Because baby boomers control the mainstream media, and because 40 is a nice, round number, we've been hearing and reading a lot lately about 1967 and the Summer of Love. But if you're under the age of 65, there's a good chance the breathless hype has you feeling unimpressed. Sure it's worthwhile history, and some of the music was great, but come on -- Woodstock wasn't even for another two years!
Enough already. We're looking for a new summer to feel nostalgic about. Not so far back that it's completely obscure; not so recent that we can all remember it perfectly. A summer where a lot of important stuff happened. We submit, for your consideration, the summer of 1994.
The summer of 1994 got off to a rough start, with the suicide of Kurt Cobain (he was found on April 8), and Brenda Walsh's last episode as a regular on Beverly Hills 90210. Shannon Doherty was replaced by the hyphenated hotness that was Tiffany-Amber Thiessen, but we've yet to find another Kurt.
More highlights from the summer of '94:
JUNE 17: OJ Simpson leads the LAPD on a slow-speed chase down a Los Angeles freeway.
JULY 6: Forrest Gump is released in theaters.
JULY 7: Lollapalooza rolls out one of its stronger all-around lineups, featuring the Beastie Boys and Smashing Pumpkins.
AUGUST 8: Oasis releases "Live Forever," their first top-ten hit and the third single from the soon-to-be released Definitely Maybe, an album that would change NME best-of lists forever.
AUGUST 12: Major League Baseball players go on strike, which eventually leads to the first-ever cancellation of the World Series.
On the same day, 250,000 topless young people flock to upstate New York for three days of drinking, moshing, and antagonizing Les Claypool at Woodstock '94. The rain arrives on August 13, and the festival is quickly re-dubbed "Mudstock" as the crowd (and many of the performers) spend the rest of the weekend happily wallowing in filth. It is, by most accounts, a unifying experience -- unlike it's crass, exploitative, commercial-driven sibling, Woodstock '99.
For those who lived through it, the summer of 1994 was a pivotal time that changed America forever. Or at least that's what we've been telling people. So while the boomers get all misty-eyed about Sgt. Pepper's, Monterrey Pop, and hallucinogen-fueled sex with anonymous strangers in Haight-Ashbury, we'll be waxing nostalgic about Brandon Walsh's trip to Washington, the bloody glove, and the mud people of Saugerties, NY.
