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60 Songs That Explain the ’90s

‘My muñequita/My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa.’

I provided a review of the book “60 Songs That Explain the ’90s” by Rob Harvilla at the Albany Public Library on June 3. It was challenging on several fronts.

I had never listened to the podcasts, and at 90 minutes a pop, I wasn’t about to start. There were far more than sixty songs; it was closer to twice that.

Here was a mixed blessing: I was only familiar with some of the songs, so it was easier to narrow down what I might discuss. The ones with hyperlinks, I was familiar with enough to discuss. Still, do I play a sample, read from the book, or both? As it turns out, I got to very few of them in 45 minutes.

And it isn’t easy to talk about music. From Do You Believe In Music by the Lovin’ Spoonful, “It’s like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll.” –

I described the book as “autobiography via music.” It is a concept I can totally relate to.

In the introduction, he acknowledged that he believed the songs of your teenage years are the ones that most imprint. I have a variation on that experience, which I will address someday if you ask.

The italicized items are generally chapter titles.

Chaos agents

Céline Dion: My Heart Will Go On – the moderator had never heard this song from Titanic, so before the program, I played a section of it.

Hole: Doll Parts

Madonna: Vogue

Spice Girls: Wannabe

Backstreet Boys: I Want It That Way

Eminem – My Name Is

Beck – Loser. I acknowledged that I had not known this song or Black Hole Sun until I heard both in a Weird Al Yankovic medley.

Master P – Make ‘Em Say Uhh!

Prodigy – Firestarter

The Chicks – Goodbye Earl – I did play a bit of this, which Harvilla described as a “gleeful domestic-violence revenge fantasy.” But he also declares that “the point of the song is that somebody helps her.”

Erica Badu – Tyrone

Sellouts (or not) (or maybe)

Metallica – Enter Sandman (30)

Pantera – Walk

Temple Of The Dog – Hunger Strike

Coolio – Gangsta’s Paradise. I played the Weird Al parody Amish Paradise, and explained the well-known dispute. Oh, here’s Pastime Paradise by Stevie Wonder from 1976, just because.

Ice Cube – It Was A Good Day

Reel Big Fish -Sell Out

Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression That I Get

No Doubt – Just A Girl. I posted about this in a blog post, which I described to the audience.

Fugazi – Merchandise

Green Day – Longview

Women versus “women in rock”

The Sundays – I Kicked A Boy

The Cranberries – Zombie (56)

Garbage – Only Happy When It Rains

PJ Harvey – Man-Size

Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know. I read the section where Rob’s girlfriend would play the Jagged Little Pill album, and would cough when the F-bomb came on, to hide it from her mom.

Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl

The Breeders – Cannonball (65)

TLC – No Scrubs

Sinead O’Connor – “Nothing Compares 2 U” – I had intended to play this, but I didn’t have time. Harvilla: “And she’s just singing: no explosions, no quick cuts, none of that ‘MTV-style editing’…Just the stillness, the gravity, the gorgeous severity of it.”

Fiona Apple – Criminal

Sheryl Crow –If It Makes You Happy

Vivid geography, or, everybody hates a tourist

Wu-Tang Clan -C.R.E.A.M.

Mob Deep -Shook Ones, Pt. II

Nas -N.Y. State of Mind

Pulp – Common People

Bjork – Hyperballad

Missy Elliott – The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)

Outkast – Elevators (Me & You)

Juvenile – Back That Azz Up

Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing

Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun

Luniz – I Got 5 On It

Villains + adversaries

Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life

Oasis – Wonderwall

Blur – Song 2

A Tribe Called Quest – Check The Rhyme

Pavement – Range Life

Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock

Limp Bizkit -Nookie (Windows+h)

Offspring – Pretty Fly (for a white guy)

DMX – Ruff Ryder’s Anthem

Brandy + Monica – The Boy Is Mine

Flukes + comebacks + spectacular weirdos

Los Del Rio – “Macarena” (Bayside Boys Remix). I agree that anyone who started recording before the Beatles shouldn’t be dismissed as a “one-hit wonder.”

Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart

The New Radicals- You Get What You Give

The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies – Zoot Suit Riot – I played a bit of this, but also explained the history of the topic

Cher – Believe. I wanted to explain autotuning, but no time.

