25 Years Since....November 1993

Unfortunately I was unable to login to this blog at the end of November so have had to wait until now to look back at the records I was enjoying 25 years ago:

Guns n Roses - Ain't It Fun

This was the first single to be released from the upcoming "Spaghetti Incident" album. It had been known for sometime that a new album from Guns n Roses was coming and I was excited to hear new material from them.

When the album did come out the first thing that struck me was the lack of and Explicit Lyrics sticker on the cover. When I looked in the sleeve notes I discovered that every track on the album was a cover which I found quite disappointing.

This particular song was originally by Rocket from the Tombs. Guns n Roses were still my favourite band at the time but it wasn't long after this they would slide down the rankings and eventually become a band I didn't like at all.

Levellers - This Garden

The second single to be released from their self titled third album, I preferred this to the first single "Belaruse".

I always found it quite a bizarre song. In the video you see them sat around with a couple of guitars during a spoken verse but there's so much more going on in the song that guitars. That's probably why I liked it.

The Levellers were still a band who divided opinion. My memory on where I stood is a bit vague, I thought that I had written the Levellers off as being too soft by this point by I do remember this song coming out and liking it and I don't think I ever made a secret of that either.

Aerosmith - Cryin

Aerosmith are perhaps seen by many as the Rock band for people not into Rock Music. It wasn't always like that but perhaps this was the song that started that transition.

They were never a band who would appear in many peoples Top 10 bands lists at the time, probably because they were a bit old. But nobody would be getting slated for liking an Aerosmith song either.

Despite being around since 1970 this was only their 5th Top 40 hit. The previous singles were more Hard Rock, but generally speaking I do prefer the Aerosmith ballads to their heavier singles.

Freak Power - Turn On Tune In Cop Out

In the era of Grungers vs Ravers you could say that anything came under the Rock, Metal or Indie categories could be listened to by Grungers and anything that came under the Dance category could be listened to by Ravers. But what about Acid Jazz?

This was a minor hit at the time which became a much bigger hit when it charted again in 1995. I do however remember hearing this on the radio at the time and liking the opening bassline. Despite Acid Jazz having more in common with Dance music that it does Rock, it was considered acceptable for Grungers to listen to Acid Jazz, there were some who listened to Jamiroquai for example. This was probably because these were bands who used guitars.

The bass player from Freak Power was the future Fatboy Slim, Norman Cook. They had one further hit in 1998 with "No Way" by which point Fatboy Slim had already broken through into the mainstream and wasn't an Acid Jazz record, it was Big Beat.

Bee Gees - For Whom the Bell Tolls

I never admitted to liking this at the time, but it is a very good song.

The Bee Gees are remember by many as being a Disco group who sang in a squeaky voice, but the reality is they only did Disco in the late 70s but there time as a band lasted from 1958-2003.