Best of 1989 Mix

 

Looking at 1989 it really is the end of one decade and the beginning of another. For me 1989 was dominated by a few albums in particular. In 1989 my album of the year would have been Disintegration by The Cure. Today it would be Doolittle by Pixies.  You will read my entries below and wonder how the album of the year is not The Sensual World, and I would say that is mostly because Doolittle would become the most influential of all of these records on music.  

20. Gouge Away by Pixies

     As I said before I didn't discover the Pixies until around 1995 or so, but this album is just amazing.  

19. You Must Learn by Boogie Down Productions

     This was the peak of BDP's popularity and for good reason it's a great album.  Love this song.  Probably my favorite song ever about the state of education and it is more fitting today than when it came out in 1989.

18. Talent Show by The Replacements

     I find The Replacements to be an oddly depressing band.  Maybe they came at the wrong time, maybe it's just because like so many rock bands they were never going to reach their potential because of their demons.  I find this song to be hauntingly sad and upbeat at the same time.  

17. Blue Spanish Sky by Chris Isaak

     This album is a solid album, but it has two standout songs, this being one of them.  

16. Kinda I Want To by Nine Inch Nails

     Such an influential band, this is easily their most accessible album.  

15. This Woman's Work by Kate Bush

     I think this is Kate Bush's most consistent album and really is probably her best work.  I think what I find interesting about Bush is her ability to have these very abstract thoughts that she then turns into very clear images.  In this song she is playing around with two concepts which I think are interesting.  One is the idea that "man" has done all he can, working on someone who is sick, and now as she says, "starts the craft of the father," God.  God's craft of healing the person, healing the souls of those involved in the situation, these are things that in our society we think of as woman's work.  In the song then she is also playing around with the idea of the man having to deal with doing "woman's work" and how hard that is for a man.  When we have a society where these things are "woman's work" when they are left to a man, he finds them very hard because he has no training in them or maybe they are just inherently outside of his nature.  The man in this song is also struggling with his own faith in God doing his work.  It is an amazingly beautiful, touching, and sad song.  She made a perfect video to go with it as well.  

14. All Around the World by Lisa Stansfield

     This will begin a love affair with me and Lisa Stansfield that will get me through some very high and very low times in my 20's.  

13. Disintegration by The Cure

     The timing of this album was absolutely perfect for me.  I was taking a semester off from college and living at home working for my dad.  So many days spent driving around Western Kentucky listening to this album.  

12. Monkey Goes to Heaven by Pixies

     I could have picked pretty much any song off of this album to be in this mix, but this song has become one of my favorites over the past 10 years.  

11. Me Myself and I by De La Soul

     Looking at this list I made I find it criminal that this is the only song I picked off of this album, one I find to be a go to album for me and I think one of the best albums of its genre.  For each of these top 20 mixes I have another mix that has more songs for that year.  This album has twelve songs on that list.  All great songs.  No other album is represented in one year's mix like this.  I'm not sure how this ended up being the only one in my top 20 list, maybe the mood I was in when I made it.  This song though does hold a special place for me.  I was really into this album and so I was struck when sitting in church one day to hear the preacher talk about this song.  He spoke of how the message of the song was bad because it talked about me, myself and I and left out God.  The problem is the preacher completely misunderstood the song or misrepresented the song.  "Me, Myself and I," doesn't leave out God at all.  What the song is about is being the person you are first and foremost.  To me that is one of the most important lessons in the Bible.  We have to be ourselves and not who society wants us to be.  As a Christian we will always be bucking up against society and the one thing we can do is remain who we are in Christ, "Me, Myself and I."  I'm not saying De La Soul included God in the song, but the song is not about putting yourself first, it is about being yourself first and that to me is a very Christian approach.  For them in particular they are talking specifically about their music and how they represented themselves.  The industry and society would like them to be something they are not, so they can be more popular or to represent what society thinks rap represents.  They don't want to do that; they want to represent their art in their way.  There is a line, "Proud, I'm proud of what I am, poems I speak are Plug Two type.  Please oh please let Plug Two be Himself, not what you read or write.  Write is wrong when hype is written on the soul, De La that is.  Style is surely our own thing not the false disguise of showbiz."

10. Jack of Spades by Boogie Down Productions

     What a great song.  It is a movie song but so represents BDP.  