Chumbawamba – Tubthumping. In 2025, I became oddly obsessed with this song. First, it’s mentioned on the CBS sitcom Ghosts by the guy with no pants as the best song of the decade. Then it was a clue on JEOPARDY! I read the beginning lyrics.

Tag Team – Whoomp! (There It Is)

Mark Morrison -Return of the Mack

Santana + Rob Thomas – Smooth. Harvilla: “The true greatness… lies in the whiplash pivot from the nonchalant generality of ‘Man it’s a hot one’ to the remarkable specificity of ‘My muñequita/My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa.’ Rob Thomas wrote this song for his girlfriend [now wife] Marisol Maldonado.”

Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby

Natalie Imbruglia – Torn

Teenage hijinks

Rage Against the Machine – Killing In The Name

Body Count – Cop Killer

Guns ‘N’ Roses – November Rain

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under the Bridge

Alice In Chains – Would?

They Might Be Giants – Particle Man

Cake – The Distance

Weezer – Undone (The Sweater Song)

Beastie Boys – Sabotage

Radiohead – Creep

Pearl Jam – Yellow Ledbetter

Romance + sex + immaturity

Salt-N-Pepa – Shoop

Nine Inch Nails – Closer

Tool – Stinkfist

Prince – Gett Off

Boyz II Men – End Of The Road, #1 pop for 13 weeks. I would have played a snippet of this since I saw the group in 2024.

Liz Phair – F*** and Run (193)

Sunny Day Real Estate – In Circles

Bonnie Raitt – I Can’t Make You Love Me. Harvilla writes that this is a song that you shouldn’t sing at open-mic night or even listen to “until you’ve a little silver white in your hair.”

Dave Matthews Band – Crash Into Me

Blink-182 – What’s My Age Again?

Myths versus mortals

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit – I would have played this and/or Weird Al’s Smells Like Nirvana

The Notorious B.I.G – Juicy

Selena – Que Creias?

Dr. Dre – Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang

Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You , #1 pop for 14 weeks

Britney Spears – Baby One More Time

Aaliyah – One In A Million

Tupac – California Love

Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me

Lauryn Hill – Ex-Factor

Shania Twain – Man! I Feel Like A Woman

Big feelings

This chapter, as described, is a bit more substantial.

Tom Petty – It’s Good To Be King

Janet Jackson – Together Again (244)

Black Box – Everybody Everybody

Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You

The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (251)

Gin Blossoms – Hey Jealousy

Counting Crows – A Long December

Mary J. Blige -Real Love

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony – Tha Crossroads

Lisa Loeb – Stay (I Missed You) . Rob was a pallbearer for a friend younger than he was who loved the song

I liked the book, mostly. He was a bit too glib on occasion, but it didn’t destroy my enjoyment.

Hello! My Name Is Blotto: The Movie!

Bowtie, Broadway, Cheese, Sergeant, Lee Harvey, Blanche, Chevrolet, et al.

I had a deep-seated NEED to see the documentary Hello! My Name Is Blotto: The Movie! Here’s the trailer.

At this point, I need to explain what Blotto was. Initially, several of the members were part of the Star Spangled Washboard Band in the 1970s, starting off in Lake George, NY. They achieved a modicum of fame, even appearing on The Mike Douglas Show, which was a big deal. (John and Yoko co-hosted the show in 1972.)

Then, the SSWB disbanded and, through some alchemy, became Blotto, with the members all having the same last name, a la the Ramones. They created a song, “I Wanna Be a Lifeguard.” The Albany-based group received airplay from WNEW in NYC and other stations in the Northeast and beyond. They had achieved a modicum of fame.

A new entity called Music Television was created in 1981. The folks at MTV wanted to know if Blotto had a video. A few months earlier, a couple of college kids working on their final project offered to make a short film of Lifeguard, which aired as the 36th video to play on MTV on August 1 of that year. And Lifeguard had a new life.

They toured incessantly, releasing some singles and the album Combo Akimbo, which had a great cover designed by the late, great John Caldwell. That album included I Quit.

