Listomania! - 1989

I look back on 1989 with great fondness. Martina and I had moved into our first apartment together. It was a huge, spacious dive-hole on Kipps Lane in the basement of an 11-storey building. It was freezing in the winter as the heat didn't work very well, sometimes not at all, but we had a ton of good times. The kids spent a lot of time with us and the 4 of us shared a lot of fun and laughs. To keep warm one night, we decided to roast marshmallows on the stove with the oven turned on and all of us huddling around it with our feet toasting on the open door. Gord has lots of memories of us listening to CBC Radio on the weekends late at night, tuning in to hear what great new music the host, David Wisdom, would be playing. We also used the cable on the stereo receiver to bring in a great new alternative rock radio station from Detroit called 89X, which we listened to all the time. Martina had started working at a London institution called Jenkins Garden House in addition to doing well at UWO. Jenkins was managed by the pitcher on my Slo-Pitch team, Rick Williamson, and he got Martina the job. She also served as scorekeeper for our team, which was sponsored by the factory that I worked at called Wolverine Tube. We had a great team of very talented players, who were even more talented at partying. We won 3 tournaments that summer and qualified for the Ontario Championships that fall in Unionville. We rented a bunch of motel rooms there and headed down on the Friday. We played that night, winning an exciting game by coming back in the bottom of the 9th inning. Martina and I had the end room at the motel, so it was decided that our room was party central. Our left-fielder and shortstop were drug dealers and our third baseman worked at the beer store, so, needless to say, we were well-stocked for the weekend's festivities. We drank and carried on until 4 in the morning and then drew straws to see who would be responsible to go around to each room and give the 6:30 AM wake-up call for our game at 7:30 the same morning. I drew the short straw, so I crashed for 2 hours and got up feeling a little green around the gills and headed down to knock on all the doors. I opened our door and noticed that there were empty beer bottles strategically placed in the hall, leading from our room to the room of our catcher, Bill "Hooch" Howard, who was 6'3" and about 280 lbs and a former All-Canadian offensive lineman at Western as well as a 10- year veteran of the CFL with Ottawa and Hamilton. He had dutifully left the beer bottle trail after finishing each beer the night before to find his way back to his room. And we thought he was just a big dummy! When I got to the door of the room that our left-fielder and shortstop were sharing, I noticed a distinctly familiar odour emanating from their room. I knocked on the door and when Scott our left-fielder answered, I walked in and was immediately engulfed in clouds of pot smoke. Seems they were already up and at it! We proceeded to win 4 games that day and we advanced to the provincial semi-finals at 9 the next morning. Now, sensible people would have gone back to their rooms and got to bed early to rest up for the big game, but not our pack of animals. We thought it best to go with what we knew, which was drinking and smoking until the wee hours again, as we were superstitious sorts and didn't want to change what had worked thus far. Well, we played the defending champs from the Brantford Fire Department on that early Sunday morning and our good fortune suddenly ran out. We could still catch and throw just fine, but 3 days of heavy partying had finally caught up to our bats. We only managed 3 runs in losing the game 4-3 to the eventual repeat champs. I still say after all these years that if they would have allowed us to use a beachball, we would have hit a lot better that game. We finished 4th in Ontario, which I am still proud of to this day, and I have the memories of one of the best times I ever had in my life. Here's what I was listening to that year:

10. Fool's Gold - The Stone Roses

This is the anthem of the Madchester scene of '89. Raves were all the -err-rave and this song was raverrific! Just listen to that funky bass laid down by their great bass player, Mani, while guitarist John Squire gets to play that funky wah-wah. This was not on the U.K. release of their self-titled debut album, but those of us on this side of the pond were lucky that the 12" version was included on the North American edition of the record. Singer Ian Brown sings this in an oh-so-cool and detached way, making this one of the best laid-back dance tunes of all time. "These boots were made for walking. The Marquis De Sade never made no boots like these." That's for sure! I had a pair of his and they were extremely uncomfortable!

9. No More - Neil Young

This was Neil's return to form after spending the '80s wallowing in mediocrity. Taken from the album Freedom, this song isn't as famous as Rocking In The Free World, but I like it so much better, especially since Free World was co-opted by hockey teams for playing during breaks in the action. Tony Marsico and his brilliant descending bass line set the tone here, with Neil's great guitar soloing putting the cherry on top. The solos on this song are among his best in my books, restrained but rocking all the same. I love the way they double-tracked the vocal too, giving his usually fragile voice some added power. "Like singin' the same old song and twistin' the words in a different way." Old farm a MacDonald had, ee-i-o-ee-i.........

8. From Out Of Nowhere - Faith No More

From their great breakthrough album, The Real Thing, these guys were among the pioneers of Nu-Metal. This song is heavy, but it has a catchy melody. New singer Mike Patton added a touch of zany to the band and his sneering, punky vocals gave the band a strong frontman that people could identify with. I love the beginning of this song, especially the snare drum shots at the 11-second mark that kick everything into high gear. I saw them play this in Detroit in 1990 as the opening band for Guns & Roses and Metallica, and it was the best song I heard all night long. "Tossed into my mind, stirring the calm. You splash me with beauty and pull me down." She's messin' with my mind man......