9. The Fog by Kate Bush

     Again we have Kate Bush and her abstract thinking being wonderfully represented.  I talk often about how there are abstract writers of songs and those who are more realists.  Bush is an interesting one because she can be both and that allows her to experiment with concepts like this song where she is blending the idea of learning to swim for the first time and the amount of trust that takes in the person who is teaching you, with falling in love with someone and the amount of trust that takes in the other person.  In this case as well it gets even deeper because there is this idea of trusting that the one person has a big enough love to sustain them both, until the singer can learn to love them the same or learn to swim.  

8. Eat for Two by 10,000 Maniacs

     I played this album to death in 1989 and this is the song that has held on the strongest for me.

7. Hey by Pixies

     This song holds a special place in my heart.  

6. Wicked Game by Chris Isaak

     Easily the best song Isaak ever made.  

5. The Sensual World by Kate Bush

     Kate Bush as it turns out is a huge fan of James Joyce surprise surprise.  This song is based on a moment in the book.  She was not able to get the rights to use the actual text and so she had to edit it to fit this song.  She would later obtain the rights and remake the song with the original text.  This was easily the height of Kate Bush's work.

4. It's Only Love by Simply Red

     May not have seen this one coming.  The best song Simply Red ever made and just a great 1989 tune.  

3. Lovesong by The Cure

     Robert Smith is such an amazing writer.  It is no wonder The Cure found their moment in pop culture with this album.  And of course it would come at the end of the 80's.  

2. This Time by Tracy Chapman

     I think this is the best song Tracy Chapman made and it is just a hauntingly beautiful song.  Again her vocal performance is unmatchable.  The opening line "This time I won't show I'm vulnerable," sung with such a vulnerable voice is just wonderful. 

1. Never Be Mine by Kate Bush

     The best song Kate Bush ever made.  As I said Bush can be both abstract and a realist and here, she blends the concept as a great artist can.  I could easily turn this song into a great romantic novel or movie.  Why?  Because it gives us enough reality to see and feel and enough abstraction to give us a platform to build a story onto.  The beauty of abstraction in art, poetry, and music is it gives the one consuming it a space to create their own story out of the chaos.  At least I would say that is the beauty of good abstract art.  The beauty of realistic art, poetry, and music is it gives the one consuming it a vision of what the artist themselves were seeing and thinking when they created it.  When you blend the two together like Bush does on a song like this it puts you into a place in time and space but also gives you control over the story in a way that makes it so incredibly personal to you.  The song will mean something to you it will never mean to another person.  For me this song will always be linked to a moment in time just like it is for the singer, but in a weird, blended sort of way that is so unique to me.  

Defining Generation X: David Lynch

 When we talk about generational influencers timing is everything.  Lynch came out with his first film in 1977.  Generation X was too young really for Eraserhead, but within a few years it would be playing across the country in dollar theaters in college towns as Gen X was heading to college.  By 1986 Gen X was well established in college and Blue Velvet hit the theaters.  It was an instant cult classic.  

Then of course there is Twin Peaks which ran for two seasons 1990-1991.  This came out at a time when Gen Xers were the driving force for the media market and again it became a cult classic and had a big influence.  I have heard people like Gen X director, Kevin Smith, talk about the influence Twin Peaks had on him, when he got his own chance to make a TV show, Reaper.  There is a reason that Smith chose Ray Wise, Leland from Twin Peaks, to play the Devil.  

Why you might ask was Lynch so important for Gen X?  

In film Lynch explored life in a very different way.  It is dark.  It is immoral.  It is frightening.  What we see on the surface is fake.  These aren't necessarily new ideas in film, but Lynch approached them in a way that felt so very different. 

Take the main character in Blue Velvet.  He's a nice guy, from a small town.  He's pitted against Frank who is definitely not a nice guys, abusive, crazy, and violent.  Dorothy meanwhile is this beautiful victim who seems scared and innocent and needs saving from Frank.  Then there is Sandy.  Sandy is young and innocent, but even she is drawn into the darkness of the world.  Her father is a cop and she's seems to be so aware of the violence and danger of the world and just accepts it as the world we live in.  She dreams of something better, dreams of a world where love saves the world.  

Of course the reality that Lynch shows us is that the differences between Jeffrey and Frank are not as great as they seem.  Dorothy is a victim, but certainly not innocent and someone who has become so corrupted by the violence from Frank that she craves it.  Sandy, well Sandy is Sandy.  And this is a theme that often runs through Lynch's work.  In this world we can be corrupted or we can believe in a greater thing, love.  That love is the only thing that can keep us safe.  

This is a very important message when it comes to Gen X.  This idea of people being so easily corrupted, the idea of how easily, even for someone like Sandy, they can look at this and just see it as part of the world we live in and nothing that can be changed, not until the Robins come.  

