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101 Best Songs of 1994 - #1 - Notorious BIG - Juicy (4 Viewers)

scorchy said:
#25 - Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Sharon Osborne once described Billy Corgan as a "baldy #### in a dress."  Sounds about right.  I was lucky enough to see Smashing Pumpkins on the Gish tour (before he started wearing dresses).  Great show except for the parts when Billy would go off about how us rich college kids could never understand all the pain and despair in his songs.  Still love Gish though and 1993's Siamese Dream was even better.  Disarm, released as the third single in February 1994, was banned in the UK for the "cut that little child" lyric, which censors mistook as referring to either abortion or murdering a kid.  Really, it was just about Billy's parents.

Disarm
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Rarely has prodigious talent and odious personality been combined as vigorously as it is in Billy Corgan.

I remain big on some Siamese Dream tracks. This is not one of them.

 
scorchy said:
#25 - Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm

Sharon Osborne once described Billy Corgan as a "baldy #### in a dress."  Sounds about right.  I was lucky enough to see Smashing Pumpkins on the Gish tour (before he started wearing dresses).  Great show except for the parts when Billy would go off about how us rich college kids could never understand all the pain and despair in his songs.  Still love Gish though and 1993's Siamese Dream was even better.  Disarm, released as the third single in February 1994, was banned in the UK for the "cut that little child" lyric, which censors mistook as referring to either abortion or murdering a kid.  Really, it was just about Billy's parents.

Disarm
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awesome piece of work, the lyrics really hit hard - worthy of this ranking, and i'd put it higher. 

great call, nonetheless. 

 
My 1994 Smashing Pumpkins story is that I saw them play a very memorable set when headlining Lollapalooza in Philly.

In the middle of the set, Billy announced that they were going to give up some of their time in favor of a special guest. And out walked Courtney Love. This may have been one of her first public appearances after Kurt’s suicide. She played solo electric versions of Miss World and Doll Parts. 

For her entire performance, a guy standing next to me was SCREAMING at her, calling her every awful name you could call a woman. Her mere presence traumatized him. I’d never seen anything like it.

When the Pumpkins came back, they launched into a lengthy version of I Am One featuring a crazy rant by Billy. I don’t even remember what it was about, it was  just … Billy.

They closed their set with a gorgeous version of Starla, which I had never heard before — Pisces Iscariot wasn’t out yet. I was like, I gotta find that song, and soon I did, as the last track on a CD single — I think it was I Am One. This was what we went through before the internet put the entire history of recorded music at our fingertips.

 
Another thing about that Lolla performance is that they didn’t play Mayonaise in order to make room for Courtney. I saw their next show in Philly two years later, and Billy REMEMBERED this. During the encore, he said they were going to do a song that they didn’t get a chance to do last time they were here, and apologized to their touring keyboardist because they hadn’t rehearsed it with him. They played a ramshackle but touching version.

A couple of weeks later, said keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, died of a heroin overdose after a gig in NYC.

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Another thing about that Lolla performance is that they didn’t play Mayonaise in order to make room for Courtney. I saw their next show in Philly two years later, and Billy REMEMBERED this. During the encore, he said they were going to do a song that they didn’t get a chance to do last time they were here, and apologized to their touring keyboardist because they hadn’t rehearsed it with him. They played a ramshackle but touching version.

A couple of weeks later, said keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, died of a heroin overdose after a gig in NYC.
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Great story.  Mayonnaise is my favorite Pumpkins song. 

As cold as it sounds, I had an internal debate about whether to count "touring keyboardist" when tallying up the remaining bands who had a key member pass away. 😢

 
scorchy said:
Great story.  Mayonnaise is my favorite Pumpkins song. 

As cold as it sounds, I had an internal debate about whether to count "touring keyboardist" when tallying up the remaining bands who had a key member pass away. 😢
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is it wrong to only remember him because he shares the same last name as Uncle Ju's lawyer on the Sopranos?

asking for a friend. 

R.I.P.

🙏

 
#24 - Snoop Dogg - Gin and Juice

Coming back to campus after Thanksgiving break in 1993, it seems like everyone of my friends had bought a copy of Snoop's debut solo effort Doggystyle.  Gin and Juice was released as the second single in January 1994 and there was no escaping it.  I've seen a bunch of sources that place it among the best 10 hip-hop songs of all time (usually "whiter" publications).  It's great and all, but I've got five or six coming up that outrank it from 1994 alone.  Great video - "Snoopy Doggy Dogg need to get a jobby job."

