Saturday, September 11, 2021

so, here's my 1989 playlist, which i'm going to be listening to as i do this writing, and which i may pare down substantively. i'll pull some of the things that are more important out; i think you can probably guess what most of them are going to be, and it's not necessarily the stuff i'd still point to as substantive.

you can hear that my little brain was mostly interested in 60s retro, and not contemporary 80s music, even if it didn't understand it. but, i was also looking forwards to the styles that would dominate the early to mid 90s. i had no interest in the music marketed to kids in those days, and while the gender imbalance isn't that bad given the sources i had, it is indeed overwhelmingly white. but, i mean, i'm pretty white, too. that changes a little as i age, but not a lot....

as mentioned, i didn't even have a cassette deck at the time. no walkman. nothing. i had an alarm clock, and the alarm clock had a radio. i had a tv, with access to muchmusic. that was it. and, i had parents with music collections, which i mostly hadn't raided, yet. i've mentioned before that i got my first rem dubs by taking the tapes out of the library. i knew some of the names, but i was exposed to much of what my mom listened to and didn't like really any of it, while my dad's collection was esoteric and difficult, and would be for most eight year-olds. that will be a running narrative, but not yet. 

my dad liked a little u2 (mostly due to the eno thing) and my mom had some older 70s glam that was less terrible than the 80s stuff, but neither of them listened to the student rock i listened to from about the ages of 8-12 and neither would have had much interest in 90% of what's compiled, here. you can get a good taste of what's coming from 1990-1993 or so, when i started to switch over to punk and industrial. 

i will review some of the records these tracks are on when i get the ghetto blaster after christmas, but i will be selective. i'm going to need to do a comprehensive survey of tears for fears, for sure. 

fuck, i forgot how good this was:


i'm building a 1989 playlist.

i didn't know it at the time, but it actually sounds more like 1969 than 1989.

i was eight years old, but i clearly had about as good taste as an eight year-old can have.

how honest is this, really? it's stretching mildly - i didn't get into some of this until i was more like 10.
there's a lot of canadiana on there.

well, i lived in canada.

i have very early memories of bruce cockburn, actually.

a lot of this is probably his fault.


ok, so this is a shortlist of items i pulled from the canadian charts from 1989 that's likely to be of some significance: 

4 4 14 Big League-Tom Cochrane & Red Rider
 14 14 15 Desire-U2
18 18 11 In Your Room-Bangles
19 24 9 Five Long Years-Colin James
10 22 8 Smooth Criminal-Michael Jackson
14 11 13 I Don't Want Your Love-Duran Duran
20 40 4 Angel Of Harlem-U2
20 26 7 Born To Be My Baby-Bon Jovi
20 24 7 Tell Somebody-Sass Jordan
17 26 6 The Living Years-Mike & The Mechanics
20 22 9 Send Your Love-Glass Tiger
20 29 9 If A Tree Falls-Bruce Cockburn
 9 18 8 Good Times-Tom Cochrane
14 22 8 Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)-Enya
 11 7 13 My Heart Can't Tell You No-Rod Stewart
13 28 7 Eternal Flame-The Bangles
16 25 8 She Drives Me Crazy-Fine Young Cannibals
15 23 6 The Look-Roxette
18 31 3 Like A Prayer-Madonna
12 27 8 Girl You Know It's True-Milli Vanilli
15 25 10 Stand-R.E.M.
19 28 5 Diamond Mine-Blue Rodeo
13 25 8 I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU-Bon Jovi
18 28 8 DOUBLE TROUBLE-Sass Jordan
20 24 8 ANGEL EYES-Jeff Healey Band
18 26 8 I WON'T BACK DOWN-Tom Petty
10 22 6 SATISFIED-Richard Marx
19 30 9 LOVE IS-Alannah Myles
19 35 7 IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME BY NOW-Simply Red
20 31 5 BABY DON'T FORGET MY NUMBER-Milli Vanilli
10 22 5 EXPRESS YOURSELF-Madonna
11 59 3 BATDANCE-Prince
12 8 14 I WON'T BACK DOWN-Tom Petty
15 24 6 SO ALIVE-Love & Rockets
16 26 5 END OF INNOCENCE-Don Henley
17 22 7 CRAZY ABOUT HER-Rod Stewart
20 23 8 DRESSED FOR SUCCESS-Roxette
12 24 6 ROCK N ROLL DUTY-Kim Mitchell
20 27 10 LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME-Bon Jovi
 1 3 7 RIGHT HERE WAITING-RICHARD MARX
 19 22 7 ALL THE THINGS I WASN'T-Grapes Of Wrath
20 21 10 BLACK VELVET-Alannah Myles
 7 19 6 GIRL I'M GONNA MISS YOU-Milli Vanilli
18 45 3 SOWING THE SEEDS OF LOVE-Tears For Fears
19 26 5 LOVE SONG-Cure
16 24 7 LISTEN TO YOUR HEART-Roxette
 18 25 7 NO SOUVENIRS-Melissa Etheridge
15 19 5 ANGELIA-Richard Marx
16 29 8 LOVE SHACK-B52s
10 25 3 ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE-Phil Colliins
13 21 9 DON'T ASK ME WHY-Eurythmics
17 7 14 CHERISH-Madonna
18 34 5 HEY MEN-Men Without Hats
10 15 6 WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE-Billy Joel
16 24 10 ROCKLAND WONDERLAND-Kim Mitchell
18 26 6 BLAME IT ON THE RAIN-Milli Vanilli
18 18 6 FREE FALLIN'-Tom Petty

i don't know how to make this comprehensive, given how young i was and that i can barely remember.

i also found the muchmusic charts and pulled these out:

 3 The Jeff Healey Band - Confidence Man 
 4 Colin James - Voodoo Thing 
25 Bon Jovi - Bad Medicine 
30 Glass Tiger - Far Away From Here
25 Duran Duran - All She Wants Is 
12 Michael Jackson - Leave Me Alone 
18 Tom Cochrane & Red Rider - Good Times 
29 Colin James - Why'd You Lie 
27 Glass Tiger - Watching Worlds Crumble 
27 The Cult - Fire Woman 
29 Cowboy Junkies - Misguided Angel 
28 Tom Cochrane & Red Rider - Victory Day 
28 Tin Machine - Under the God 
24 Roxette - Dressed For Success 
11 Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World 
22 Eurythmics - Don't Ask Me Why 
29 Sass Jordan - So Hard 
 Bon Jovi - Living In Sin 
12 Alannah Myles - Still Got This Thing 
13 Madonna - Oh Father 
22 Rod Stewart - Downtown Train 
24 Richard Marx - Angelia 
26 Tom Petty - Free Fallin' 
27 Tragically Hip - New Orleans Is Sinking 
29 Tears for Fears - Woman In Chains 
30 Eurythimics - Angel

i will not explore all of these, but i'll look at a few.