FantaCo, the comic book store I worked at for much of the 1980s, carried their music partly because we were all part of the city’s arts scene. I got to know some of the guys. (We ended up at a restaurant in Troy after Raoul Vezina’s funeral in November 1983.)

But the music industry didn’t know how to categorize them. Blotto was not a comedy group, though there were comedic elements. Metal Head, for instance, annoyed some, er, metal heads, even though it featured Buck Dharma of Blue Öyster Cult. Incidentally, there’s a funny story about a biker’s helmet.

Now what?

Eventually, they played less often and got “grown-up” jobs, such as Paul Rapp (drummer F. Lee Harvey) attending law school and becoming an intellectual property attorney.

Sarge (Greg Haymes) became a writer covering the music scene, primarily for the Albany Times Union and the Nippertown website. I would see him all over the area until his untimely death from cancer. I attended his funeral at the Egg, the first time I’d seen Broadway (Bill Polchinski, a social worker) in years.

Oh, the movie! I forgot. It was great! Lee Harvey, Broadway, and Bowtie (Paul Jossman, who got into computers) were the core conversants, along with Blanche (actor/director Helena Binder). There were old interviews with Sarge and Cheese (Keith Stephenson, who died in 1999).

The film featured familiar faces such as Jim Furlong (Last Vestige Records, and member of the music group the A.D.’s –Livin’ Downtown), Vinnie Birbiglia of the club J.B. Scott’s, and MTV VJ Martha Quinn.

I wish I could have gone to the world premiere at the Cohoes Music Hall, but I was out of town for a wedding. So when it was announced that it would be shown at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany, I was there for the Monday 3 p.m. show, the second of a two-week run. There will be others.

Blotto put Albany on the national music map and supported other local bands in the 1980s.

Movie review: 1946

What if the word “homosexual” was never meant to be in the Bible?

On Sunday night, May 4, I attended a showing of the 2022 film 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted A Culture. It was shown at the nearby Madison Theatre, sponsored by the Spirit Committee of the Pride Center of the Capital Region. The movie “investigates how the word ‘homosexual’ was mistakenly added to the Bible in 1946 through expert interviews, archival research, and personal stories. This documentary challenges long-held assumptions and opens the door for honest healing dialogue about scripture, sexuality, and belonging.”

The movie is part biography/autobiography. Director Rocky Roggio is “an independent filmmaker and production designer.” Rocky is also a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and “moved out of her home after coming out to her conservative, religious parents. Rocky’s father, Sal Roggio, is a non-affirming pastor who preaches that the LGBTQIA+ lifestyle is sinful.” Rocky and Sal are in conversation throughout the film.

What a find!

The film is also part investigative journalism. Ed Oxford, a Graduate of Talbot Seminary, is a gay Christian and “a researcher in how the Bible has been weaponized against LGBTQ people.” He is greatly aided by his hero, Kathy Baldock, author, LGBTQ advocate, international speaker, and educator, and Executive Director of CanyonWalker Connections. She is “a leading expert on LGBTQ issues in the United States, especially dealing with historical and current discrimination faced from the socially conservative Christian church and political sector.” Ed and Kathy have fascinating story arcs before their big find in the archives of Yale University.

Their sleuthing led them to David S. “In 1959, a young, gay seminary student named David wrote a letter to the head of the Revised Standard Version biblical translation team challenging the RSV’s use of the word “homosexual” in 1 Corinthians 6:9. David wrote: ‘I write… because of my deep concern for those who are wronged and slandered by the incorrect usage of this word./” Here’s an interview between Kathy Baldock and David S., after an intro by Ed Oxford that explains the find; a bit of the footage is in the movie.

Reviews

The ten reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes were positive. Jennie Kermode wrote: “This isn’t a film which sets itself up in opposition to Christianity – quite the opposite. Several of its participants speak of how amazed they were when they first came across the concept of gay Christians and realised that they didn’t have to choose, whether the concern was their own sexuality or their support for LGBTQ+ friends. One expresses horror at the way that a homophobic stance has driven good people away from the Church. There is a strong implication that another began questioning the Bible after finding it impossible to reconcile with the idea of a loving God.”