Gin and Juice

 
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Pip's Invitation said:
Another thing about that Lolla performance is that they didn’t play Mayonaise in order to make room for Courtney. I saw their next show in Philly two years later, and Billy REMEMBERED this. During the encore, he said they were going to do a song that they didn’t get a chance to do last time they were here, and apologized to their touring keyboardist because they hadn’t rehearsed it with him. They played a ramshackle but touching version.

A couple of weeks later, said keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, died of a heroin overdose after a gig in NYC.
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I don't have a good Pumpkins concert story. The Pumpkins concert we saw was aaaawful. They closed a festival - packed and rowdy crowd all afternoon...half left within a handful of songs into their set. We were hoping it'd get better, but upon realizing this accepted it and headed to the bar.

Still love (studio) Mayonnaise though.

 
scorchy said:
Great story.  Mayonnaise is my favorite Pumpkins song. 

As cold as it sounds, I had an internal debate about whether to count "touring keyboardist" when tallying up the remaining bands who had a key member pass away. 😢
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It was front-page news when it happened, so I would say it counts.

 
MAC_32 said:
I don't have a good Pumpkins concert story. The Pumpkins concert we saw was aaaawful. They closed a festival - packed and rowdy crowd all afternoon...half left within a handful of songs into their set. We were hoping it'd get better, but upon realizing this accepted it and headed to the bar.

Still love (studio) Mayonnaise though.
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Nirvana was supposed to headline Lolla 94 (though they backed out before Kurt died) and the Pumpkins definitely did not feel like they filled those shoes, though their set was pretty good except for the Billy rant.

The show two years later was all over the place, though, and ended with a headache-inducing noise jam.

 
Pip's Invitation said:
Dunno about that. But he was the brother of Wendy Melvoin, one-half of the Prince-associated act Wendy and Lisa.
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Was gonna drop in and post the same thing - I remember seeing the story on MTV News when it happened but my takeaway was always the Jimmy Chamberlin part (and how it got him kicked out of the band) - I could never remember poor Jonathan Melvoin's name, only that he was Wendy's brother.

 
MAC_32 said:
The Pumpkins concert we saw was aaaawful.
Click to expand...
I've seen them twice, both times they disappointed. Music sounded okay but no real energy or vibe or on stage presence. Still like their music but would never see them again. 

 
Smashing Pumpkins on their Gish tour was one of the best live shows I'd ever seen. They blew it out of the ####### water in '92. 

Something special. 

I'll leave Gin and Juice for others to comment on. Thumper rule in effect...NOW! 

 
Smashing Pumpkins, Chili Peppers, and Pearl Jam all playing for a crowd of no more than a few thousand. Eddie Vedder said "I always knew if we played a place this big, it'd be three-quarters empty." He was serious and had no idea what they would become. Springfield, MA Civic Center. Tiny minor league hockey place had those three bands together. 

Smashing obliterated. 

 
#23 - Notorious BIG - Big Poppa

And now, we head to the other coast.  I'm by no means a hip-hop historian, but it seems to me that late '93 into '94 was when the east coast took back the crown (if you believe that they had actually lost it in the first place).  Biggie was obviously a huge part of that - damn did he have flow.  Crazy that with all this influence, he only put out a single album before getting killed.  Big Poppa was released on xmas eve 1994, and much to my surprise, was the biggest hit on Ready to Die (#6 on the Billboard Hot 100).  Rolling Stone has it as the 330th best song of all time.

Big Poppa

ETA: Even in my 20s, no way was I getting busy after t-bone steak, cheese eggs and welch's grape at 2 a.m.

 
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#22 - Liz Phair - Supernova

Earlier, I asked who among us didn't have a thing for Lisa Loeb.  Not gonna even bother with Liz Phair.  I didn't even mind when I found out she went to Oberlin (no offense to any Oberlin grads, just more than a few bad experiences).  Whip-Smart was one of the most anticipated follow-ups of the mid-90s, and if it disappointed a little bit, it was only because Exile in Guyville is an all-timer.  No way could I ever get sick of Supernova.

