SATURDAY IN THE PARK

Artist - De La Soul
Album - De La Soul is Dead
Song - A Roller Skating Jam "Named Saturdays"
Date - 3-5-91
Status - Procured

De La unveiled pioneering sampling techniques on their debut album "Three Feet High and Rising", but Three Feet still sounds merely like a more complex version of the collage aesthetic then dominant in Hip Hop. On their follow-up album "De La Soul is Dead", they managed to take those techniques and create more sophisticated, integrated tracks that deemphasize the individualness of each sampled sound to create a comprehensive whole. This represented a major shift for Hip-Hop and would become the dominant aesthetic goal of DJ's throughout the 90's.

De La Soul's first draft of fame was a bitter one. Thematically "Saturday" was a radio friendly up-beat song on an otherwise darker album, but technically the backing track is a perfect example of the new highs De La had reached in the studio.

Also, Q-TIP ALERT! That dude was everywhere, and he cuts it up on this track.

And one more thing. Listen for the weird growl at the end of the last chorus. Only De La.

SOME DAYS I SIT AND WISH I WAS A KID AGAIN

Artist - Ahmad
Album - Ahmad
Song - Back in the Day
Date - 3/31//94
Status - Acquired

Ahmad's delivery sounds strange today, but the scratchy, nasal voice was somewhat popular in the early to mid 90's with groups like the Pharcyde featuring it.

Back in the Day is just a cool, west coast jam. Ahmad was 18, as he says in the song, when he recorded it. There's something telling about youth in that fact. An understanding of the worlds impermanence is just beginning to emerge, but the profoundness of that fact hasn't set in yet. but its cool, almost 15 years later its still a great song to listen to while sitting on the front porch drinking a cold one and catching up with old friends.

L.A. FACE WITH THE OAKLAND BOOTY

Artist - Sir Mix A Lot

Album - Mack Daddy

Song - Baby Got Back

Date - 2/27/92

Status - Not Acquired

This man, this Sir Mix A Lot lives by one principal. If you are going to go there, go ALL the way there. Do not apologize. Do not attempt to appease. In fact scream it from the mountain top. That's why Baby Got Back opens with "I like big butts and I cannot lie."  Everything after this is pretty much an elaboration or variation on the same theme. 

And the Video. the video? Oh the video...what doesn't it do. 

-open with a close up of Sir Mix A Lot, crane out to reveal that he's standing a giant butt-

-cut to a spring expanding on the word "sprung"

Done, you had me with "Giant Butt" fill in the remaining three minutes in a similar manner and call me when its done.

And oh the splash said song and video made.

-The song and video where decried for objectifying women

-The song was then praised for supporting and Afro-Centric view of female beauty

-The video was banned from MTV

-The video was then played only after 9:00 on MTV

The song went to #1, Sir Mix A Lot made a lot of money, and we all learned a little about the value of a fully formed keester, and I think America is a better place for it. 

ADVENTURES IN COOL LADY LOVING

Artist: LL Cool J
Album: Mama Said Knock You Out
Song: Around The Way Gil
Date: 11/8/90
Status: Not Acquired

LL didn't invent the Slow Jam, he perfected it. He also perfected the art of making up a term and then making it a real term because he's LL, and he has that power. No one had any idea what an "around the way girl" was or that we wanted one until LL told us.

If you have the means, and you can find it, we highly recommend you check out the full video. Watching LL in his natural environment is a sight to behold. Also, the video strongly suggests that 5'2 white chick in baggy overalls could qualify as an around the way girl. LL is truly a visionary.

SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING IS SO ROCK

Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Album: One Hot Minute
Song: Aeroplane
Date: 3/1/96
Status: Not Acquired

One Hot Minute is a great Album, but its a weird fit with the rest of the Chili Pepper catalog, or at least it felt that way at the time. A song like Aeroplane still sounds great, but it sounds more like a Chili Pepper side project.

There are some really quite moments, like the opening guitar work, which are really pleasing, but what really carries the song is the sing-along quality of the lyrics and the repeated "That Mother Fucker, Always Spiked with Pain". Most of us assumed it was a song about depression, drug use, and inspiration, things Kiedis knows a lot about, but something about the hook made the themes seem more universal than that. Getting a little older, getting into and on with college you begin to realize that pain and joy are inextricably linked.

I'M NOT SURE IF "GAZ" IS REALLY A NAME, AT LEAST NOT IN ENGLISH

Artist - Supergrass
Album - Should Coco
Song - Alright
Date - 7-3-95

England in the mid 90's was churning out amazing pop bands almost daily. Supergrass was one of them. They never did achieve the commercial heights of bands like Blur and Oasis in the United States, but they were every bit as successful musically. True to the Britpop ethos of the time "Alright" strongly resembles work by British Invasion groups such as the Kinks. Just a fun song that slags off youth culture while at the same time being the perfect song for the start a lost weekend.

I REALLY CAN'T THINK OF A BETTER WAY TO SPEND A TUESDAY

Artist - Sheryl Crow
Album - Tuesday Night Music Club
Song - All I Wanna Do
Date - 10-1-94

I have a confession to make. I love a good beer buzz early in the morning. There are few things I like to do more on a day off than hole up in a dark bar next to a gleaming picture frame window, throw a cold ones back, go home, make love and have a good nap.  Its so choice. If you have the means,  I highly recommend it.

All I Wanna Do was a break through hit for Crow. The "fun" ladened chorus obscures the truly degenerate characters in  the narrative. I love a good pop song that everyone loves but no one realizes is actually pretty filthy, like a bar in daylight.

IS THIS A SAD SONG?

Artist - Bare Naked Ladies
Album - Stunt
Song - Alcohol
Date - 7-7-98

To be young and in college is to know the joys and sorrows of alcohol. The source of and solution to all of life's problems. Thanks Homer J. The Ladies had a talent for crafting pop songs that at first appear to be fun and happy but are really big old bummers. A great pop music tradition. This song never does settle out between a true condemnation of party culture and a bitter sweet homage to youth and folly, and that's what keeps pulling me back in.

SOME ONE ONCE SAID THAT ALL PROTEST SONGS BECOME POP SONGS

Artist - Public Enemy
Album - Fear of a Black Planet
Song - 911 is a Joke
Date - 3-22-90

It should be hard to like a group like Public Enemy when you grow up in a community that is 98% white and even more republican, but damn if those kids didn't go crazy for this in middle school. Great music plus conviction is very appealing.

TWO SIDES TO THE COIN

Artist - Liz Phair

Album - Exile in Guyville

Song - 6'1"

Date - 6-2-93

I started listening to Phair latter in life, after I'd married. If I'd listened to her as a teenager I think my  ears would have burned off. Yes there is the frank, explicit and unromanticized expression of a woman's sexuality, but there was also a strength expressed in songs like Phair's 6'-1"