7. I'll Be You - The Replacements

Most critics consider the album Don't Tell A Soul, which this song comes from, to be the weakest 'Mats album. I disagree as I always found them to be a bit grating on the ears, but producer Matt Wallace has smoothed out the ragged edges and reined in their exaggerations, especially on this rocking anthem to disillusionment. Westerberg sounds a bit more mature, dealing with tougher subject matter here and I think there's nothing wrong with that. It is a signature Westerberg song though, with his scratchy voice sounding as good as ever. The guitars rock out and it is my fave song by them for sure. Upon first hearing it, you will be compelled to sing along for the rest of the day. "A dream too tired to come true, left a rebel without a clue." I wish I'd written that!

6. Here Comes Your Man - The Pixies

With an album like Doolittle, it is quite a chore to pick just 1 song for this list. I settled on this one because it is the most accessible song they ever did. The melody is fantastically memorable, with a brilliant and catchy guitar line augmenting Black Francis' restrained vocals - well, restrained for him anyway. (See Debaser from the same album for evidence of this restraint.) The band referred to this song as their "Tom Petty song" and I suppose Petty could have written this, but it still has some Pixie-isms that Petty could never have done. especially the "cool-chick" backing vocals of Kim Deal and the messy drum and guitar bit near the end. "Outside there's a box car waiting, outside the family store, out by the fire breathing, outside we wait 'til face turns blue." Whatcha waiting for?

5. Sun King - The Cult

This is what is called balls-out, full-bore, giant codpiece heavy metal. From the opening "This is where it all ends" spoken vocal, this is about as big as sound ever gets. Produced by Bob Rock before he did the Black Album for Metallica, this is The Cult going over the top and making the '70s album they always had in them. I mean, the album is called Sonic Temple, so they left no mystery as to what the sound would be like. Billy Duffy plays the full-on guitar hero very well, all ringing power-chords and ear-splitting solos. ably aided by the best frontman around at the time, Ian Astbury, who channels his best Jim Morrison. The lyrics mine the usual metal subjects of slutty women and the guys who can or cannot tame them, so no big surprise there. It was their last record with underrated bassist Jamie Stewart as well. "Strutting 'round with your head held high, what you trying to prove girl?" Yeah, you should be slinking 'round with your head sunk low already!

4. Fascination Street - The Cure

This song is all about the fantastic crawl-on-your-belly-through-the-gutter bass guitar playing of one Simon Gallup. What a monster riff! No, it's not complicated, but hot damn does it ever growl and snarl! Robert Smith was apparently at a low point in his life when writing the album this comes from, Disintegration. He had begun using hallucinogenic drugs heavily and was bummed-out because of the success of the band and the perception that they were peddlers of soft love songs for 14 year-old girls. That perception was true to some extent, but it also allowed Smith to live in whatever lifestyle he liked, so I don't have much sympathy for his so-called plight. This song is gloomy and Gothic, but it is also a great dance song, perhaps The Cure's best. The really ironic part is that this album turned out to be the most commercial one they ever released, despite Fat Bob's efforts. It made them huge megastars the world over and was probably the last really great record they put out. "So just pull on your hair, just pull on your pout, cut the conversation, just open your mouth" Wig? check...Lipstick? check...

3. Breath - Pere Ubu

Another great band from Cleveland, this album, Cloudland, was their attempt at being more radio-friendly and perhaps making some money. They failed miserably at being commercial, but, in my eyes, this is their best record. It was produced by Stephen Hague (New Order, Pet Shop Boys) and it does have a cleaner, poppier sound than most of their stuff, but that is a good thing here as the guitars sound great as usual, but much more melodic, and I loves me a good melody. The song uses dynamics very well, kind of working as a precursor to the sound of the early '90s with Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins. The vocals by leader David Thomas are smoother than usual, but it is still his distinctive yelp that is heard. It reminds me of house-sitting for the Bilys in July of '89 and playing the hell out of this record. "Don't let's talk about tomorrow, baby, standin' at the edge of sorrow. Let's watch the whole world goin' slow. let's watch the whole world goin'." Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll love ya tomorrow.......

2. See A Little Light - Bob Mould

I was never a big fan of Husker Du in the '80s as I found there songs all sounded pretty samey, but I sure grew to love Bob Mould and his solo work. I've seen him live 6 or 7 times in his various incarnations and I remain a massive fan of his work, especially from this album, his first solo outing called Workbook, through his '90s stuff with Sugar. Gone is the punk sound of Husker, gone are the ferocious speeds that they played at, having been replaced by jangly guitars and very melodic and memorable tunes. This song is considered to be his version of Husker Du's breakup, but I see it more as a song of a guy who is OK with who and where he is in life. The great Anton Fier played drums on Mould's first 2 solo albums, a great added bonus to me anyway. "I see a little light, i know you will, I can see it in your eyes, i know you still care. But if you want me to go, you should just say so." It's not you, it's me......

1. Sowing The Seeds Of Love - Tears For Fears

Man, I do love the sound of this record! It is joyful, it is hopeful, it is the best Beatles song never done by the Beatles. The guys in TFF moved away from their '80s sound, which was dominated by synthesizers and drum machines, and created this masterpiece of psychedelia and melody. I love the pastiche of swirling sounds - the organ, the bass, the drums, the guitars - that they make. I remember Gord liking this song very much when he was 11 and the 2 of us singing along while watching the video. It even has a Beatles' Penny Lane trumpet solo! And The Beatles didn't even sue them! Now this is a song that will stick in your head for days on end, so I hope you like it too, or else you will be terminally annoyed. I adore this lyric where they call out Thatcher and Paul Weller in the same verse. "Politician Granny with your high ideals, have you no idea how the majority feels? So without love and a promised land, we're fools to the rules of a government plan, kick out the Style, bring back the Jam!" That's entertainment!