Supernova

 
rockaction said:
Smashing Pumpkins, Chili Peppers, and Pearl Jam all playing for a crowd of no more than a few thousand. Eddie Vedder said "I always knew if we played a place this big, it'd be three-quarters empty." He was serious and had no idea what they would become. Springfield, MA Civic Center. Tiny minor league hockey place had those three bands together. 

Smashing obliterated. 
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My brother caught the Nirvana/Peppers/Pearl Jam portion of this tour at a similar venue. Best show he's ever been to.

 
rockaction said:
Smashing Pumpkins, Chili Peppers, and Pearl Jam all playing for a crowd of no more than a few thousand. Eddie Vedder said "I always knew if we played a place this big, it'd be three-quarters empty." He was serious and had no idea what they would become. Springfield, MA Civic Center. Tiny minor league hockey place had those three bands together. 

Smashing obliterated. 
Click to expand...
:goodposting:

MAC_32 said:
My brother caught the Nirvana/Peppers/Pearl Jam portion of this tour at a similar venue. Best show he's ever been to.
Click to expand...
:goodposting:

Same here.  Saw that tour early on when it hit Milwaukee and was the best show I've ever seen.  The two things I remember most were Pearl Jam had such a stage presence and so much energy that they really were the star of the show despite being the least known band at the time.  At some point my buddy and I looked at each other like who the hell are these guys.  They were just so good.  The other thing I remember was it was a small venue and there was a wall of lights behind us that were going on and off and at some point Eddie yelled at someone about the lights. I think his rant was the one that made it into the evenflow video. They were annoying but it was an odd moment in an otherwise fantastic set.

 
#21 - Gold Soundz - Pavement

So drunk in the August sun
And you're the kind of girl I like
Because you're empty, and I'm empty
And you can never quarantine the past

Pavement just made greatness seem so effortless - what was once my ultimate goal in life.  If it wasn't for the left-field MTV hit Cut Your Hair (not included here), I would guess that Gold Soundz is their best-known song.  Pitchfork must agree, listing it as their #1 song of the entire 1990s.

#20 - Loser - Beck

Beck brought lo-fi to the masses.  It's just really hard to overstate how huge Loser was when the single started getting airplay in early 1994.  It wasn't just a big hit on the modern rock charts either, reaching #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 - still a rare feat for "alternative" songs back then.  Rolling Stone ranks Loser as the 458th best song of all time.

I probably hadn't listened closely to Loser in 25 years, but in putting together this playlist, I got to hear it fresh several times through headphones and there's things going on in various sections that I never knew (or at least didn't remember).  Overplayed, sure, but great nonetheless.

 
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scorchy said:
#22 - Liz Phair - Supernova

Earlier, I asked who among us didn't have a thing for Lisa Loeb.  Not gonna even bother with Liz Phair.  I didn't even mind when I found out she went to Oberlin (no offense to any Oberlin grads, just more than a few bad experiences).  Whip-Smart was one of the most anticipated follow-ups of the mid-90s, and if it disappointed a little bit, it was only because Exile in Guyville is an all-timer.  No way could I ever get sick of Supernova.

Supernova
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Liz had troubles in her life, in particular with choice of men. Bad decisions that resulted in a lot of heartache, and a derailing of a promising career.

She should have been much more.

 
Encyclopedia Brown said:
Liz had troubles in her life, in particular with choice of men. Bad decisions that resulted in a lot of heartache, and a derailing of a promising career.

She should have been much more.
Click to expand...
Hmmm. Agree that she should have been huge. Never read/heard about any of the personal stuff.

 
scorchy said:
Encyclopedia Brown said:
Liz had troubles in her life, in particular with choice of men. Bad decisions that resulted in a lot of heartache, and a derailing of a promising career.

She should have been much more.
Click to expand...
Hmmm. Agree that she should have been huge. Never read/heard about any of the personal stuff.
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agree she should have been huge, but I don't know about "derailed career".

IIRC, she's kept putting out (a few) albums, including one that was more "pop". she never got huge- which Guyville seemed to portend (one of my top to bottom favorite albums of the decade)- and never really matched the greatness of it with any of the subsequent releases... but she's kept plugging along doing decent stuff.

 
scorchy said:
#21 - Gold Soundz - Pavement

So drunk in the August sun
And you're the kind of girl I like
Because you're empty, and I'm empty
And you can never quarantine the past

Pavement just made greatness seem so effortless - what was once my ultimate goal in life.  If it wasn't for the left-field MTV hit Cut Your Hair (not included here), I would guess that Gold Soundz is their best-known song.  Pitchfork must agree, listing it as their #1 song of the entire 1990s.
Click to expand...
I still dig and listen to the band. maybe the only one from the list I can say that about (sonic youth too). 

