The History Of Jop Part 15 aka In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

If it's Thursday, it must be 1994! The grip of alt.rock and hip-hop - mostly alt.rock - on the Pazz and Jop poll is close to total, and Anglophiles aren't carrying much weight. This does mean that we've got a lot of tracks to rate that never came near a Now album, though!

NINE ticks out of 27 songs.


[Poll #853615]


1993 Joptimist Judgement

1. Cannonball (40 votes)
2. Go West (38 votes)
3. Insane In The Brain (34 votes)
4=. Heart Shaped Box (28)
4=. Oh Carolina (28)
6. Nuthin But A G Thang (26)
7. Creep (25)
8. Informer (24)
9. It Was A Good Day (23)
10. Show Me Love (19)

Comments

Veruca Salt

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Why did the (aggregated) critics think it was the second-best single of the year?

Because some of you may have never heard "Flava In Ya Ear" before.

[juror8.livejournal.com]

I fake it so real I am beyond fake

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

COURTNEY LOVE CLASSIC OR DUD!

Obviously classic. The chorus of 'Doll Parts' is really astonishing, four wham-bam quote-me slogans which set out this awesomely contradictory-yet-straight-ahead statement of Where Miz Courtney Is At.

Proof this was a weak (or strange) year

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Freedy Johnston - "Bad Reputation"
Mary Lou Lord - "Some Jingle Jangle Morning"
Pretenders - "Night In My Veins"

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

94 = the year of some magazine (Christ, it could have been Mojo) with Tori Amos, Courtney Love, Bjork on the cover. It was supposed to mean something, though I forget what.

Did I tell you about the time I nearly got suspended from school because of Madonna's 'Secret'?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Our maths teacher got pregnant and so we had a replacement for her. This replacement, one Mrs Bvckn4ll, was astonishingly shit at a) keeping a class in order and b) teaching maths, and lessons were mostly a waste of time - mostly exercises in throwing screwed-up bits of paper across the room than anything else. My then best friend and I set about rewriting the words to Madonna's 'Secret' into a Mrs Buckn4ll hate song. The chorus went "Mmm-mmm, we hate Mrs Fvckn4ll". We typed all the lyrics out and then recorded it on to tape using the instrumental version available on the CD single and brought it into school. We were listening to it in the library one lunchtime...when her son, also a pupil in our year, walked in on us. Disaster ensued.

We were nearly suspended but ended up just getting lots of detentions, and we had to write letters of apology. Mrs B apparently had to go into counselling. I couldn't listen to 'Secret' for ages afterwards!

(But I can listen to it now, even if I still sometimes sing "We hate Mrs Fvckn4ll", and Bedtime Stories is a ridiculously underrated Madge album! Silky-smooth white-Sade soul. The ballads, as ever, are the best.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Definite Trans-Atlantic disconnect here - the story this poll outlines is one I was vaguely aware of as happening on a faraway continent (oddly I was following US politix a lot more closely than music at the time), whereas one look at the NME singles list (to follow) had me stricken with nostalgic overload. 1994 was personally quite a crappy year for me but music was a good outlet.

You gotta keep 'em seperated...

[juror8.livejournal.com]

Man, it looked like the Offspring were going to be a half decent band for a minute there, huh?

ATTN: People who aren't voting for Zombie as worst track

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

You have clearly never heard it. Well done.

NIN (I can't do that stupid thing with the second N, sorry)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

OK -

1. Poptimists is an LJ community.
2. LJ is full of goths.
3. So why don't we have more NIN fans?

Not that I'm complaining.

Are NIN still erm 'culturally significant'?

Jungle

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Tom mentioned it in his "what were you into at the time" response. I almost did but at this point I only knew of it from unidentified sounds on pirate radio (and possibly from the odd micro-review in the back pages of The Wire late '94). I had limited ways of working out what the essential records were, let alone knew where to go to find them. [When did the Drum & Bass Selection albums come out?]

In other words, I knew it was probably better/more important than the singles and LPs I was actually buying. But didn't know what to do about it.

My (unsubmitted) Pazz & Jop ballot for 1994

[koganbot]

Frank Kogan's Pazz & Jop 1994 ballot that he didn't even submit:

SINGLES:

1. Black Betty "Ram Jam"
2. Cactus Brothers "Sixteen Tons"
3. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs "El Matador"
4. Beck "Loser"
5. The Offspring "Come Out and Play"
6. Hole "Doll Parts"
7. Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas Is You"
7.5 Hole f. Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas Is For You To Ache Like I Ache"
8. Ricky Martin "Que Dia Es Hoy"
9. Candlebox "Far Behind"
10. Mariah Carey "Without You"

I was really alienated from rock criticism, was only writing for Radio On, which came out once a year with a circulation of about 40 people (I'd drifted away from writing for the Voice, and they were no longer printing Xhuxk, either), was really searching for things to put on my list. "Black Betty" was eighteen years old and my only justification for including it was that, for reasons entirely unknown to me (had it been in a TV commercial?), it hit the Top 10 in France in '94. "Doll Parts" should have been my number one but I still wasn't willing to admit to myself how much I loved an alternative rocker. "Que Dia Es Hoy" is a Spanish-language teenybopper cover of Laura Branigan's "Self Control." Xhuxk kept taping Latin American music for me. My number 7.5 existed only in my dreams. Someday, someday, the one you gave away will be the only one you're wishin' for. Someday, someday, you will ache like I ache.

