Songs that are not on the list but are stuck in my head while I'm making the list - Part 1

Tik Tok - Ke$ha
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba

#99

You Know You're Right
Nirvana
Nirvana (2002)

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You never know how much you love something until its gone. Done. Finished. Dead and bloated (as Stone Temple Pilots might say). This is how I feel about Nirvana. They may not have created Grunge Rock, they would probably say they were more of a heavy punk band anyway, but they brought it to the masses. More on that in a future posting.

But for a few years in the early 1990s the biggest and most relevant band in the world was Nirvana. And in thew spring of 1994 it all ended. When lead singer Kurt Cobain shot himself in a back room in his Seattle home. I remember being stunned. Though they would release a few more live albums. It was over. There was nothing more to hear.

Until almost 10 years after the angry voice of my generation silenced himself, they released a Best of Album simply called Nirvana. It is a really great mix of pre-mega stardom, and peak. On the album was one new song. You Know You're Right. When I first heard it on the radio I was blown away. I practically wore out my copy of the cd.

Even though it was written and recorded in the 90s it was fresh, innovative and relevant nearly a decade later. That made me happy.

The lyrics much like many of Nirvana's lyrics bring two opposite emotions together. On one hand Kurt is singing about giving up and being ok with it. Then in his guttural yells he exclaims that "things have never been so swell!" The chorus reeks of being fed up, with being a rock star, being a big business and everything else Kurt was going through. I know when I'm frustrated and don't want to argue a point anymore I'll just concede that the other person is right just to end it.

Musically it was way ahead of its time. It probably wouldn't have been a hit when it was originally recorded. But compared to everything else that was flooding the market when this gem was finally released, it was probably one of the best songs released that year.

I'm sure you don't remember this Olivia when we played it on the stereo you were dancing around. You have good taste.

Really Olivia?

I heard something really disturbing from your mama this week. You love the theme song for the show Hannah Montana. Egads! that isn't good music. This list is coming right in time. I guess there are some catchy parts "we'll chill and take real slow/then rock out the show", but you are only 19-months old. There are lots of flashing lights and the song is very upbeat. I can garuntee that The Best of Both Worlds will not appear on this list.

#100

Welcome to the Jungle
Guns N Roses
Appetite for Destruction (1987)



Olivia and I were in the car coming back from Babik and Maimau's (Grandpa and Grandma in Armenian) house and Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N Roses came on. And this is where the idea came from. I could list a hundred or so songs that I think she needs to hear. Both because they are great songs and second because she will get to know me a little it better.

Admittedly the seed for this is the new Rosanne Cash album "The List" which as the story goes, her father Johnny Cash gave her a list of 100 country songs that he felt she needed to know. She recorded several of them for her album. My list is not in any particular order, so song #100 Welcome to the Jungle is no more or less relevant to song #37 whatever that may be. I'll post a new song on Tuesdays, since that is when new albums drop.

So Welcome to the Jungle.

I first heard Welcome to the Jungle in 1988. I was a freshman in high school and the first "metal chick" I ever knew Veronica Varconi (or something like that) was in my music class and she brought in a cassette single of Welcome to the Jungle to play during one of our classes. Our Music teacher, who had played back ground keyboards for Bon Jovi at one point, let us bring in music to play for the class. I had never heard anything like it before. Later that week I went over to the TSS store next to school and bought the cassette single. Which we wore out, until eventually buying Appetite for Destruction on tape.

GNR was at its raw creative peak. It was harder and angrier than anything else that was on the radio. It is the song that basically killed Glam Rock and opened the door for metal and heavier hard rock to become a mainstream style of music.

Musically it is a car with no breaks speeding towards a brick wall, though the chaos is contained as the instruments and vocals blend perfectly together. So basically 23 years later this song really holds up, its not nostalgia it is just a great great song.