I'm the last one to know about "best-known" so grains of salt etc... but I think of Range Life and Cut your Hair as their "hits". also seems like Perfume V gets drafted pretty routinely here. I'm not even sure I know what my favorite track of theirs is... maybe Lorreta's scars?

just happy to see them in here- again, a year of songs your posting that I completely missed.

 
El Floppo said:
agree she should have been huge, but I don't know about "derailed career".

IIRC, she's kept putting out (a few) albums, including one that was more "pop". she never got huge- which Guyville seemed to portend (one of my top to bottom favorite albums of the decade)- and never really matched the greatness of it with any of the subsequent releases... but she's kept plugging along doing decent stuff.
Click to expand...
I could write pages on my perceptions of the difficulties facing female rock stars, including my own navel-gazing regarding how jokes about crushes on Lisa and Liz play into the narrative.  But I have yard work to do, and no one wants to talk about all that serious stuff in here anyway.  At least I don't hear as many dudes yelling "marry me" at shows any more.  Cringe.

 
I'm glad that the current generation seems to have leveled the field and there are a lot of incredible young indie rock frontwomen.  It's a shame indie and just about all forms of rock music really stopped evolving around the time a lot of them were born.

 
scorchy said:
#21 - Gold Soundz - Pavement

So drunk in the August sun
And you're the kind of girl I like
Because you're empty, and I'm empty
And you can never quarantine the past

Pavement just made greatness seem so effortless - what was once my ultimate goal in life.  If it wasn't for the left-field MTV hit Cut Your Hair (not included here), I would guess that Gold Soundz is their best-known song.  Pitchfork must agree, listing it as their #1 song of the entire 1990s.

#20 - Loser - Beck

Beck brought lo-fi to the masses.  It's just really hard to overstate how huge Loser was when the single started getting airplay in early 1994.  It wasn't just a big hit on the modern rock charts either, reaching #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 - still a rare feat for "alternative" songs back then.  Rolling Stone ranks Loser as the 458th best song of all time.

I probably hadn't listened closely to Loser in 25 years, but in putting together this playlist, I got to hear it fresh several times through headphones and there's things going on in various sections that I never knew (or at least didn't remember).  Overplayed, sure, but great nonetheless.
Click to expand...
Loser was that song you heard where you thought, "no way the rest of his stuff will be any good". Just screamed one hit wonder. Seemed like a novelty thing. 

Instead, probably top 5 artist from the decade. 

 
#19 - Soundgarden - Fell On Black Days

My favorite post-Badmotorfinger Soundgarden song.  So tough to listen to now:

Fell on Black Days was like this ongoing fear I've had for years ... It's a feeling that everyone gets. You're happy with your life, everything's going well, things are exciting—when all of a sudden you realize you're unhappy in the extreme, to the point of being really, really scared. There's no particular event you can pin the feeling down to, it's just that you realize one day that everything in your life is ####ed.
Click to expand...
😢

 
I saw SG twice. Fell on Black Days was played both times.

Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA 6/23/94

Jesus Christ Pose

Spoonman

Let Me Drown

Mailman

The Day I Tried To Live

My Wave

I Awake

Black Hole Sun

Searching With My Good Eye Closed

Superunknown

Rusty Cage

Half

Mind Riot

Fell On Black Days

Drawing Flies

Slaves & Bulldozers

Kickstand

Face Pollution

Like Suicide

ENCORE:

Head Down

Hands All Over

Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia 7/13/11

Searching With My Good Eye Closed

Spoonman

Let Me Drown

Room A Thousand Years Wide

Jesus Christ Pose

Blow Up The Outside World

The Day I Tried To Live

My Wave

Fell On Black Days

Hunted Down

Ugly Truth

Outshined

Rusty Cage

Burden In My Hand

Pretty Noose

4th Of July

Superunknown

ENCORE:

Beyond the Wheel

Mailman

Like Suicide

Slaves & Bulldozers

(This was my first major concert after my son was born.)

