I heard this song when I was in the pub on Friday night and it set me off on a weekend of reminiscing. Pearl Jam were the first band my brother and I ever really bonded over. I remember being dead impressed that he wanted to listen to them (in fact, I think he owned this album - on cassette, naturally - before I did), deciding that perhaps my younger brothers weren't total townie lost causes (sorry Richard!).
I find myself thinking about the 90s a lot lately. Call it a midlife crisis; call it the fact that everyone is wandering around in leggings, Doc Martens and grandad cardigans. In reality I was slightly too young for grunge (I was only 13 in 1991, when Nevermind came out, and only started properly listening to grunge bands after Kurt had already died). Britpop was more my era, but funnily enough I'm not finding myself getting misty eyed about Pulp or Elastica like I am about Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
When I was in Seattle last summer I saw the exhibition Taking Punk To The Masses (nominally about Nirvana, but really a history of alternative music in the USA) and found it a pretty powerful experience.
Reading the book, thinking about the exhibition, remembering Seattle, watching the documentary Seven Ages Of Rock: Left Of The Dial (about the rise of alternative rock in the US, focusing in large part on Nirvana and REM), and listening to Pearl Jam. My weekend was spent with my mind firmly in the Pacific Northwest, circa 1992. Can you be nostalgic for something you didn't actually live through?
Good choice! Yeah Im reminiscing about the 90's in a big way too these days. Everything seemed more innocent and fun back then. I hope you don't mind I have put a link to you on my post I am publishing tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteDon't mind at all! I enjoyed your recent tune Tuesday about Distillers- promptly went and listened to them again.
ReplyDeleteCheers for that!
ReplyDeleteEven though I wasn't 13 in 1991(!), I kind of get what you mean. Q TV had a 9 hour 90s video Top 100 on at the weekend, which I'm currently about half-way through watching. And as about 99% of the tunes so far made up my DJ sets 'back-in-the-day', I've been getting a tad nostagically misty-eyed too. The 90s was a great decade for music: fact.
ReplyDeleteGraham, your DJ sets were the absolute best at Alcatraz! I have fond memories of S Club 7, Tool, De La Soul, Chemical Brothers, Blink 182 and The Smiths all in one set.
ReplyDelete