle music enterpreneurs Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman,
put out albums, 45's and CD's of underground bands that deserved to be heard but would never get past the gluttonous glop of the L.A. music industry. Now that Andrew Wood's death had gained intense music media interest, the two founders--and the bands they championed, stood to make a small fortune.

The label sold LOSER t-shirts to show their solidarity to the scene.

[ABlairican Pie]

Many Seattle bands did not care to court success on a major label,
while many others surely welcomed it. One band that got signed to Columbia began as a hair metal band of sorts, who had their stints in L.A. (their guitar player's name was even mentioned in the liner notes of Pretty Boy Floyd's Leather Boys With Electric Toys album), when they decided to make their glammy sound a little darker and more menacing. The band, featuring Jerry Cantrell on guitar, Sean Kinney on bass, Mike Starr on drums, and an enigmatic lead singer with a scorching voice by the name of Layne Staley, roared out of the Jet City and onto the charts in 1990 with their twisted album Facelift. They were

ALICE IN CHAINS!!!!

We Die Young

Scary's on the wall
Scary's on his way

Watch where you spit
I'd advise you wait until it's over
Then you got hit
And you shoulda known better

CHORUS
And we die young
Faster we run

Down, down, down you're rollin'
Watch the blood float in the muddy sewer
Take another hit
And bury your brother

CHORUS

Scary's on the wall
Scary's on his way

Another alley trip
Bullet seek the place to bend you over
Then you got hit
And you shoulda known better

CHORUS