Like many teenage boys in the 90s, I didn't wash it often(though plenty of Patchouli for scented camouflage), and so that brings me to this version of Music Moondays=Grunge. Seattle. It hit the scene and changed music forever and for the better(Hair bands were finally dying down for the good of humanity). It started officially with Nirvana and Smells Like Teen Spirit in late 1991:
Hearing this song opened up my mind and changed a lot for me. I was in the beginning stages of figuring out who I was as a teenager which is just a disaster for every teenage boy full of angst and rage. I was in the middle of my beginning headbanger stage listening to Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Slayer and other bands like that I don't really care for anymore(though older Metallica is pretty good still). Also getting into fights with my dad who tried to forcefully take me to the barber and then I would run away from home. Turbulent times, but also good times. I have a lot of wild memories of those days.
Anyway It's funny because when I got enthralled with punk rock, reggae and ska in the mid nineties, I met other people who seemed to go through this same transition-metal-grunge-punk rock. Grunge was punk rock inspired and that partially opened the door. I have no regrets whatsoever about it and I still love these bands and this era. MTV was actually cool and watchable instead of a mixture of leather and reality TV dog shit that it is now. Nirvana wasn't only a great band, whoever directed these videos is an artistic genius. Here are a couple with iconic images(like the Nevermind Cover featured on the Simpsons and elsewhere):
Now I have to address something. There's kind of a dismissive stupid, "Ahh, he killed himself even though he was so lucky, what a loser" BS going around. Yeah, it was a mistake and he should have quit music to pursue visual art which he also liked if it was that unbearable, but there were many media rumors about his home life which were probably lies about their daughter being unsafe that bothered him. He suffered from scoliosis of the spine and had a stomach condition which put him in extreme pain all the time so that is where some of his heroin use came in.
I'm not necessarily excusing it, but let's not pretend he is the first rock start to partake and at least he had a reason. This attitude is also dismissive of the very real problem and sickness that clinical depression and drug addiction really is. He needed professional help and all the money and fame in the world couldn't make him happy. Money really doesn't always buy happiness. The world is not that simple so before people get on their high horse, they need to sit down and think about this.
So that brings me to their unplugged performance which was great and proves they were real performers, unlike many people today with their synthesized BS. This is from probably my favorite Alice in Chains album Jar of Flies, Nutshell.
While we are on unplugged, let me transition to another great band called Alice in Chains:
Layne Stanley was a vocalist in his own class and his addiction was even more tragic. Kurt's suicide led him to try and get clean. Sadly we know that wasn't the case and he was found rotting in his home. It really sucks, because I was supposed to see him when they toured Houston but he was too sick and canceled. His voice and music is forever in my psyche, though. In a Nutshell I would sit alone and cry to this song when having a fight with my parents, breaking up with a girl, or many of the other things that put me in that dark place. So I find grunge sad yet beautiful, which is how I like most things, because that's what life is; tragic and beautiful depending on the day.
So..................perhaps that was more than you wanted to know................ or more than I planned to say, but I said it anyway.
SO I MADE A BIG MISTAKE! (WOULD)
I remember when that song came out and I first heard it. me and a number of my friends went to go see the movie Singles, which has a great soundtrack I bought right away after that. It's a pretty good movie, too. Brings back a lot of memories.
That brings me to Soundgarden. This video is great and as entertaining to me while was on the usual substances one partakes in at my age. ;)
This song is great. Johnny Cash covered it.:
Pearl Jam also had some good videos even though I like their other albums better than ten but that was a good album.
At home drawing pictures of mountain tops with him on top! It is a sad true story about a 15-year-old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle, born February 10, 1975, from Richardson, Texas who shot himself in front of his English classmates at Richardson High School made relevant by this great song and video. Again, suicide is an important issue not to be dismissed or trivialized.
This song's lyrics I relate to a lot and probably my favorite Pearl Jam song:
And of course there were many great Seattle bands like screaming Trees and Mudhoney that didn't get as much attention but were also good.
Well, now you know my musical evolution and perhaps this post may remind you of yours. If not, I still hope you enjoyed this version of Musical Moonday.