[dansette.livejournal.com]

Who voted for Zombie? So, so, so wrong!

Meanwhile In Britpop

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The NME Top 50 - crossovers in bold. Typos courtesy of rocklist.

Blur: Girls & Boys
Oasis: Cigarettes & Alcohol
Oasis: Live Forever
Elastica: Connection
Sabres Of Paradise: The Theme
Beck: Loser
Supergrass: Caught By The Fuzz
Public Enemy: Give It Up
Oasis: Whatever
Beastie Boys: Sabotage
Goldie Presents Metalheads: Inner City Life
Blur: To The End
Oasis: Supersonic
Gene: Sleep Well Tonight
Whigfield: Saturday Night
Elastica: Line Up
The Stone Roses: Love Spreads
Blur: Parklife
Veruca Salt. Seether
Manic Street Preachers: Faster/Pcp
Tricky. Ponderosa
Wabren G: Regulate
Shampoo: Trouble
Dawn Penn: You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)
S*M*A*S*H: Lady Love Your Cvnt
Suede: Stay Together
Dj Shadow: Lost And Found
Primal Scream: Jailbird
Urge Overkill: Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon
Madonna: Secret
S*M*A*S*H: Kill Somebody
Portishead: Sour Times
Bomb THe Bass: Bug Powder Dust
Salt 'N' Pepa Featuring En Vogue: Whatta Man
Nick Cave: Do You Love Me?
Manic Street Preachers: She Is Suffering
Soundgarden: Black Hole Sun
Suede: The Wild Ones
Orbital: Impact Usa
Youssou N'dour And Neneh Cherry: 7 Seconds
The Grid: Swamp Thing
Renegade Soundd Wave: Renegade Sound Wave
Portishead: Dumb
Hole: Miss World
Rem: What's The Frequency, Kenneth
Tricky! Aftermath
Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart: Becoming Moe Like God
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci: Merched
Gene: Be My Light, Be My Guide
Green Day: Welcome To Paradise

The Select Top 50 would add a few more treasured memories. Actually I'm surprised at the amount of crossovers which doesn't tally with my memory, I was clearly listening selectively!

Du Bist Sehr Schon

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

First hearing "Girls And Boys" on the radio is one of my big OMG!!!!! moments from University: I thought Blur had just totally cracked it and knew that Britpop was going to Actually Happen.

Then inbetween that and Parklife (album) coming out I lost interest almost totally, and I really can't work out why. Wasn't "To The End"'s fault, that was a good single too. I guess I must have been influenced by something or someone but I don't recally what.

BEST GLASTO LINE UP EVER

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

1994, on the second stage, on the sunday, OASIS, PULP, RADIOHEAD, BLUR (and the doo badleys? or were they on the saturday?)all in one afternoon. marvellous there.

Aaliyah, All-4-One, Ace

[koganbot]

The disconnect wasn't only between the U.S. and Britain, but between the U.S. and the U.S.

Billboard's Top 27, 1994

1. The Sign - Ace Of Base
2. I Swear - All-4-One
3. I'll Make Love To You - Boyz II Men
4. The Power Of Love - Celine Dion
5. Hero - Mariah Carey
6. Stay (I Missed You) - Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
7. Breathe Again - Toni Braxton
8. All For Love - Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting
9. All That She Wants - Ace Of Base
10. Don't Turn Around - Ace Of Base
11. Bump N' Grind - R. Kelly
12. Again - Janet Jackson
13. I'll Remember - Madonna
14. Whatta Man - Salt-N-Pepa
15. Wild Night - John Mellencamp & Me'shell Ndegeocello
16. Without You / Never Forget You - Mariah Carey
17. You Mean The World To Me - Toni Braxton
18. Can You Feel The Love Tonight - Elton John
19. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World - Prince Symbol
20. Fantastic Voyage - Coolio
21. Baby I Love Your Way - Big Mountain
22. Regulate - Warren G & Nate Dogg
23. If You Go - Jon Secada
24. Back & Forth - Aaliyah
25. Now And Forever - Richard Marx
26. When Can I See You - Babyface
27. Please Forgive Me - Bryan Adams

(Most underrated song by me at the time: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight.")

For those of you who still don't know who Taana Gardner is

[koganbot]

Ini Kamoze's "Here Come the Hotstepper" uses both the heartbeat and the bass line of Taana Gardner's great worthy-of-10-million-tics "Heartbeat," which got like three ticks from you guys. ("Heartbeat" is the far better song, though I like "Hotstepper" OK.)

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I think this is the first Pazz and Jop I've actually known any of the songs on from the time, as were. I thought this was a pretty ace selection of tracks from the time but I was a very indie under-ten, by virtue of realising I knew precisely fuck all about Take That and was unlikely to catch up with my obsessive classmates when I moved school suddenly, turning me into something of the stereotypical indie kid wot doesn't exist anymore because indie is cool and all that.

I think I actually own well over half the albums the tracks in this are from :o Which means 1994 must have been my seminal music year on some level, since certainly didn't buy them all aged 7 as anyway they would have been on tape etc. etc. etc.