Popular '93

my heart says blobby but my fingers say nobby

I struggled to vote for four – which is as much a reflection on my investment in 1993 chart music as the songs themselves, although they don’t seem a vintage bunch.

And the John Peel Festive Fifty (from http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/festive50s/1990s/1993/)

1. Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation – Enough Is Enough
2. Madder Rose – Swim
3. Huggy Bear – Her Jazz
4. PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me
5. Stereolab – French Disco
6. Voodoo Queens – Supermodel Superficial
7. Sebadoh – Soul & Fire
8. Breeders – Cannonball
9. Palace Brothers – Ohio River Boat Song
10. Eggs – Government Administrator
11. The Fall – Why Are People Grudgeful
12. Credit To The Nation & Chumbawamba – Hear No Bullshit
13. New Order – Regret
14. Pulp – Razzamatazz
15. PJ Harvey – 50ft Queenie
16. New Bad Things – You Suck
17. Cornershop – England’s Dreaming
18. PJ Harvey – Wang Dang Doodle
19. The Fall – Lost In Music
20. The Fall – Glam Racket
21. Senser – Eject
22. The Fall – I’m Going To Spain
23. Archers Of Loaf – Web In Front
24. Credit To The Nation – Call It What You Want
25. Hole – Olympia
26. The Fall – Service
27. Tindersticks – Raindrops
28. Chumbawamba – Timebomb
29. The Fall – Ladybird (Green Grass)
30. Tindersticks – Marbles
31. Radiohead – Creep
32. PJ Harvey – Naked Cousin
33. Heavenly – At A Girl
34. J Church – Good Judge Of Character
35. Boo Radleys – Barney & Me
36. Madder Rose – Beautiful John
37. Tindersticks – City Sickness
38. Elastica – Stutter
39. Stereolab – Jenny Ondioline
40. Nirvana – Scentless Apprentice
41. The Fall – A Past Gone Mad
42. Dinosaur Jr – Get Me
43. The Fall – Behind The Counter
44. Madder Rose – Lights Go Down
45. Nirvana – Rape Me
46. Pulp – Lipgloss
47. Hole – Beautiful Son
48. The Fall – It’s A Curse
49. Transglobal Underground – Syrius B
50. The Fall – War

I think this may have been one of those years where pop music had its ass handed to it by indie, dance music, and that lot. Pretty thin selection of number ones, really apart from the awesome 2-Unlimited, with Ace of Bass just about making up the numbers.

I had to go back through the entries to check what scores I’ve given things over the past 10 months, and surprised myself by finding eight with 6 or more. So I’ve voted for those: “No Limit”, Shaggy, “Five Live”, Ace of Base, “Dreams”, Freddie, “Mr Vain” and “Boom!”. But of those, I think only Freddie and “Boom!” are tracks I would return to, so my sixes must have been influenced by how infrequently we were rating entries. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that.

And because I know you’re all breathlessly waiting for the Australian number ones of 1993…

Sonia Dada – “You Don’t Treat Me No Good” – 4 weeks
Ugly Kid Joe – “Cat’s in the Cradle” – 1 week
Lenny Kravitz – “Are You Gonna Go My Way” – 6 weeks
Faith No More – “Easy” – 2 weeks
Janet Jackson – “That’s the Way Love Goes” – 1 week
Snow – “Informer” – 5 weeks
UB40 – “(I Can’t Help) Falling in Love with You” – 7 weeks
Billy Joel – “The River of Dreams” – 1 week
Meat Loaf – “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” – 8 weeks
Culture Beat – “Mr Vain” – 1 week
Ace of Base – “All That She Wants” – 3 weeks
Bryan Adams – “Please Forgive Me” – 5 weeks in 1993, 2 weeks in 1994

Popular music for me in 1993 doesn’t mean many of those, it means this, the first Triple J Hottest 100 compilation album on double CD. Triple J was just making the transition from a Sydney-based youth station to a nationwide one, and from 1993 onwards became the arbiter of teen and twenty-something musical taste in Australia. You’ll see a few oddities there from a UK point of view, like Gabrielle (which is probably why I rated her song more highly than most here; for me it had a totally different context). And there are so many other great tracks that typify the year for me, like the Smashing Pumpkins, King Missile, Porno for Pyros, and most of disc 1… in fact I think I’ll dump into onto the iPod tonight and relive it all.

I’m still working my way through the old entries (currently at the end of ’75) so haven’t seen any of the comments for these (except Mr Blobby to see if (and when) the next entry was going to appear). But, based on my own experience as a 21 year old, this was surely one of the most dire years for number 1s. I could only bring myself to vote for 2 of them (Bluebells and Take That’s least worst song Pray).