These are of course the main themes that run through Twin Peaks as well.  We find ourselves rooting for the innocents to escape this dark world, but it feels so hopeless.  Lynch does one thing in Twin Peaks that I don't know anyone has ever done better and that is to express just how scary real violence and real insanity are.  This is also another theme of Lynch's, but he never wants you to forget that murder is an awful and violent act.  Amazingly the clip below actually aired on television at a time when things were greatly censored.  

The violence is scary, insanity is frightening, we are all really just one small nudge away from falling down this rabbit hole of being controlled by Bob.  

This gets us to what may be the best move that Lynch ever made The Straight Story in 1999.  Yes Lynch was hired by Disney to make a rated G movie based on a real life story about a guy who road his lawn mower across Iowa to visit his sick brother.  

If you haven't seen it, watch it.  It is an incredibly powerful movie and Lynch forced to stay out of dream space deals with these same topics but in a way that is so rooted to reality it feels less scary and more sad.  

There is one scene in particular that I'll share below that really shows what an artistic master Lynch was.  From the shots, to the music, to the acting.  All of it is simply amazing. 

Thank God they hired Lynch to make this film.  What other director and writer would have looked at this story and decided this was the way to tell it.  The question Lynch is asking is why would a man ride his mower across Iowa rather than get a ride from someone or take the bus.  We get to know Alvin Straight along this journey and I think we understand exactly why he would ride his mower.  

But note in the scene I linked to here we are still dealing with some of these same themes.  The world is not a nice place.  Look at what happened to Rose.  She's a true innocent and look at what the world did to her.  

This is not a piece about Lynch and his work as a director, but it is about how he influence Gen X and to me his greatest contribution is the exposure of just how dark and dangerous our world can be, and just how close all are to walking down that path ourselves.  

I believe this is something that really hit home with a lot of Gen Xers and one reason why Lynch is an important artist in defining generation X.  

1978

Happy new year!

Comments flow ...

Classic SEC Basketball Standings

Here are the Ken Pom rankings and records for the Classic SEC.  This is obviously the strongest year in history for the Classic SEC:

1.  Auburn:  15-1

5.  Florida:  15-1

6.  Tennessee:  15-1

8.  Alabama:  14-2

20.  Mississippi St:  14-2

21.  Kentucky:  13-3

24.  Mississippi:  14-2

35.  Georgia:  14-2

52.  Vanderbilt:  13-3

71.  Louisiana St:  11-5

Here's the Classic OVC:

106.  Murray St:  10-7

121.  Mid. Tenn. St:  12-5

128.  W. Kentucky:  11-6

224.  E. Kentucky:  8-9

273.  Morehead St:  10-7

301.  Tenn. Tech:  9-8

304.  Austin Peay:  6-11

And here's the Classic Metro Seven.  I love seeing Memphis, U of L, and Cincinnati all back together:

33.  Memphis St:  13-3

34.  Louisville:  12-5

38.  Cincinnati:  10-5

66.  Florida St:  11-5

117.  Saint Louis:  10-6

161.  Virginia Tech:  7-9

175.  Tulane:  9-8

A few more facts about the Big Blue.  Kentucky is ranked 3d in offensive efficiency, at 124.1, and ranked 87th in defensive efficiency, at 101.3.  The Cats are number 105 in luck.

Arkansas is number 49 on KenPom.  The Razorbacks are 75th in offensive efficiency (111.8) and 26th in defensive efficiency (96.0).  They are 197 in luck.

Kentuckians of the Years: 2022, 2023, and 2024

Here's the thing:  it's never easy to do these posts.  In the first place, it's usually not all that easy to pick Kentuckian of the Year.  In the second place, the end of the year is a hectic time filled with lots of other events to post about.  It's tempting to hold Kentuckian of the Year for a month like August where you don't have as much going on, but of course that wouldn't really work.  Anyway, here are the last three Kentuckians of the Year, along with an updated list going back to 2010:

The Kentuckian of the Year for 2022 was obviously Oscar Tschiebwe, the UK center who swept the honors as the National Player of the Year.  In the 2021-22 season, the Cats finished number 6 on Ken Pomeroy's rankings -- and that's the only time they have finished in the top 10 since 2019.  Oscar deserves a lot of credit for that.  He was also one of the most popular UK players of all time, and he came back to play for the Cats in 2022-23.  So he's the Kentuckian of the Year for 2022.

