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Post by kds on Oct 31, 2021 1:12:12 GMT
The Unplugged version of Layla was a beast. The 90s were funny. Alternative rock was taking over, but a laid back AC version of an early 70s classic rock staple, performed by an "old guy" with sport coat and glasses was a monster hit.
Not to mention the success of Billy Joel's final album, and Meat Loaf's comeback.
One of my favorite 1993 albums was Deep Purple's The Battle Rages On. Its the final album from the classic Mk2 lineup of Blackmore, Lord, Paice, Gillan, and Glover. It's more uneven than their early 70s albums (those albums set the bar very high), but the title track and Anya are amazing.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 31, 2021 21:21:22 GMT
I thought considering the era, some context from MTV might be helpful, too. Here are the nominees and winners of major categories from the '93 MTV Music Awards.
Video of the Year
Pearl Jam – "Jeremy"
Aerosmith – "Livin' on the Edge" En Vogue – "Free Your Mind" Peter Gabriel – "Digging in the Dirt" R.E.M. – "Man on the Moon"
Best Male Video
Lenny Kravitz – "Are You Gonna Go My Way"
Peter Gabriel – "Steam" George Michael – "Killer/Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" Sting – "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You"
Best Female Video
k.d. lang – "Constant Craving"
Neneh Cherry – "Buddy X" Janet Jackson – "That's the Way Love Goes" Annie Lennox – "Walking on Broken Glass"
Best Group Video
Pearl Jam – "Jeremy"
Depeche Mode – "I Feel You" En Vogue – "Free Your Mind" R.E.M. – "Man on the Moon"
Best New Artist in a Video
Stone Temple Pilots – "Plush"
Tasmin Archer – "Sleeping Satellite" Belly – "Feed the Tree" Porno for Pyros – "Pets"
Best Metal/Hard Rock Video
Pearl Jam – "Jeremy"
Aerosmith – "Livin' on the Edge" Helmet – "Unsung" Nine Inch Nails – "Wish"
Best R&B Video
En Vogue – "Free Your Mind"
Mary J. Blige – "Real Love" Boyz II Men – "End of the Road" Prince and The New Power Generation – "7"
Best Rap Video
Arrested Development – "People Everyday"
Digable Planets – "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" Dr. Dre – "Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang" Naughty by Nature – "Hip Hop Hooray"
Best Dance Video
En Vogue – "Free Your Mind"
Janet Jackson – "That's the Way Love Goes" RuPaul – "Supermodel" Stereo MCs – "Connected"
Best Alternative Video
Nirvana – "In Bloom"
4 Non Blondes – "What's Up?" Belly – "Feed the Tree" Porno for Pyros – "Pets" Stone Temple Pilots – "Plush"
And here are the performers:
Madonna – "Bye Bye Baby" Lenny Kravitz (with John Paul Jones) – "Are You Gonna Go My Way" Sting – "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" Soul Asylum, Peter Buck and Victoria Williams – "Runaway Train" Aerosmith – "Livin' on the Edge" Naughty By Nature – "Hip Hop Hooray" R.E.M. – "Everybody Hurts"/"Drive" Spin Doctors – "Two Princes" Pearl Jam – "Animal"/"Rockin' in the Free World" (with Neil Young) The Edge – "Numb" Janet Jackson – "That's the Way Love Goes"/"If"
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 31, 2021 21:44:58 GMT
In November 1993, arguably the biggest hard-rock megastars int he world, Guns 'n' Roses, released a new album. As long as they took between Appetite For Destruction and its true follow-up, their double double-albums Use Your Illusion I&II--each disc was essentially a double album, at ~75 minutes--this could have been considered a quick turnaround.
But it wasn't a new album proper: The Spaghetti Incident? comprised a baker's dozen covers (or fourteen, counting the controversial hidden track). Among those artists being covered were Nazareth ("Hair of the Dog"), the Misfits, the Damned, the New York Dolls, and perhaps most surprisingly, the Skyliners ("Since I Don't Have You"). (Yes, I think the choice to cover the Skyliners was more surprising than the aforementioned controversial one to cover Charles Manson, though obviously that's the one they caught hell for. And note I am not saying it was a good decision to cover Manson.)
