AND ON THE MAINSTREAM ROCK CHART . . .

The late Tom Petty has been holding down the top spot for a nearly a month by now, with the first of 3 hit singles off his solo debut smash, FULL MOON FEVER. I’ve always enjoyed this song, and I’ll remember it in that my religion teacher played it in class in his memory the day after his passing. Touching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA

I WON’T BACK DOWN — Tom Petty

Reached #1: April 22, 1989
Stayed at #1: 5 Weeks
Hot 100 Peak: #12

Meanwhile, at the trippy side of town . . .
The Stone Roses released their debut album.
Ian Brown didn’t have time for old geezers. Just like punk had called for a Year Zero, a new generation fueled by an ever expanding rave scene was pretty much done with the immediate past. Brown even said so in “She Bangs the Drums”: “Kiss me where the sun don’t shine / the past was yours but the future’s mine”, and to fuel even more this arrogance there are also lines about being adored and being the resurrection scattered throughout.
Formed in 1983, they had plenty of time to season their chops before dropping a record with a distinctive formed sound seemingly out of nowhere. Produced by John Leckie, who had worked with John Lennon and Pink Floyd, the album is a perfect marriage of psychedelic pop with dance grooves in a marvelous and accessible way that appealed to rock and rave fans, punks, people that wanted to dance while a guitar solo just went on and on. It all starts with the increasing sounding chug chug of “i wanna be Adored”, a perfect song if there ever was one, and never lets go. “Waterfall” is sweet hooks galore, the acoustic “Elizabeth, my Dear” serves as a small respite while bashing the monarchy, and “I am the Resurrection” is an all time banging closer. The cover (a painting by guitarist John Squire) references the 1968 Paris riots with the colors of france at the edge and the lemons as a way of canceling the symptoms of being gassed told to the band by an actual protester that was there.
While not an immediate success, it slowly grew in popularity and its influence would make its presence known when britpop began to appear, especially to a band from Manchester with two brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa10yl8mirk

If you want to fill an empty wedding reception dancefloor with women, play this song.

It belongs with Dancing Queen, I Will Survive, and Girls Just Wanna Have Fun as songs that will fill dance floors. I play the version from the Immaculate Collection, which starts cold with a chorus. Those who know, know, and rush the dance floor. They huddle together, sing the “Life is a mystery” part to each other as if in rapture, then proceed to dance and sing along to every fucking word for the next five minutes. Others join them, it is pure magic. Then I play another dance hymn, “Enjoy the Silence” and the communion coninues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvD_3FXqTeE
I’m not religious, but friends have accused me of being spiritual. Sometimes I get lost in the ecstasy of a song or a mix, and it’s one of the greatest, uplifting feelings I’ve experienced. This song takes me there.

No choice, this is a 10/10

KRS-One’s super group finished up while Bon Jovi was #1, so new pop #1, new Rap #1.

De La Soul’s third single was world conquering. It was the #1 R&B, #1 Rap single, #1 Dance and top 40 Pop (#34). Number 1 in The Netherlands, #16 in Germany and #22 in the UK and Switzerland. Their debut album was huge too. 3 Feet High and Rising was #1 R&B album, #24 Hot 200, and #13 in the UK. It went Platinum. It’s even in the Library of Congress – selected in 2010 as historically significant.

Tom wrote a great piece on the album and De La Soul for sole.digital: https://www.sole.digital/3-feet-high

Me Myself and I was #1 for eight weeks

https://youtu.be/P8-9mY-JACM

In case you don’t want to read more of Tom’s work, Posdnuos (Kevin Mercer), Trugoy (David Jolicoeur), and Maseo (Vincent Mason) are three high school friends from that Amityville, Long Island that caught the attention of another Amityville native, Prince Paul of Stetatonic – if you remember, Stetatonic took part in KRS-One’s last number one. Prince Paul liked their demo “Plug Tunin” and got them in contact with a facilitated a contract with Tommy Boy in 88, and released 3 Feet… in February 89. A remix of Plug Tunin produced by Prince Paul showed up on 3 Feet, and Me Myself and I came out April Fools Day, 1989.

Me, Myself, and I features the heavy use of “(Not Just) Knee Deep”, a 15 minute opus from Funkadelic. A funk classic, in 4 minute single version it got to #77 pop and topped the R&B chart in 79. One Nation Under Groove was a bigger hit earlier, and Flash Light even higher, but #77 for something that funky is great. Knee Deep has been sampled at least 186 times, De La Soul was the biggest, but naturally it was also sampled by Dr Dre at least twice, Snoop at least twice, Ice Cube at least twice, Digital Underground, Public Enemy, and 2Pac.

De La Soul never got back to #1, but their influence was felt throughout the 90s. From George Clinton samples, to skits, to legal battles over samples…

However, in 2006 they won a Grammy with Gorillaz for Feel Good Inc, which didn’t hit #1. Their most recent album was kickstarter funded and released in 16, and they were nominated for another Grammy for it.

You can almost hear Nirvana tuning up in the background, Perry Ferrell and Dave Navarro going into the studio to record Ritual de lo Habitual, Reznor recording Pretty Hate Machine…

Despite being 11 in 89, I only remember this from the chorus. These 5 words is all I remember!

Meanwhile on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart… Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” was Number One for the first week of the song’s reign on the Hot 100, before being toppled by… the new Madonna! (as the hype machine promoted her; probably due to her infinite coolness, but also possibly due to their shared passion for impractical ear-rings) Neneh Cherry and “Buffalo Stance.”