 
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Eighteen songs to go, and I figure I can easily knock that out by Friday, so Easter Sunday is dedicated to the one-hit wonders of 1994 who didn't make the cut.  In fact, most were never near it, and I'm using one-hit wonder loosely.  Gonna start with the Beavis and Butthead division:

Rollins Band - Liar

Dink - Green Mind*

Sagat - Funk Dat

* I saw Dink open for KMFDM at the Masquerade in Tampa in 1995.  Great show.

 
scorchy said:
#19 - Soundgarden - Fell On Black Days

My favorite post-Badmotorfinger Soundgarden song.  So tough to listen to now:

😢
Click to expand...
Great song, I feel like a lot of Cornell's lyrics are filled with this sort of quiet desperation. 

Took my wife to see him in 2016. Soundgarden is too heavy for her but this was his acoustic tour and I played her a couple from his last album Higher Truth and she enjoyed them. She walked away from the show like it was a religious experience, was completely blown away. He covered Dylan, Zeppelin, The Beatles, Michael Jackson along with acoustic Soundgarden/Audioslave/Temple of the Dog. Just an amazing talent. 

 
scorchy said:
Eighteen songs to go, and I figure I can easily knock that out by Friday, so Easter Sunday is dedicated to the one-hit wonders of 1994 who didn't make the cut.  In fact, most were never near it, and I'm using one-hit wonder loosely.  Gonna start with the Beavis and Butthead division:

Rollins Band - Liar

Dink - Green Mind*

Sagat - Funk Dat

* I saw Dink open for KMFDM at the Masquerade in Tampa in 1995.  Great show.
Click to expand...
had those first two albums on cassette

dink/kmfdm sounds great

looks like I actually still have that dink cassette!  What a life I have led.

 
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Cornell’s solo version of fell on black days from songbook would be on the short list if I ever tried to really compile my favorite favorite songs of all time

 
KMFDM. My roommate dug them. That's what I can tell you about that. I wish I knew how to describe industrial/techno a little better. That's also what I think about that. 

Clubs. I remember clubbing. But it was in the aughts and it was set to Roc-A-Fella records. So still no real understanding of industrial house music or any scene like that. 

Oh well. KMFDM. 

 
rockaction said:
KMFDM. My roommate dug them. That's what I can tell you about that. I wish I knew how to describe industrial/techno a little better. That's also what I think about that. 

Clubs. I remember clubbing. But it was in the aughts and it was set to Roc-A-Fella records. So still no real understanding of industrial house music or any scene like that. 

Oh well. KMFDM. 
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Listening now, KMDFM is kind of terrible overall, but they had their moments.  In more proof that the internet is forever, my 1995 post from rec.music.industrial on whether KMFDM are sellouts because Juke Joint Jezebel got played on BH 90210 is still there for the world to see.

Steve Sanders dancing to KMFDM

As for clubs, industrial and goth usually overlapped, while house and techno were there own thing.  The two scenes really didn't mix, at least in Gainesville or Philly.  Goths and rivetheads (yikes!) were much less into drugs as a whole - just a little booze and cloves.

 
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Pip's Invitation said:
I saw SG twice. Fell on Black Days was played both times.

Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA 6/23/94

Jesus Christ Pose

Spoonman

Let Me Drown

Mailman

The Day I Tried To Live

My Wave

I Awake

Black Hole Sun

Searching With My Good Eye Closed

Superunknown

Rusty Cage

Half

Mind Riot

Fell On Black Days

Drawing Flies

Slaves & Bulldozers

Kickstand

Face Pollution

Like Suicide

ENCORE:

Head Down

Hands All Over

Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia 7/13/11

Searching With My Good Eye Closed

Spoonman

Let Me Drown

Room A Thousand Years Wide

Jesus Christ Pose

Blow Up The Outside World

The Day I Tried To Live

My Wave

Fell On Black Days

Hunted Down

Ugly Truth

Outshined

Rusty Cage

Burden In My Hand

Pretty Noose

4th Of July

Superunknown

ENCORE:

Beyond the Wheel

Mailman

Like Suicide

Slaves & Bulldozers

(This was my first major concert after my son was born.)
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Hands All Over, tremendous song.

 
rockaction said:
Louder Than Love. Somewhat iconic Sup Pop-looking album artwork but on a major. There's that sell out thing again. 
Click to expand...
Incredible album.  Another group from that era I got to see in their prime was Faith No More.  They opened for Billy Idol on his comeback tour after his accident, blew him away.

 
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