The album was not only not a new originals album, it wasn't even quite a new album: they'd recorded its music during the marathon Illusion sessions, not quite sure how they'd be used. Izzy Stradlin had been on many of the songs, but his parts were replaced by Gilby Clarke performances.
While it never had a big reputation and was comparatively unsuccessful, it did peak at #4 in the US and went platinum.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Oct 31, 2021 21:48:47 GMT
I thought considering the era, some context from MTV might be helpful, too. Here are the nominees and winners of major categories from the '93 MTV Music Awards.
Video of the Year
Pearl Jam – "Jeremy" R.E.M. – "Man on the Moon"
Best Male Video
Sting – "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You"
Best New Artist in a Video
Stone Temple Pilots – "Plush"
By 1993, popular music was passing me by. I wasn't a big fan of the songs above ^ back then, but have since grown to like them very much:
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Post by kds on Nov 1, 2021 12:20:32 GMT
I didn't really get into STP until the late 90s, after Scott Weiland stopped using the "yarling" vocals (a vocal technique that I detest, and credit for forever ruining male rock vocals).
For me, 1993 was probably the last gasp, or close to the last gasp, for rock's golden era (IMO). Grunge and alternative were really taking over, but there was still room for former rock in the mainstream. As already mentioned, Aerosmith released the last of their big three "sober / comeback" albums with Get a Grip. Bands like Metallica and GNR were still getting regular play for their big 1991 releases. Motley Crue's Vince Neil had a pretty successful solo debut in 1993, with Exposed. IMO, it's actually better than any album Crue would release afterward. Van Halen's live version of Won't Get Fooled Again from their 1993 live album was pretty big.
Some of the old guard also began to adapt to the grunge thing. Scorpions and Rush each released albums in 1993 with a bit of a sludgier sound. They didn't go quite as far as Crue or Poison would go, but it's noticeable.
With Whitesnake at the end of their initial run, David Coverdale paired with Jimmy Page for......um..Coverdale Page. It's a really solid Zeppelin-esque album. It's too bad there was never a follow up.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 1, 2021 12:25:02 GMT
Just an observation: 1993 seems to be smack in the middle of the "grunge" era, or at least the early stages of "grunge-to-alternative." But when you look at the Billboard year-end Top 40, there are literally no grunge bands or songs, and the only things you could call alternative to chart among them are Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" and Spin Doctors' "Two Princes," both of which are pretty squarely in the traditional rock camp.
However, hard rock and heavy metal are entirely absent from that Top 40.
The MTV showings are a bit different, as usual. There is more evidence of both hard rock/metal and grunge/alternative there.
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Post by kds on Nov 1, 2021 12:37:17 GMT
Back in the 80s, there were bands that had the "hair band" look, but not so much the same sound. Great White comes to mind, as they were more of a blues rock band.
I think Soul Asylum was the 1990s version of that. They looked like a grunge group, but definitely had a cleaner, more traditional rock sound.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 1, 2021 12:40:57 GMT
I think Soul Asylum was the 1990s version of that. They looked like a grunge group, but definitely had a cleaner, more traditional rock sound. For sure. They were a local Minneapolis band, so I know them a bit more. They were very much of the same post-punk rock scene that produced the Replacements, Husker Du, etc. In fact, they were out of that era: they formed in 1981! It's just that it took them forever to get a hit--and when they did, it was the tightened up, cleaned up, very melodic "Runaway Train."
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Post by kds on Nov 1, 2021 13:06:12 GMT
I think Soul Asylum was the 1990s version of that. They looked like a grunge group, but definitely had a cleaner, more traditional rock sound. For sure. They were a local Minneapolis band, so I know them a bit more. They were very much of the same post-punk rock scene that produced the Replacements, Husker Du, etc. In fact, they were out of that era: they formed in 1981! It's just that it took them forever to get a hit--and when they did, it was the tightened up, cleaned up, very melodic "Runaway Train." Wow, I didn't know they went back that far.