And in terms of hyperactive charisma Neneh had a lot of what made early-Madonna special, the bit where she “Buffalo Stance” is like the love child of early Madonna and Salt’n’Pepa’s “Push It”, a song that didn’t go to Number One on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart because that’s what happens when you limit your audience by insisting that it’s for “only the sexy people.” I imagine bouncers had to enforce the ruling by politely informing unsexy people that this song wasn’t for them. Awkward. “Buffalo Stance” on the other hand, is for everyone.

“Buffalo Stance” is the perfect song for singing in your bedroom, crushing imaginary foes with a “gigolo… sucker” or a “wadda you expect the guys a gigolo man”, not necessarily knowing what a gigolo was, but knowing for certain that you did not want to be one.
“Buffalo Stance” was the perfect record to put on whilst getting ready to go out: “who’s looking good today? who’s looking good in every way?”
And it was also the best song to dance to once you arrived at the club.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWsRz3TJDEY

“Buffalo Stance” can best be understood as a celebration of feminine energy; a celebration of hanging out with your friends, putting prospective pimps in their place (specifically a gigolo trying to work his way up to being a pimp, this gigolo was into vertical integration), and just generally being fucking cool! It contains the precise level of not-giving-a-shit-what-you-think-iness that you would expect from someone who would perform the song on Top Of The Pops whilst very noticeably pregnant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToNvjTrNlL8

Sure, none of this explains exactly how to hang in a “Buffalo Stance.” I always assumed it would involve sticking your fingers up on the side of your head like cow horns, but that would have been deeply uncool. Even Neneh Cherry isn’t quite cool enough to get away with that!

“Buffalo Stance” gets ten out of ten gigolos.

-DJ Professor Dan-ce

I mean… not much. More people need to get vaccinated. Everyone needs to get vaccinated. I doubt someone is gonna be on their way to the clinic then hear O.R. taking about it and turn around.

Tom, I’m sorry that Steve Winwood ran over your dog. He is still heartbroken over the tragic accident.

Now please, make like Elsa and let it go.

Funny how we call ourselves “recovering” Catholics. It’s centuries worth of guilt to overcome in a single lifetime, and it’s almost as much a recovery as drug addiction or alcoholism.

I was born in the same summer as Madonna (and Prince and Michael Jackson) and understood her obsession with the Church. When the institution that claims to love you continually harps on how you are and always have been and always will be a sinner, how are you supposed to love the life God gave you? It’s belittling and a suppression that isn’t lessened by the rule change so we can eat meat on Fridays.

Sometime in my 30s, I had a breakthrough moment in a shopping mall, of all places, when I realized that my mother’s guilt was not my guilt, and that I couldn’t pass it on to my son. I sat down with my wife and had a good cry right there in the food court.

And knowing my son now, in his 30s, I was mostly successful.

I cannot begin to explain how annoying the “Madonna’s career controversies are calculated ploys in order to acquire more money and attention” hot take is. It is reductive and has always smacked of more than a little sexism. “She’s not an artist, she’s a business” is cynical and unfair. To read the “Lika a Prayer” video purely as a vessel for provocation (I’m not saying it WASN’T meant to provoke, but I will argue it was meant to MEANINGFULLY provoke) is to really miss the boat and worse, deny Madonna’s unique and trailblazing artistry.

Now I’ll admit “Like a Prayer” is – for me and I’m sure many others – when Madonna exploded into the stratosphere of pop superstardom. With a song that is such a sonically magnificent departure (the growth between this and “Causing a Commotion”!) and then a video that basically redefined what the form was capable of, I’d say “Like a Prayer” was a “Thriller” in many ways, if not necessarily sales-wise. It was just incredibly exciting to see my favorite artist become this all-consuming force within pop culture, pushing boundaries and challenging norms. It feels cliché not to speak of Madonna like this but we all know it’s true. And we know the licking she’ll take for “going too far”, the bad girl wrapped on the knuckles by the forever hypocritically sex-shamed American public and media.

Loaded with originality (what other songs sounded like this at the time?) and soulful joy and funk, tell me you don’t catch the spirit when you see Madonna dancing her heart out in the video, so moved by electrifying music she could call her own. When this song and video arrived I was two months shy of turning 15yo and no one could challenge her reign as the ultimate pop superstar. “Like a Prayer” is absolutely a 10 and for me, the best #1 single of 1989. (And yes, “Express Yourself” was robbed of righfully being a #1 and a 10.)

Beats were chill but he has no substance past gang culture.

Wow, what timing. Y’all recall from just a few days ago that Wilco sucks and is the most overrated American band of all time. Foo Fighters, while not a bad band per se, is the second-most overrated. There can be no debate about any of this.

You’re right Orwell, you wouldn’t want too many people committing thoughtcrimes. Who determines who gets to think that way?

No one or government should have the right to compel you to inject something into your body you don’t want. You wouldn’t be sovereign over own body and at that point you’re just renting your body from a totalitarian state.

There is only personal choice in a truly free country. Also, My body, my choice.

Not everyone needs to get vaccinated to achieve the collective benefit of them. It is ultimately a personal choice and saying everyone needs to get vaccinated just isn’t true

Advice from a 18-year old pop star, what could go wrong?

Agree! and everyone who wants to make jokes and all but these kids hold a lot of influence with their star power. good for her for doing something positive with it.