My 15 year high school reunion is this weekend and as such I thought I'd put together a few songs my friends and I listened to while driving around the mean streets of marion, iowa. It is suprisingly hard to find good transitions between grunge, 90s pop and gangsta rap. But, I think this ends up flowing rather well. Almost all of these songs were listened to while driving around in my friend Darin's chevette, malibu or black S-10 pickup truck.
Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns - Mother Love Bone. For those not in the know, MLB was the foundation of Pearl Jam and critical part of "seattle sound," back in the day. Jeff and Stone were in MLB and just as they were about to blow up, the lead singer OD'd on heroine. After the lead singer's death, they tried to start a new band and ultimately connected with Eddie. Another couple pieces of history - I think Cameron Crowe loves this song and MLB. Not only were MLB posters and graffiti featured in Singles on more than a few occasions, this song made the singles soundtrack. And...this song was actually first played in Say Anything when Lloyd and his mother/sister (I can't remember) are arguing.
Breath - Pearl Jam. This is probably in my top 10 favorite songs. There is a great groove and the typical passionate vocals from Eddie.
Buttermilk Biscuits - Sir Mix Alot. Thats right, I just went from Pearl Jam to an early hip hop song about biscuits. I think this song speaks for itself. Mix Alots got me rappin bout biscuits now.
Under the Bridge - The Red Hot Chili Peppers. If you take away the horrible video of a shirtless dude running along the beach, this is a good song. I remember listening to this song for the first time outside of a bowling alley.
Lithium - Nirvana. You can't have a flannel mix from someone who graduated in 1994 without including something from Nevermind. While I do still distinctly remember the first time I heard smells like teen spirit, Lithium was far and away my favorite song. There are so many great things about this song the pixies soft-loud-soft, painful screams, and great lyrics: I'm so excited. I can't wait to meet you there/And I don't care/I'm so horny. But that's ok/My will is good. And, the fact that the song is basically a stream of conscious about how Kurt Kobain feels when he's taking lithium. The soft - loud - soft fits perfectly here. The soft is about the balanced nature the drug is supposed to give him and the loud is about all the underlying feelings and emotion that the drug merely puts a band aide on. A good friend and I would put Ten and Nevermind on repeat while smoking cigarettes and drinking in his basement.
Round Here - Counting Crows. This version is actually from an unplugged version released when I was in college - but this song was out when i was in high school. These unplugged versions I think better fit the songs considering the lyrical content. I remain a fan of the first 3 Counting Crows albums. There are really, really great lyrics in these songs.
I got a man - Positive K. Just a fun, poppy song. I don't even know how we started listening to this song.
Ditty - Paperboy. Yo! This is how I'm coming from the nine deuce! I transcribed this entire song in a notebook my junior year of high school. It took me forever. This song is full of tons of great 90s hip hop cliches. Honestly, its just a bunch of words that rhyme where the paperboy mentions how either a) he will have sex with you in a variety of ways if you are a woman, b) he can rap better than you if you are a dude, c) regardless of man or woman you will be impressed with his sexual prowess or rapping skills
Nuttin But A G Thang - Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg. How can you have a mix from the 90s and not include something from the Chronic. If you were a white kid and not familiar with gangsta rap and hip hop, you were now aware and the music world (or the halls of midwestern high schools) has not been the same since.
Porch (unplugged) - Pearl Jam. Porch is a good, not great song on ten. Its an effing amazing song on unplugged. There were lots of things on the way to me loving pearl jam and I think this is part of it. There was a (sorta well known at the time) bootleg called black and white - which had about half the unplugged set, including this ridiculous version of porch. I felt like everyone wanted to have the black and white bootleg, at least in part because of porch. The end of the instrumental when eddie screams - wow.
If I Ever Fall In Love (original acapella version) - Shai. Alittle soul to take you out.