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Post by kds on Nov 1, 2021 13:24:46 GMT
I remember 1993 being a big year for Paul McCartney. He released Off the Ground, which is a pretty uneven album, but has some strong material like Hope of Deliverance, Get Out of My Way, and Biker Like an Icon.
He appeared on SNL in early 1993 to promote the album. In addition to performing three songs, he appeared in the cold open to make a brief callback to Lorne Michaels's 1976 offer of $3,000 for a Beatles reunion and in a hilarious Chris Farley Show skit. In June, one of his concerts was broadcast on network TV. I'll never forget our Fox affiliate interrupting the coda of Hey Jude to promote the News at Ten.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 1, 2021 13:50:32 GMT
The Unplugged version of Layla was a beast. The 90s were funny. Alternative rock was taking over, but a laid back AC version of an early 70s classic rock staple, performed by an "old guy" with sport coat and glasses was a monster hit. I'm not a fan of the unplugged version. I think "Layla", the original version, is a song that can't be improved. I give Clapton credit for not simply re-recording it; he gave it a complete makeover; that took guts. But, again, a lot was lost on the unplugged version IMO. However, it was huge hit so many other people loved it.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 1, 2021 13:54:22 GMT
In 1993, I was 16-17 years old and still a guitar fanatic. While my tastes had by then expanded beyond the realm of post-Van Halen pyrotechnics, I still had a soft spot for shredders for a few years to come. But it wasn't just straightforward shredders I loved: I liked players with personality, humor, creativity.
Steve Vai, as I've said before, was maybe my ultimate guitar hero. I'd learned of him through David Lee Roth's first two solo albums, probably with "Yankee Rose" first of all, and that cemented his status for me. I followed him through the later '80s with DLR's Skyscraper, Whitesnake's 1989 Slip of the Tongue, and his own 1990 masterpiece Passion & Warfare, so I was more than a little excited for what was to come next.
In 1993, he released his follow-up to Passion & Warfare. But instead of being a guitar solo album with session musicians contributing as necessary, it was marketed as a true band. (The band's name, Vai, should have said it all.) The legendary Terry Bozzio was on drums; New York session ace T.M. Stevens (everyone from Joe Cocker to James Brown to Billy Squier to Cyndi Lauper to the Pretenders) was on bass; and young (21) singer Devin Townsend at the mic.
The key takeaway: it was a disappointment, a fairly mediocre album, neither fish nor fowl.
Vai sounded like he wanted a hit record and a real band in which everyone contributed. But by his own subsequent accounts, he was at the height of his ego and arrogance and micromanaged it. In the end, he wrote 11 of the album's 13 songs by himself, co-writing one with Townsend and one with hit-maker Desmond Child. (The latter a nod to the goal of making a hit.) It was very much a Steve Vai album. What's more, some of the album seemed like contrived controversy, such as the title track.
For an album intended to make a mark with the public, it was still also very much a guitar record. There were guitar feature instrumentals, and even the vocal tracks all predictably, heavily featured Vai. It was bloated, overdramatic (see: the 8:25 long epic anthem-power ballad "Rescue Me or Bury Me").
By the time the group went on tour, both Bozzio and Stevens were gone. The video for the first single, the vaguely poppy Child co-write "In My Dreams With You," already had replacements in the rhythm section. (The second single, the much heavier "Deep Down Into the Pain," features the "real" band that recorded it, making me wonder whether a) wiki is wrong on the order, or b) they just recorded that video first for some reason.)
There was too much a guitar-hero emphasis for it to be popular with the general public, but there was too much a concession to both straight-ahead metal (at times) and vocals for it to be a favorite of the crowd who would otherwise uy Steve Vai records. While its predecessor had broken the Top 20 and went gold, Sex & Religion barely cracked the Top 50 and sold fewer than 190k copies.
For all the album's mediocrity and excesses, I sure as hell got a kick out of "Pig."
