Hey 3.5 readers.
I’m DJ BQB and I’m spinning the greatest hits of 1991, but it will have to be in your mind because this is a blog post. Better yet, go out and stream some of these hits and transport yourself to the days when Bush the Elder was president. Wow, so much time has gone by.
#10 – Enter Sandman – Metallica
“Hush little baby, don’t say a word. And never mind that noise you heard.”
Gotta say, by today’s standards, there’s something creepy about grown ass metal rockers warning a theoretical little kid listener about all the evils that will come for them when they go to sleep but then again, I suppose this song is maybe a metaphor about how bad things happen just when you think life is going your way…I think. Who knows?
It’s fun to rock out to though.
#9 – Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers
What you got you gotta give it to your mama, your papa…I don’t know. Nonsense words, really. But if there’s a better band of shirtless Californians with long hippy hair, I’ve yet to see it.
#8 – Motownphilly – Boyz II Men
These dudes had skills. They made that “I’ll Make Love to You” song that serves as a soundtrack for many risque encounters and they did that “End of the Road” song which you need to play when one of your homeboys dies. So they wrote the soundtrack for death and sex if you think about it.
PS – I’ll be honest they may have had bigger hits than Motownphilly I’m just not sure when they came out so if they had a bigger hit that came out in 1991, my bad.
#7 – Losing My Religion – R.E.M.
I’ve been a humorist my entire life, ever since I popped out of my mother’s snootch with a pair of Groucho glasses on. Ergo, it’s hard for me to not think of history in terms of jokes what were popular at the time. Thinking about this song reminds me of that inevitable joke that people busted on it, i.e. you’d make fun of it by just saying “That’s me in some place” like “That’s me in the taco stand…that’s me in the parking lot….that’s me in the grocery store….that’s me in the laundromat.”
#6 – Shiny Happy People – R.E.M.
I’ll give them another one, though Boyz II Men should probably get more spots on this list too. At any rate, the 1990s were a time of peace and prosperity. WWII was long over. The Soviet Union was on the way out. There weren’t any wars on the horizon. For a brief, flickering moment it looked like America would be able to come together and enjoy some stability…and act like shiny happy people holding hands…finally.
Think we’ll ever get there again, 3.5 readers?
#5 – O.P.P. – Naughty By Nature
Want to know how woke the world has become since the early 1990s, 3.5 readers?
At the time, the big complaint about this song was that people should never steal someone else’s pussy.
Today, the complaint is the backward notion that a pussy could belong to anyone other than she to whom it is attached.
#4 – Good Vibrations – Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch
I was just a kid at the time but even then had you told me that the guy who sings this song would one day become an Oscar level actor, I would have not believed you.
#3 – Something to Talk About – Bonnie Raitt
TRANSLATION OF THIS SONG – If people are accusing us of humping anyway, then we should just go ahead and hump.
Therefore, by the transitive property, Bonnie Raitt is a fan of humping. Who isn’t though?
#2 – I Wanna Sex You Up – Color Me Badd
Who doesn’t?
#1 – Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
The song and/or accompanying album that changed the music world as well as the rock genre. Rock no longer had to be fun, funky, or even campy. It could be depressed.
Earlier I mentioned the 1990s were good times. Unfortunately, it’s just human nature for people to be unhappy when there isn’t conflict. You had the old people bitching and moaning about how tough they had it and how that strife made them better people, but now old the young people had grown soft. Yup, we’re soft, so I guess we’ll just rock out to our ennui.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Paula Abdul came out with another album with songs like, “Rush, Rush” this year. It was good, but her best stuff was in the 1980s.
DISHONORABLE MENTION:
Michael Jackson had a comeback album with songs like “Black and White” that are still memorable today, though given the recent Showtime documentary, I think Michael’s days of being remembered in any kind of fond light are over.
Bookshelf Battle 