While driving to work last week “Interstate Love Song” by Stone Temple Pilots came on by way of a random shuffle on my iPod. It made me start to wonder why so many people ripped on the band when they first arrived, usually calling them a Pearl Jam rip-off. I will be the first to admit that Core and its single “Plush” got old after a little while but I found myself realizing (again) what I already knew in 1994: that Purple, the follow-up to Core, is a pretty great album and “Interstate Love Song” still holds remarkably well today and I would feel secure in saying that it is easily one of the best thirty songs of the ’90′s. But why were so many people quick to lay into them in 1993 for kinda, sorta sounding like Pearl Jam? I think this was one of the loosest criticisms of the decade because I never once heard Core and thought, “Well, yeah, this clearly sounds like Ten or Vs.”
Anyway, my mind eventually rattled around trying to think of albums and songs that were popular in 1993, the same year that Stone Temple Pilots apparently decided to copy Pearl Jam. After a quick scan I realized that 1993 was a pretty eclectic year. But, sometimes your mind plays tricks on you and your memories do not line up with reality so I decided to verify and cross-reference some things online and here is what I realized.
1993 may have been one of the best years in music.
It can compete with almost every individual year of the rock era but because there was no real social or political turmoil at the time, combined with the fact that teenagers of that generation had no interest in sentimentality it kind of falls by the wayside in terms of full-bodied greatness. But look at what albums and songs were released, which bands formed and broke up, and various other events occurred in 1993:
— CCR, The Doors, Sly & The Family Stone, Van Morrison, and Cream are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cream reunites at the ceremony to perform live). The Animals, The Band, The Grateful Dead, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Rod Stewart, and Elton John were all inducted in the 1994 class
— “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston is the #1 single for a record-breaking 14 consecutive weeks
— Get A Grip by Aerosmith, In Utero by Nirvana, Exile In Guyville by Liz Phair, Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins, Pablo Honey by Radiohead, Undertow by Tool, Republic by New Order, janet by Janet Jackson, Rid Of Me by PJ Harvey, August And Everything After by The Counting Crows, and Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg are released
— Prince’s name becomes an unpronounceable symbol
— The Velvet Underground reunite, perform live, and release Live MCMXCIII. The original members would never work together again
— Daft Punk, The Crystal Method, Wu-Tang Clan, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, The Hives, Korn, and Modest Mouse all form
— X, Happy Mondays and Pixies disband
— Frank Zappa dies
— “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by Meatloaf, “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” by UB40, “The Sign,” “Don’t Turn Around,” and “All That She Wants” by Ace of Base, “What Is Love?” by Haddaway, and “River Of Dreams” by Billy Joel are released
— “The Crying Game” by Boy George, “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M., “Fields Of Gold” by Sting, “Hey Jealousy” by Gin Blossoms, “Hip Hop Hooray” by Naughty By Nature, “Human Behaviour” by Bjork, “If” by Janet Jackson, “Insane In The Brain” by Cypress Hill, “No Rain” by Blind Melon, and “Rooster” by Alice In Chains are released
— Fumbling Towards Ecstasy by Sarah McLachlan is released
In summary, 1993 had a little bit of everything—the singles by Aerosmith, Whitney Houston, UB40, and Meatloaf were in another stratosphere of mega-popularity; Counting Crows, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots, and Liz Phair all released strong debuts; with the formations of Daft Punk and The Crystal Method the electronic music genre was aligning for its mainstream explosion a couple of years later; Green Day signed with a major music label as well as Oasis; songs like “No Rain” and “Hip Hop Hooray” helped round out the music scene mosaic. Additionally, 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged is one of the best live albums ever released and the cover of “Because The Night” is probably the best cover of the decade.
To be sure, some of the popular music of 1993 is either outright bad or can be looked at cynically after the fact (I could have done without The Bodyguard or Meatloaf, personally) but it is pretty impressive nonetheless. As quick as people would be to coronate 1967 as one of the best years in modern rock (and I would certainly lend heavy credence to that statement) our minds forget about all of the muck that took up residence in between releases by Pink Floyd, The Doors, the Beatles, the Stones, The Supremes, and others. For every great song there were still plenty of “Windy”s to make us groan.
1993 will never live up to 1967 in terms of overall significance. At least, not until all of the Baby Boomers are dead. But it was, in fact, extremely strong and maybe an essential 3-, 4-, or 5-disc box set is in order in celebration of its fifteen year anniversary. Who cannot see the awesomeness of hitting shuffle on that set and hearing “Hip Hop Hooray” followed by “Around Here”? Oh, it is no “When I’m Sixty-Four” followed by “Light My Fire” but it could be when enough time passes.