The Kentuckian of the Year for 2023 was Andy Beshear, who was re-elected as Governor over Daniel Cameron (the Republican) by a vote of 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent.  The total vote was 694,482 to 627,457.  Beshear's father -- Steve Beshear -- won in 2007 and 2011, so the Beshears have won four of the last five governor's races.  Their success is even more remarkable when you consider that the Beshears are Democrats.  Right now, Republicans hold 80 of 100 seats in the Kentucky House of Representatives, and 31 of 38 seats in the Kentucky Senate.  But the Beshears -- with their remarkable ability to balance the solid Democratic vote in Louisville and Lexington with just enough support in the rural parts of the Commonwealth -- have managed to maintain a stranglehold on the Governor's Mansion.  No wonder Governor Beshear is seen by many Democrats as a potential candidate at the National Level in 2026 or 2028.

So that brings us to 2024.  In many ways, the biggest story of the year for Kentuckians in 2024 was the re-election of Donald Trump.  Trump received 62.5 percent of Kentucky's vote in 2016, 62.1 percent of Kentucky's vote in 2020, and 64.8 percent of Kentucky's vote in 2024.  To put those figures in perspective, Reagan received 60.0 percent of Kentucky's vote in 1984, and FDR never received more than 58.5 percent of the vote in Kentucky.  There is a strong argument to be made that Trump is the most popular Presidential candidate in the history of the Commonwealth.  (Even Henry Clay only received 54.1 percent of the vote in 1844).  So Kentucky had an unusual stake in this election, and Trump's victory will undoubtedly resonate throughout the Commonwealth for years to come.  But interestingly enough, Kentuckians have also selected a team of officials who strongly disagree with President Trump.  Mitch McConnell's opposition to Trump is well-known, and as we just mentioned, Governor Beshear is a Democrat.  Even Sen. Rand Paul hews to a libertarian ideology that regularly conflicts with Trump's populism.  So who would be the Kentuckian of the Year from the perspective of a Trump voter?  The answer is probably Rep. James Comer, who used his position as a Representative from Kentucky's First District to investigate the Biden Administration and otherwise promote the Trump campaign.

But there was another story in Kentucky that was even bigger than the election.  Perhaps nothing captures the way Kentuckians see themselves better than the KHSAA basketball tournament.  The tournament is famous for the fact that Kentucky only has a single champion for the whole Commonwealth.  This fact captures Kentuckians' love of the underdog, and their belief that everyone -- regardless of background -- should have a chance.  On the other hand, Kentucky has always had a strong aristocracy, and that means that your chance is not always a fair chance.  The Commonwealth is a place where the little people certainly have the right to be heard, but where the big people usually have their way.  And so it is in high school basketball.  Yes, every school -- no matter how small -- is eligible for the title.  But we all know that most of the time, the champion will be one of the big schools.  That's life in the Commonwealth.

Now this balance is extremely difficult to maintain.  The difference between having a small (but real) chance, and having practically no chance, is very hard to measure.  If a small school never wins, then it becomes harder to convince everyone that they have a genuine chance.  But Kentucky has been lucky so far -- every so often, from Earlington to Edmonson County to Shelby Valley -- one of the smaller schools breaks through and gives hope to the rest of them.  And this year, that school was Lyon County.  Not only did the Lyons represent a small school -- Lyon County H.S. doesn't even have a football team -- but they come from the far Western end of the Commonwealth, which traditionally struggles in basketball.  2024 was the first time since 1967 that the State Champion came from a school west of Hopkinsville.

So score one for the populists.  But also don't forget the aristocrats.  Lyon County's success resulted from the fact that the best player in the Commonwealth and the Coach of the Year were both members of the same family.  Ryan Perry coached the team.  Travis Perry was the Star who set the all-time record for points scored and won a scholarship to UK.  So yes, the little guys had their day.  But only because they had some Big-Time talent.  And therefore, our Kentuckian of the Year for 2024 is Travis Perry.

Here is the list of all Kentuckians of the Year since the HP began:

2010:  Rand Paul (Bowling Green)

2011:  John Calipari (Lexington)

2012:  Darius Miller (Maysville)

2013:  Jennifer Lawrence (Louisville)

2014:  Mitch McConnell (Louisville)

2015:  Matt Bevin (Louisville)

2016:  Mitch McConnell (Louisville)

2017:  Justin Thomas (Louisville)

2018:  Stephanie Winkler (Richmond)

2019:  Andy Beshear (Louisville)

2020:  Andy Beshear (Louisville)

2021:  Chris Smiley (Dawson Springs)

2022:  Oscar Tschiebwe (Lexington)

2023:  Andy Beshear (Louisville)

2024:  Travis Perry (Eddyville)