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Post by kds on Nov 1, 2021 14:02:16 GMT
The Unplugged version of Layla was a beast. The 90s were funny. Alternative rock was taking over, but a laid back AC version of an early 70s classic rock staple, performed by an "old guy" with sport coat and glasses was a monster hit. I'm not a fan of the unplugged version. I think "Layla", the original version, is a song that can't be improved. I give Clapton credit for not simply re-recording it; he gave it a complete makeover; that took guts. But, again, a lot was lost on the unplugged version IMO. However, it was huge hit so many other people loved it. I thought it was OK, but I don't think it really deserved all the love it got at the time.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 1, 2021 14:41:57 GMT
With Whitesnake at the end of their initial run, David Coverdale paired with Jimmy Page for......um..Coverdale Page. It's a really solid Zeppelin-esque album. It's too bad there was never a follow up. (This first part will sound weird...)
Having been a Whitesnake fan for a good five years by this time, and a Zeppelin one for maybe about two or three, I was really excited for this album. And yes, of course by 1993 I knew Zeppelin were better than Whitesnake ... but it's Whitesnake I knew first and had a real affection for, even if the first thing I heard of theirs--"Still of the Night"--was obviously a Zep ripoff.
Honestly this album underwhelmed me, because I was hoping for a return of Led Zeppelin more or less. Instead it is a solid, second-rate Zeppelin style band. Coverdale's vocals actually were sketchy, in my opinion, with more gruffness and rasp than I would have expected. (He sounds so hoarse on things like "Take Me For A Little While." But he also sounds perfectly fine elsewhere.)
But some of the riffs are really cool, whether in "Take it Easy," "Over Now," or the singles.
I've wondered in hindsight if a more creative rhythm section would have been a better choice than what amounted to session players. But I suppose two superstar egos are enough to balance with a new project without trying to find another Bonzo or JPJ.
Surprisingly, while the album hasn't necessarily been at the forefront of the public's mind these past two decades, it was a reasonable hit: it peaked at #5 in the US and #4 in the UK, going platinum in the US and Canada, gold in Japan, and silver in the UK.
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Post by kds on Nov 1, 2021 15:01:26 GMT
With Whitesnake at the end of their initial run, David Coverdale paired with Jimmy Page for......um..Coverdale Page. It's a really solid Zeppelin-esque album. It's too bad there was never a follow up. (This first part will sound weird...)
Having been a Whitesnake fan for a good five years by this time, and a Zeppelin one for maybe about two or three, I was really excited for this album. And yes, of course by 1993 I knew Zeppelin were better than Whitesnake ... but it's Whitesnake I knew first and had a real affection for, even if the first thing I heard of theirs--"Still of the Night"--was obviously a Zep ripoff.
Honestly this album underwhelmed me, because I was hoping for a return of Led Zeppelin more or less. Instead it is a solid, second-rate Zeppelin style band. Coverdale's vocals actually were sketchy, in my opinion, with more gruffness and rasp than I would have expected. (He sounds so hoarse on things like "Take Me For A Little While." But he also sounds perfectly fine elsewhere.)
But some of the riffs are really cool, whether in "Take it Easy," "Over Now," or the singles.
I've wondered in hindsight if a more creative rhythm section would have been a better choice than what amounted to session players. But I suppose two superstar egos are enough to balance with a new project without trying to find another Bonzo or JPJ.
Surprisingly, while the album hasn't necessarily been at the forefront of the public's mind these past two decades, it was a reasonable hit: it peaked at #5 in the US and #4 in the UK, going platinum in the US and Canada, gold in Japan, and silver in the UK.
I like the album a lot, but I do wish it felt more like a collaboration of the two talents rather than DC leaning into the Zeppelin curve. I remember growing up, I'd always heard criticisms of Coverdale as a wannabe Plant. Of course, this album didn't help. But, at the time, I was completely unaware of Coverdale's past with Deep Purple and early Whitesnake where he's much more of a bluesy / soulful singer. I would've liked to hear some of that on the CP album.
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