Those (decidedly non-rock) US number ones of ’93:

“I Will Always Love You” Whitney Houston
“A Whole New World” Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle
“Informer” Snow
“Freak Me” Silk
“That’s the Way Love Goes” Janet Jackson
“Weak” SWV
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” UB40
“Dreamlover” Mariah Carey
“I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” Meat Loaf
“Again” Janet Jackson
“Hero” Mariah Carey

The big Euro hit that Popular (only just) missed was 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up, no.1 for ten weeks in Holland and eleven in Norway.

for myself I suspect that finally owning a CD player meant that most of my music purchases in 1993 consisted in buying albums that I already owned on vinyl and a growing detachment from what was current. The arrival of Mojo magazine reinforced that pattern for me and many others.

Looking at 1993 in music on wikipedia, the only new records I bought were Dylan’s ‘World Gone Wrong’, Rickie Lee Jones’ “Traffic from Paradise’ and Sheryl Crow’s debut – none of which were cutting edge – although I still love the first two of those albums.

Outside of music 1993 also saw the debut of ‘The X-Files’ and the release of ‘Groundhog Day’

Own up then, who voted for Blobby?

#11 – hah, my thoughts exactly, four for me too. I wonder if they’re the same? Bloobs, AoB, Gabby and Loaf. I’m never really sure though if you should mark according to how much you liked the record at the time, or how much you like it now. There can be a marked difference.

#14 – Brendan is reading through from start to finish. Have most people done that? I’ve been dipping in, reading the 10s and 1s, and favourite songs and years (I think I’ve done most of the 70s now).

#19 – after looking at the list of number 1s I wondered how I ever got through this year (all most of them managed to do was remind me of my How Soon Is Now phase (go… leave… go home and you cry…)) but that list reminds me that I did have a life in this year after all (but I still can’t for the life of me understand how anyone could have enjoyed 2 Untalented (guess I need to read their entry).

I think you’re right – Muzik, DJ, Mixmag and everyone else! Simon R had loads of pirate radio tapes, the contents of which were mostly a mystery to him. But hats off to him for trying to keep up, as no one else in what David Essex called “the rock media” seemed interested.

Various gems from those long end of year lists:

Hip Hop Hooray
Ain’t No Love
Heart Shaped Box
Cannonball
Nuthin But A G Thang
50 ft Queenie
La Tristessa Durera
Open Up

Some really great things I’ve not had time to list as well. 1993 seems to have been a pretty good year to my ears.

Separate question: did the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West precipitate the football chants to it or was the tune still on holdover from the 1970s and brought out when required? I remember Fantasy Football League doing a sketch around all the different terrace songs following the tune. I wonder where it comes from – gay anthem appropriated on the terraces, hooligans on e, other assorted cliches to be inserted here…

“Razzmatazz” by Pulp stands out for me, jumping out for attention of all of these lists

And to a lesser extent “It Was A Good Day”

With “Very” probably being my album of the year

And then (living out on the East Fife coast, with only Radio Tay as musical accompaniment) I kind of drifted away from pop music for a few years, no doubt in part influenced by the mediocrity of much of 1993’s crop….

Intrigued by the Billie Ray Martin and Spooky track, which I don’t recall at all….

@28 – as I recall the Spooky and Billy Ray Martin track was on the Trance Euro Express CD/Magazine (techno off-shoot of those indie Volume CD/Magazines you used to get). It’s a cover of the Throbbing Gristle track but don’t remember it adding much to the original.

Re 26: pretty certain the terrace chant came with the PSB version. Village People orig was a relatively minor hit, virtually forgotten by the 90s when ‘one nil to the Arsenal’ became depressingly familiar. Sitting through the ’93 League Cup final between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday was a singularly miserable experience.

ps I like Arsenal, just not the George Graham era.

#32. Of course it was “1 nil to the Arsenal” that started it – I’d totally forgotten that. I had in my head the (much more vulgar) “you’re shit and you know you are” but that could just be because it was what I heard sung at us by the away fans at Brunton Park for years! Around now in Popular years was the high water mark for Graham’s Arsenal – a couple of league championships, success in the cups and they beat Parma in the (now defunct) European Cup Winner’s Cup Final. Of course the score was 1-0.

Then the chant would get turned on it’s head for Arsenal the following year. “Nayim, from the halfway line”.

If I never hear another football chant to the tune of Sloop John B it will be too soon. What on earth inspired that? Fairly certain it was Arsenal again (he scores when he wants, Robin Van Persie, he scores when he wants) but who picks this tune up and how is it disseminated around the terraces? At some point, some brave soul is going to have start a brand new song and hope he doesn’t get ridiculed right?

