Let’s Visit 1994
Because it’s fun feeling old.
MP3: Harry Connick Jr. - “(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name” (from She, 1994).
Fuck me, can you imagine someone not loving this song? And if you met a hater of Harry, could you trust them?
Personally, I can’t think of a harsher indictment of someone’s character than an inability to love this 1994 classic; those exuberant horns blowing the water out of the Mississippi, the charmingly awkward rhymes (the highlight: ‘opinion/dominion’), and Harry singing cool and slow, like he doesn’t realise just how good the song around him really is.
MP3: Cake - “Jolene” (from Motorcade Of Generosity, 1994).
It’s easy to forget that Cake were good. But they were. Just in a really 90s way. So if they release anything nowadays it’s like, Cake? Seriously? Still?
MP3: Beastie Boys - “Root Down” (from Ill Communication, 1994).
Most of us share a strained, distant relationship with the Beastie Boys. Those boys we once loved.
Sure, we remember the magic times Yauch, Diamond and Horovitz soundtracked: punching cones after a good old skate, getting messy at that party where Nathan totally fingerbanged Katie, stealing Posca markers for a teenage graf session. But now, when we hear Ill Communication, an awkward distance emerges from the recognition that those magic times have passed, and we’ve all moved on.
Now, the punters are into Timbaland-produced electro-pop and English jazz-lite songbirds. And the Beasties? They’re busy phoning in half-arsed In Sound From Way Out remakes.
We’re 14 years from ‘94, but ‘I kick my root down, I put my root down’ makes it feel like just yesterday.
MP3: Lucas - “Lucas With The Lid Off” (from ((Lucacentric)), 1994).
If anyone knows Lucas, can you please ask him to comment on the Warship? I just want to know he’s still alive and doing okay.
MP3: Green Day - “Long View” (from Dookie, 1994).
Wow, that’s really 1994. And I still kind of like it.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Is this part of a series? If so, please include Lisa Loeb’s “Stay” and NIN’s “March of the Pigs.” I’d suggest R Kelly’s Bump and Grind, but that’s just too soon given his legal proceedings.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Oh, some NIN is a must. That’s really ‘94.
I like the Loeb call… but I worry that ‘liking Lisa Loeb’ may actually be more ‘94 than the actual music she produced in ‘94.
As for R. Kelly, he should definitely get more coverage on the Warship. He needs our support in this trying time.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Oh, yes. 1994… I’d like to see a few more of these please!
May 30th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Oh man, I started high school in the fall of 1994!
May 31st, 2008 at 12:12 am
It’s weird, cause in ‘94, I was SO convinced that what we were hearing was definitely the best music ever to be released. And then you go back on those tracks, and apart from Tupac, they’ve all aged possibly worse than songs from the Eighties. Maybe due to grunge (and by extension, all Nineties music) being so ennui-bound that the engineers were like “fuck it I’ll die one day anyway, why would I bother trying.”
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Lucas With the Lid Off is one of the greatest songs ever.
December 28th, 2008 at 2:40 am
We’re 14 years from ‘94, but ‘I kick my root down