Best tunes of 1994

1994.

It’s hard to believe it was thirty (almost thirty-one!) years ago and at the same time, it feels like worlds away. Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton signed the Kremlin accord, a big step in the path towards nuclear disarmament. The photos taken by the Hubble space telescope were shared of Pluto and its moon. Schindler’s List won 7 Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards. Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president of South Africa. The OJ Simpson police chase was watched live by millions on TV (I certainly remember it). Amazon was formed, Major League Baseball players went on strike, George Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champ in history, the channel tunnel opened, and Netscape Navigator was initially released. The world lost John Candy (Canadian actor), Charles Bukowski (writer), George Peppard (Hannibal from the A-Team), Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin), Ralph Ellison (American novelist), and Kurt Cobain (Nirvana frontman) but gained Justin Bieber (Canadian pop singer), Joel Embiid (Cameroon born NBA superstar), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things actor), Andre De Grasse (Canadian olympic sprinter), Saoirse Ronan (American born Irish actress), and Eugenie Bouchard (Canadian tennis player).

Personally, I was finishing off my first year of university as the year commenced, commuting to York University in Toronto from my small hometown, an hour’s drive away. I pulled all-nighters to write essays, hopped up on Jolt Cola (because I wasn’t yet drinking coffee) and listening to The Beautiful South’s “0898”. When I wasn’t attending class, I was working part-time at the local 7-Eleven, a position that went full-time when the school year wrapped up. My adopted older brother returned home after his life in the US soured, forever putting an emotional dent in my early twenties (yeah, there’s many stories there).

Halfway through 1994, when my second year of university began, I rented a room in a basement apartment north of Toronto that I shared with a college student from London, Ontario. I never had a lot of money that year but still have many great memories. I discovered the computer game Civilization (that I’ve since wasted hours of my life playing), watched the first half season of “Friends”, spent hours on the phone with a beguiling young lady that would eventually steal my heart for life, and still somehow found time to study.

In terms of music, I spent a lot of time listening to CFNY and discovering new music. I religiously listened to Alan Cross’s “The ongoing history of New Music”. I went to a handful of amazing concerts by bands I consider favourites to this day: The Wonder Stuff, Teenage Fanclub, Chapterhouse, Primal Scream, Depeche Mode, Blur, Lush, and Pulp. And oh yeah, I spent lots of time making mixed tape after mixed tape, for others, but also for myself, for the walks and bus commutes to and from classes and some of these very songs were likely on these tapes.

#30 Beck “Loser” (from Mellow gold)

#29 The Lightning Seeds “Perfect” (from Jollification)

#28 Meat Puppets “Backwater” (from Too high to die)

#27 Green Day “Longview” (from Dookie)

#26 Sonic Youth “Bull in the heather” (from Experimental jet set, trash and no star)

#25 Frank Black “Headache” (from Teenager of the year)