There’s a guy called Pete Boyle at United who’s the chantmeister-in-chief: he came up with “Eric the King” (“Lily the Pink”) back in the 90s and his latest promotion, addressed mainly to Arsenal fans and Wenger, is “Don’tcha wish your striker was RVP?” And many more in between including the rude one about Park Ji-Sung and Liverpudlian diets…

Good choir following the ‘Leafe last Saturday though, Lino…

@34 I claim I was present for the birth of a new one: “Vi-era, whoa-oh”, to the tune of “Volare”. There was a guy a few rows behind us at Highbury who used to sing it at the top of his lungs, with absolute conviction, entirely solo. That went on for several weeks, and then gradually other people started to join in, and by the end of the season the whole stadium was singing it. (Including, by that point, me.) But he had to have the guts to persist for quite a long time on his own before anyone else went with it. In its original version it was quite sophisticated, with verses and everything (“when the ball hits the net like a big Jumbo jet, that’s Viera”), but it got dumbed down to achieve mainstream success.

@31 I would have thought TG were absolutely kindred spirits with Billy Ray.

Also, I think Miley may be modelling herself on Genesis P. See:

http://fnpullzone.fnmagazine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mileyc1.jpg

and (on the right)

http://images.nymag.com/arts/art/profiles/genesis090913_1_560.jpg

Re jungle coverage in the music press, Muzik were actually fairly supportive of it from the off but the magazine didn’t start until ’95 so by then it was more of a thing generally. Rave-centric Eternity magazine may have been the biggest supporter but I didn’t start reading that until ’94.

My own hazy memory is that Jungle as a term was still more controversial at this point and not quite the default/catch-all term to describe the flux state post-CJB breakbeat-based scene at this point. Some big tunes in that vein tho, ranging from euphoric fantasia to yer ominous vibes:

Apollo Two – Atlantis (I Need You) – LTJ Bukem Remix
Orca – 4AM
Emanation & The Magi – Everybody Say Love (The Prodigy Remix)
The House Crew – Euphoria (Nino’s Dream) and The Theme (which they aired a clip of on The Big Breakfast – amazing)
Studio 2 – Who Jah Bless
Rufige Kru – Terminator
Foul Play – Finest Illusion
DJ Solo – Darkage
Bay-B-Kane – Rhythm ‘93
Mole The Dipper – Ecstatic House
DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer – In Effect
D-Force (aka RA and Mike again) – Ruff!!!
DJ Trax – Infinite Vibes
Top Buzz – Living In Darkness (Remix)
Krome & Time – The Slammer
XLR8 – Dub Plate
Doc Scott – NHS (Remix)
Omni Trio – Renegade Snares (Foul Play VIP) and Mystic Stepper
Nookie – Shining In The Darkness
Origin Unknown – Valley Of The Shadows
Deep Blue – The Helicopter Tune

The last few of those were bigger in 94 tho. Hear all of those and a few more on a mix I did a while back if interested: http://www.mixcloud.com/ghostfood/ghost-food-ultramix-9306/

Thanks Steve! The neighbours are going to love me. I spent most of yesterday listening to darker hardcore things like Scottie (which is pretty terrifying) and other things which are now ‘legendary’ but I have no memory of. I’m guessing much of what I heard on the radio in Clapton in early/mid ’93 would have been dubplates.

So it seems I wasn’t alone in losing track of what to buy in ’93 (aside from Euro techno/2 Unltd/chart techno). I picked up the baton again with Renegade Snares and The Helicopter Tune which I’m guessing would have been in ’94 (and were d&b rather than jungle to my ears).

Wildly off-topic, but thought this political piece (from a few weeks ago) by Michael Kinsley on US VP-candidate Paul Ryan and Ayn Rand might amuse/be of interest. Recommended.

@45 You know, all these years and I’d never noticed that. Of course the aesthetes of the North Bank would have shuddered at such barbarism. My neighbour was just a few years ahead of his time, though: pretty soon they would have embraced it as mash-up culture.

@41 ‘Hamburger Lady” could be a Miley Cyrus track, couldn’t it? With a cute video set in a middle school canteen. Maybe Joan Cusack as the hamburger lady? Might need to change the lyrics, though, I guess.

@44 That is hilarious. The thing that got to me about Ryan was him saying that his iPod went all the way from AC/DC to Zeppelin. He’s 42 years old, for God’s sake. Zeppelin were past their peak before he could walk. He was 18 years old in 1988: his iPod ought to go from A.R. Kane to the Young Gods.

Yes there was a brief burst of (politically skewed)* mockery in the US on that point — what kind of a dweeb spends the time needed to refile Led Zeppelin as Zeppelin, Led?

*Skewed against procrastination, which is a sin all across modern politics.

Only one vote from me I’m afraid. There were only two I had any recollection of at all and one of those would be a big round zero.