I'm feeling another wave of 90's nostalgia coming on. Not quite sure why, but maybe it's because NATO's attacking a dictator by air and Newt Gingrich isn't pleased. Or maybe it's because I just discovered Portlandia on IFC. Or maybe it's because Elizabeth Taylor has died, and I was pretty sure that happened in 1996. Regardless of the reason, it's time to dust off the flannel and resume the countdown.
OK, that's a lie. I wore my flannel yesterday.
#80. TAKE A PICTURE, Filter. I'm going to let Wikipedia do the talking here: "Filter's frontman, and founding member Richard Patrick has said that the song is about him getting drunk on an airplane, taking off all of his clothes, and fighting with the flight attendants who tried to stop him" We've come so far since Bob Dylan sung about James Meredith's attempt to enter the University of Mississippi in 1962, haven't we?
#79. 40 Oz. TO FREEDOM, Sublime. Apparently there's no Sublime music videos on YouTube so I'll be relying on bootlegged user submissions for their multiple appearances on the list. I love every single premise of this tune, but none more than the notion that a woman looks so fine with her hair permed. How come nobody gets perms anymore?
#78. KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG, The Fugees. Lauryn Hill would've preferred her babies starve than I buy this song. I'm sorry, I truly am and I sure didn't mean to endorse infanticide. But I studied abroad for a semester in London in '97 and the jukebox rarely went 5 tracks without this being played. Weird that it wasn't played as much as Glenn Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy" though.
#77. APRIL 26, 1992, Sublime. Told you there was more Sublime to come. Anyway, I get myself in trouble when I speak too passionately about this track, so I'm just going to say I wish the folks in NYC had the gumption of those in LA after the Diallo Assassins were acquitted.
#76. SILENT IN THE MORNING, Phish. Ah, so begins my on-again-off-again love affair with Phish. Like a passionate partner, I've both loved and loathed them. A battle that rages on today. Some days, I consider it great music and a killer scene. Other days, it's simpleton lyrics, repetitive sounds and crazed cult of trust fund babies desperate in need of some Axe.
#75. DISARM, Smashing Pumpkins. Reluctant addition, not because I dislike the song. Quite the contrary. No, it has more to do with the fact that Billy Corgan is the most arrogant, self-aggrandizing POS to hit the music scene in my lifetime. OK, maybe Celine can challenge that, but she's not on this list.
#74. EVEN FLOW, Pearl Jam. So begins the first of the maximum six Pearl Jam entries. Actually I'm lying. For being the Band of the Decade, they're allowed 7. Truth be told though, I miscounted. I suck at math.
#73. SCAR TISSUE, Red Hot Chili Peppers. I love RHCP and still feel like I don't do them enough justice or give them enough credit. Talk about an absolutely remarkable career. I wasn't feeling anything off "Californication" in 1999 (I wasn't feeling much of anything in 1999 except Milwaukee's Best and a few other choice substances) but man has it aged well.
#72. DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER, Oasis. Yup. There's Oasis again. I guess I kind of have to admit to really enjoying their one legitimate album. Thank you, Pine Hall and the band of misfits who settled in during the fall of 1995.
#71. RUFF RYDER'S ALBUM, DMX. Yeah, for the most part, the rap on this list is going to consist of embarrassingly bad generic tunes enjoyed by white people. For the first part of the decade I was making the transition from hair bands to grunge. For the latter part, as my tastes were expanding, I was more interested in Dylan, the Dead and Pink Floyd than anything else. God's honest truth, until I bought this a few years ago, I thought TuPac sang it. And he was allegedly dead for 2 years before it's release.
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