"Tonight, Tonight" is the best song of the 90s.

[ahoythematey]

Johnny Cash's "Hurt" is on par with Shatner's "Common People".  Its all about the novelty

You are wrong, their very appeal is based on the importance of the original songs.

They are good covers, made good because they have a direct contrast to the original.  Though Shatner's humour reaches far they are generally only good covers to people that know the original.  A truly good cover is one where people have to remember that there was an original.

I get it, he's a big american icon and could have sang "Baby got back" on his deathbed and it would have been praised as a poignant insight into the baser instincts that controlled his life. I'm sure there are plenty of Americans in his core demographic that didn't know it was a cover as well.  What the fuck ever, his voice in the song is shit, the acoustic is pretty good but doesn't hold up to the original.  Its a good song, especially if you care about him but I can't see many people who don't know the history picking it over the original.

To those of us elsewhere some american country singer was made cooler by the fact that he even knew about NIN let alone covered them.  That was all.

It was a cool novelty, people liked the song, but yes it was a novelty to have Johnny Cash playing on the station.

I may have missed something, but you must forgive me: I'm only one man and it is a mountain of shit.

[Baldrake]

I'm 32 actually, at what age was I supposed to care about country music?  It's about the only genre I have never cared about, I know I am not alone and in people older than me.

If you're talking about country music as Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton (or pretty much anything played on country music stations), then I'm 100% with you. But country is a very broad genre, and there's more there than you might think. Did you know, for example, that Ray Charles considered himself a country singer? Or that the music in O Brother Where Art Thou is the original country music? Sure, Johnny Cash is country, but he's the good kind of country.

[Bunk]

And now I'm remembering more 1990s British stuff ... did this make it across the Atlantic?

Kill Your Television - Ned's Atomic Dustbin

Unbelievable - EMF

Don't remember the first one, but the year Unbelievable came out, it and Right here Right now by Jesus Jones were huge hits. I am willing to bet that 99.9% of America would not be able to name another single by either band however.

[Johny Cee]

Actually before anyone else writes another condescending as fuck post to me I concede.  I can see people are ascribing this song far more value and representation of his whole career than what I thought.  I was just looking at the song, I could see that it had extra value to fans but I didn't think people where using it broadly to be the focus of their respect and appreciation for the man.  If people think I was being dismissive of him because I enjoyed the song as a novelty, well I was a bit, but not in a way intended to shit over everything he achieved.

It's only really a novelty if it's a one off.  He put out five "American" albums,  and each one had at least a couple of songs that were just unreal.  He jumped around between country, bluesy tunes, reimaginings of traditional, rock, or whatever.

"Hurt"
"The Man Comes Around"
"God's Gonna Cut You Down" Great song,  great video.
"Rusty Cage"
"Personal Jesus"
"I've Been Everywhere"

etc.

Also, just calling him a Country artist is a huge misclassification.  He started out back before there was clear borders between rock, blues, and country;  and he had hits that could easily be classified as any of those.  Shit,  he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in '92.

[Grand Design]

I'm 32 actually, at what age was I supposed to care about country music?  It's about the only genre I have never cared about, I know I am not alone and in people older than me.

If you're talking about country music as Dwight Yoakam and Dolly Parton (or pretty much anything played on country music stations), then I'm 100% with you.

I wouldn't throw Dwight Yoakam under the bus.  Guitars, Cadillacs..., Ain't That Lonely Yet and Thousand Miles From Nowhere are some good songs.  He reminds me of Roy Orbison, a la You Got It.

[stray]

yes, dwight's an "alt country" guy, much like Cash was.. not nearly the same wide appeal, of course.. but he isn't completely immersed in standard country. still in touch with rockabilly roots and shit (which good country musicians tend to be).

[Grimwell]

But yeah sorry to be lazy, I'll start researching everything I hear on the radio, would hate to miss out on any necessary extra context.  Heaven forbid you be allowed to judge a song based on how it sounds.

You may want to cut back on the Fosters so you can think all the way through a sentence and get the point at the end eh?

My point isn't that you should know Johnny Cash because you heard him on the radio and declared him Robot Jesus and needed to start an Australian chapter to knowing why he's fucking awesome. My point is that if you are going to wade into an internet thread and trade punches over the merit of any artist and their work with people who actually know that artist better than you, you should spend the thirty seconds it takes to search that artist out on the Internet and learn more about what you are trying to say.

Otherwise you do look like a lazy idiot who's more excited about the idea of his thoughts and defending them blindly than someone who's trying to discuss the point in a critical and productive manner.

