Meanwhile, at the beats side of town . . .
 De la Soul released their debut, 3 Feet high and Rising. This record can be called an unprecedented assemblage of sound, it’s also inventive, assured and playful. The title comes from the Johnny Cash song “Five feet High and Rising”. The trio of friends that made the album met their George Martin in DJ Prince Paul and taking the similarities further, they have been called the Beatles of hip-hop. The lyrics ranged from to true love (“Eye Know”), to the destructive power of drugs (“Say no Go”), to Daisy Age philosophy (“Tread Water”) to sex (“Buddy”), the samples come from Johnny Cash, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, The Mad Lads and that infamous sample from The Turtles, the one that would unleash the lawyers sniffing everything used on the constrcution of songs from then on. Because of the nightmare of clearing all those samples, most of De la Soul’s albums haven’t been re-released and their catalogue is also absent from spotify, which is a shame because a lot of young people have not been able to discover this marvelous collection of songs. Blame Warner Brothers. The album is also responsible -for better or worse-  introducing the hip hop skit. It appeared in all the best of lists of 89 and is considered one of the best albums of hip hop ever made. For a genre that was still quite young, the bar had once again been raised.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNzWuEYQpFA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8-9mY-JACM

Tom changed all his ratings on Beatles songs, adding 3 to all of them, and then he said BackStabbers is a 100.

I guess I’m going to have to listen to Halsey now.

On the Alternative Side…
I’ll attempt at covering the #1 song from the Billboard Alternative chart, starting from its inception in late 1988. I’ll align these to Tom’s Hot 100 #1 columns as best I can (as the number of weeks a song was #1 on each chart varies wildly, and some of the Alternative #1s hit, go away, and then come back).
So, some entries will cover one or multiple songs, and then I’ll go dark for a few virtual weeks. This is not intended as a deep dive – more of a launching point for a spirited discussion with my fellow TNOCS-ers. We have a two-fer today..
 
 

Song: I’ll Be You
Artist(s): The Replacements
Time at #1: One week

 
This was the only released single from The Replacements’ 5th album “Don’t Tell a Soul.” It became the band’s first and only Billboard Hot 100 single, peaking at #51. This is a really catchy song – full of nice hooks and I really like Paul Westerberg’s vocals here. The Replacements are one of those bands that never got huge, but ended up influencing a ton of other artists – I can think of ten other bands in the 90s / 2000s that sound like them (and that’s a good thing). Not my favorite Replacements song (that would be “Alex Chilton”: 10/10), but really strong stuff – 8/10
 
https://youtu.be/n3XMC_Sk3QE

 
 

Song: Veronica
Artist(s): Elvis Costello
Time at #1: Two weeks

 
This song was Costello’s highest charting song on the Hot 100, peaking at #19 It’s from Costello’s 12th album “Spike” (which contains amazing track after amazing track, BTW) . I LOVE THIS SONG!! Co-written with and accompanied on bass by Sir Paul McCartney, this is wistful, melodic, sad, and lovely in equal parts. Written about Costello’s grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, it lacks the caustic wit of Elvis’s other songs but cleverly weaves between the past and present, sometimes in the same verse. Sung, played and produced with the precision of a Swiss clock, this song absolutely soars. Tracks like this can make me rank Costello as the Best Elvis. 10/10
 
https://youtu.be/8EiqI6wkb90

Next entry when the Bangles return….

It’s time we recognize that Forever Your Girl is a great album. All four (FOUR!) of its #1 hits, plus its other top 10, are very good to great dance songs. Who’s with me?

Things left unsaid.

Tom wrote:

” I have to imagine that “The Living Years” arrived around the time that a whole lot of boomers were being forced to contemplate their parents’ mortality. It must’ve struck a chord.”

I was avoiding that chord. I was in North Dakota, 7 hours from my parents. My dad’s health was deteriorating fast due to Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and every time I got home to see them, I’d see less of my dad. I don’t mean in time, I mean the man who was there was slowly slipping away.

But I didn’t feel that there were things unsaid. I said them, we said them. He knew I loved him. I had his stories, When “Cats in the Cradle” was the Number One song and discussion, I couldn’t relate to it because my dad, though busy, was always there for me. In 1989 “The Living Years” was closer to my experience, knowing I was losing my dad, yet it still felt like it wasn’t about me.

In three years I would lose my dad. In just over five years I met GBear. That was the thing left unsaid. I never came out to my dad, though my mom said he knew. She also said I was his favorite. There are times when GBear reminds me of dad, and I regret that my dad never got to see me happy like this, in a loving relationship. There were also times when GBear’s health mirrored the issues that my dad was going through with PSP, and that reminds me of our morality.

I don’t know if I’d choose to listen to “The Living Years” today, because I’m not sure I can handle it. But if it came on I’d let the moment sweep over me, and know the inevitable tears are only there because I have been given two wonderful men in my life.

It’s almost as if the sad prom aesthetic is not original enough that multiple people couldn’t arrive at it independently.

“Jack Antonoff Isn’t Producing Halsey’s New Album”

Thank you for the detailed article on @stereogum ! https://t.co/f5ITrqgK96

— Debbie Gibson (@DebbieGibson) June 28, 2021

This song has taken on a whole new personal meaning for me. My father passed away unexpectedly over Memorial Day weekend. Much like the song, I wasn’t there when he passed, I was in New York visiting my girlfriend. As with most fathers and sons we had our disagreements about everything in our younger days. Unlike the song, I’m thankful he and my mom encouraged my brother and sister and I to have our own opinions and ideas about things. In the end I know he loved us very much. I miss him every day!

Cat’s in the Cradle for the late 80’s crowd is the cheap and easy way to view this song. You could write this off as Baby Boomer guilt but that would be to simplistic. Father/son dynamics have always been complicated and messy, and this song does a good job of encapsulating that. Starting out with a hunting synth line that mimics the main hook, the rhythmic guitar comes in, plugging along giving the song a sense of urgency.

The song picks up stem in the second verse, as the power chords strike hard, building into a more emotional second chorus. It serves as a great set up for the downtempo third verse. Paul Carrack is absolutely amazing at conveying all the conflicting emotions you’d expect to feel, he is simply one of the most under appreciated singers of his day. It gets docked a point for deploying the children’s choir to tug at the heartstrings trick and the production sounds a little to digital for my taste. This song is always a good reminder to to appreciate that you still have your family and friends in your life. 9.

Everyone knows Britney Spears isn’t alive.

If that’s true then your mom sounds like an ignorant and horribly rude woman. Nothing to be proud of.

Don’t know why Sheeran gets so much shit. I love his music.

It’s funny because he’s rich and famous.

Trent’s really trying to establish himself as an ally before he’s inevitably outed for abuse in the past.

Uh-oh, sounds like Pooh Shiesty’s shoe heisty was too feisty.