The best of times, the 1990’s.

I was Born in the mid 1970's which has given me an interesting insight into the world of ear art, better known as music. I do not recall much of the 70's music, it was only 4 years of my life. Interestingly the billboards number one chart topping song of July 1976 was Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band. I have always had an affinity to that song and always wondered why. I know now it is because it was on the radio all the bloody time the first 6 months after being born. The 1980's was interesting and all I can truly remember is some Cyndi Lauper, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, Belinda Carlisle, Twisted Sister, and VanHalen. I do appreciate the fact that I was exposed to the music of the 80's because it has shaped my taste to this day.

On to my teenaged years the 1990's. Music Television, better known a Mtv, was at it's apex and I of course tuned in daily. Cassette decks were slowly turning to the newest form of media distribution the compact disc which afforded a more compact storage with in a vehicle and with only minimum sound sacrifices. let's be honest the car is the most common place to listen to music. Also the hip-hop scene was gaining steam like a run away freight train. I recall the days of stratification between metal heads and rap lovers. I was totally entranced by a dance song by C&C music factory called “Gonna make you sweat, everybody dance now”. This song always makes me think of being picked up by my father from my hidden valley childhood home in Santa Barbara and taken to my dads new home and last wife’s place in Goleta. There we would enjoy dinner with my newest older sister, stepmother and her mother, for whom dementia was slowly overwhelming. The new sister, though not the sharpest, was very opinionated on music and liked sharing. She was a huge fan of INXS and I had had taken a liking to their song “The devil inside”. This is somewhat ironic in hindsight because her mother turned out to be quite the black widow. Yes her mother is my wicked stepmother in control of a shared estate in the Santa Barbara area worth around $1.3 million dollars. My stepsister is actually really cool even admitting to my brother her mother’s intentions. You see my father was this woman’s 5th husband she had outlived 4 others before him and had every intention of out living my father and gaining control of his assets. Well she of course did so and has done everything in her power to cut out my brother and I from the estate as much as possible. There is a living trust that is protecting our interest to a certain extent to which him and I were never given full copies of. Every attempt I have made to get a full copy has failed. She is as ruthless as women come. My fathers first son from his first marriage, he had three, even attempted to purchase the airplane that our father had built in the garage with that aid of my brother and I. She would not let this happen and in-fact started dismantling it immediately for liquidation. Ruthless I tell you.

My Fathers untimely death was a bit of a shock to me and came soon after my high school sweetheart breaking up with me after being the least of loyal people during my trip to Europe in the winter of 1996. During my stay in Europe I was exposed to The Passengers, Bono’s European band name, and a song he had just released featuring Luciano Pavarotti labeled Miss.Sarajevo. This was a song made by Bono to remember Sarajevo’s contestant in the Miss world pageant who never arrived. This was a time of civil unrest in that portion of Europe and the bus she was traveling on to the airport to attend the Miss world pageant was bombed killing her. The power and beauty Pavarotti brought to the song captivated me and with a modern pop beat as well as Bono’s well known name made the song that much more appealing. It is still a very underground song here in the States.

I had long been a fan of electronic music, likely because of my 1980’s youth. My comrade to Europe had always enjoyed the Beasty Boys as well as the Prodigy, a up and coming EDM band from England. Prodigy’s 1993 album “Music for the Jilted Generation” is in my opinion by far their best. My new found freedom from parental control, father dead and mother away 80% of the time. Along with my first broken heart led me to the Los Angeles Rave scene, full of scantly clad candy kids and plenty of psychedelic drugs like LSD, 2CB, and XTC. I became a wheel man from the Santa Barbara area to the LA area nearly every other weekend. My passion the HardCore techno and Gabber house music. This was a great escape and distraction to the holes that had recently been shot through my hart. It is really hard to feel alone when you have anywhere firm 1000 to 5000 like minded people all loaded and listening to the same music. The music is characterized by pounding distorted base drums, record scratching, and samples from various mob and horror movies. My favorite artist was a guy from NYC by the name of Lenny Dee and his record label industrial strength records. He and I became acquainted mostly because he recognized me from so many parties and at one point he invited me up on stage to hang out. To this day I am probably the one in a million who still has a industrial strength album on my phone, my favorite song “The Kill” which features samples from the movie Full Metal Jacket. A close second would be “Brooklyn Mob” which features a sample joe Pesci from Good Fellas.

I have to admit that my biggest regret about the latter part of the 1990’s was missing the many opportunities I likely had to see Sublime with Bradly and Rage Against the Machine. To this day they are both my fondest memory of my youth. The songs written and preformed by these two bands personified my rebellious and explicit youth. I am proud to have been alive to experience life as a child with mediocre technology that forced me to actually communicate and network in person. Yes I am of the opinion that my teens and twenties are much richer then anything today’s youth could ever imagine or experience. We were liberated at 17 years old with vehicles and landlines were still a viable readily utilized form of Communication.