You don't think Cash's version of Hurt is as good as Trent's? Great, I am good with that, just as I think that Schild was hitting a crack pipe laced with LSD and DMSO when he declared anything by the Smashing Pumpkin's as the greatest from the 90's... but if you want to pick a bone about it with people who know NiN and Cash as fans, you might want to bone up on your knowledge about the actual history of the artists before you start replying to everyone who tells you that you are wrong.

Then again, this is the Internet and a message board, I'm not sure why I'm actually expecting you to care about making useful posts. My bad.

[Tale]

You may want to cut back on the Fosters

FYI nobody ever drank Fosters since its brief popularity in the 1980s, after which the rest of the world was lied to about it. The 1990s beer was ... hmm ... Victoria Bitter?

[Evildrider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_N7rv-iN8

[Fraeg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID_N7rv-iN8

that was from the 90's? 

I think that guy was channeling this song straight from 1984 
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=T_WZP0LzC4Q

hmm Lisa Lisa

[Phildo]

Nah, the Jermaine Stewart song was from 1986.

[K9]

We have a thread about songs from the 90s and nobody mentioned Chumbawumba - Tubthumping?

Colour me disappointed.

[Tale]

We have a thread about songs from the 90s and nobody mentioned Chumbawumba - Tubthumping?

Colour me disappointed.

Seemed like a novelty song to me. Now you've got me thinking of I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred (1992).

[Nebu]

If you're going that route, there's that handsome duo to consider.

[Grimwell]

You may want to cut back on the Fosters

FYI nobody ever drank Fosters since its brief popularity in the 1980s, after which the rest of the world was lied to about it. The 1990s beer was ... hmm ... Victoria Bitter?

I know, that's why I chose it. Same for Vegemite right? Or calling the ladies Sheila? :)

[Murgos]

Why are people haolding up November Rain as the ne plus ultra of GnR ballads? Patience is a zillion times better in every respect.

Because Patience was released in 1988 and thus not a 90's song?

[Ingmar]

Odelay or Midnite Vultures, Beck. Pick any song more or less.

100 years from now, that will be what they're teaching you in music history class.

[Azazel]

I know, that's why I chose it. Same for Vegemite right? Or calling the ladies Sheila? :)

You're joking? Or not?

Most (civilised) Australians don't call women "sheila". But Vegemite is totally was, is and always will be

In fact, I'm going to have some on toast right after I finish this post. Thanks!

 

[Grand Design]

(civilised) Australians

 

[dusematic]

You know, I think we forget how huge Kissed By A Rose was.  On a long car ride to a Columbus Day soccer tournament in 6th grade, I discovered to my dismay the full extent of its popularity.  One of my buddies had a tape with nothing but endless back-to-back cycles of the song.  I'd say hearing Kissed By A Rose 200-300 times in a row on both legs of the journey could have had an impact on a young developing mind. 

[Phildo]

We were all wrong until now.

[stray]

I think I generally dislike all love songs that refer to "Roses" or "November". I'm not incapable of being sappy, but that's just way too Hallmark for me.

[Grand Design]

We were all wrong until now.

And, by extension, this was the best song of the 80s.

[JWIV]

If you're going that route, there's that handsome duo to consider.

Oh I see your Proclaimers and raise you a Deep Blue Something

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcmH1LdPNKA

[Pot Pol]

Teardrop by Massive Attack. Nothing else comes close.

[Nevermore]

See, I love 'Group Four' from the same album even more.  I don't think it was released as a single, though.

[apocrypha]

No no, Dissolved Girl is the best track on that album     Although Inertia Creeps is pretty good too.

[Grand Design]

Mezzanine pales in comparison to 100th Window.

[Daeven]

Help us. Surely the 90s isn't as horrible as we're remembering. Or is it?

Out of personal masturbatory interests, I'll add Once in a Lifetime - Wolfsheim.

The only way you can possibly imagine saying that is if you missed the 80's. And god help you if you are comparing the 90's to Disco. Seriously. Get a lobotomy if that's the case, because you are very, very broken.

[photek]

Mezzanine pales in comparison to 100th Window.

Come the fuck on. That should be in green.

[Phildo]

This whole thread should be in green.

[Righ]

Mezzanine pales in comparison to 100th Window.

Come the fuck on. That should be in green.

Really. That's like saying that Amnesiac is a better album than OK Computer - wrong.

[Teleku]

This thread, and everybody who posted in it (including me now) needs to be simultaneously crucified and burned at the stake.  Green doesn't absolve anything.

JESUS

TAP DANCING

GODDAMN

MOTHERFUCKING

ROLLERSKATING

H.

CHRIST.

[ahoythematey]

So does that mean you are nominating Mmmmbop, Teleku?

[Hoax]

I'm totally helping



Random decent to good rap songs off the top of my head, I bet they are all from the 90's:
Cormega - More Crime
Gangstarr - Militia
Geto Boys - G Code