After the movie, there were brief discussions with people around us about how the film made us feel. At some level, it was positive. But as the film itself notes, something that was a mistranslation of the Greek a few decades ago has been baked into current conservative theology. Finding the corrections may not alter the demonization of queer people in some Christian churches, which makes it more important to stand for inclusiveness in “progressive” churches.

I understand that there will be another showing in Albany in a few months. If you do such things, you may rent or buy the movie on Amazon.

Movie review: The Ballad of Wallis Island

get the group back together

I was intrigued enough by the trailer for the film The Ballad of Wallis Island that my wife and I saw at the Spectrum 8 in Albany on Income Tax Day; Tuesdays are cheaper. Charles (Tim Key) is a quirky guy who lives alone on a large property on a remote island. He’s a massive fan of the folk duo McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden as Herb and Carey Mulligan as Nell).

So, he takes some of his lottery winnings and offers them the opportunity to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Do the bandmates and former lovers know that the other one is also coming?

It’s a straightforward concept, but it’s a joy to see the three characters interact; they have great chemistry. Charles is trying to keep the other two happy enough to play together again. He has adapted to his vaguely solitary life, but needed much more.

Nice

It seems almost dismissive to label The Ballad of Wallis Island charming and relatable. One critic notes that “it touches on the passage of time and grief of lost relationships.” The nostalgia of getting together segues into old tensions resurfacing. Another critic: “It was a little bit funny, a little bit sad, and a little bit sweet, all at the same time.”

If you’re a music fan, and the music is nice, you may lean into this idea: wouldn’t you like to be able to have your favorite band get together one more time?

The movie was directed by James Griffiths and written by actors Basden and Key. It also stars Sian Clifford as the shopkeeper. Executive producers – eight are listed – include Griffiths, Basden, Key, and Mulligan, so this is a passion project., as you can tell from this gestation story.

It’s only 100 minutes long, and it has a 97% positive rating with Rotten Tomatoes critics and 92% with moviegoers.

Captain America: Brave New World

Sam Wilson

I was going to write a review of Captain America: Brave New World, but I need to talk about a previous storyline, even though I did not see it.

Think Christian posted an article in 2021 titled Captain America and Christ’s Second Commandment. LeMarr Jackson suggests, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier poses a provocative question: Is the world actually ready to accept and love a Black Captain America?…

“In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America has stood for everything American: an indomitable will, a never-give-up attitude, a paragon of virtue, an extremely hard worker, and—above all else—an outstanding patriot. Not only has he represented these values, but he has also always looked a certain way, with “blond hair and blue eyes…”

“As he walks through a neighborhood with his partner Bucky (Sebastian Stan), a white man, two policemen stop them for having a spirited discussion. One of the cops insinuates that Sam is causing trouble by directly asking Bucky if Sam is “bothering” him. The cop also specifically asks Sam—but not Bucky—for identification, even telling Sam to ‘calm down.'”

Continuity

Having missed the six episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier from 2021, Brave New World was a tad confusing. Part of the storyline of Winter Soldier is this: “Sam.. learns about the first Black super soldier, Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly). When Sam meets the now-older man, he is disillusioned over how his country has treated him. He was a good soldier, but he was hidden from the public and mistreated by his government—quite unlike Steve Rogers’s experience.”

Ah, so that explains Bradley’s role in Brave New World. This reminded me of how comic books were an annoying medium. If you miss an issue, you sometimes feel totally out of the loop and confused.

Ultimately, an article in The Hollywood Reporter titled “Chris Evans’ Captain America Wasn’t Expected to Save Us. So Why Is Anthony Mackie’s?” got me to see Brave New World, which I attended at the Spectrum Theatre. In contrast, my wife saw Conclave, which I had seen months earlier.

As a critic wrote, “Captain America feels like a supporting character in his own movie.” I thought it just me. For a two-hour film, it was busy. The only 49% positive critics’ rating/80% positive with fans seems right. I liked Anthony Mackie as the new Cap and Harrison Ford as President Thunderbolt Ross.

The character Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), “an Israeli former Black Widow who is now a high-ranking government U.S. official, is also controversial” in some circles. Sigh.

If you follow the MCU stuff, you might want to see it. Apparently, folks attending the Spectrum Theatre were not fans at 4 pm on the Tuesday after Presidents Day because I was the only one in a reasonably large theater.