Not the drug.
No, not the song, either.
The station on Sirius.
I have so been digging rediscovering music from the ’90s. I let so much music go by the wayside. I mean, not Pearl Jam or Nirvana or Sublime. But still, a lot.
I’ve been listening through a new set of ears. I’m finding that I dislike some shit that I used to love and I have a new appreciation for music I was lukewarm on.
I haven’t changed my view on Alanis Morissette, though. I guess she was fine playing god in the Kevin Smith movie, but I’m not a fan of her music. Other than the One Hand In My Pocket song. I kind of dig that one.
The best thing about Jagged Little Pill, in my opinion, is the name of the album. And I loathe You Oughta Know.
It wasn’t bad enough that she did that trumpet-y “youa youa youa” thing in the song, it’s that she yodels and also wrote horrible lyrics.
I have to admit that I am feeling an overwhelming desire to start trumpeting “youa youa youa” in a nasally voice, but Randy is sleeping and I’m fairly certain he would be none too appreciative to be woken in such a cruel manner.
Anyway.
I have dealt with anxiety and depression issues my entire life. My coping skills are at least sprained if not broken.
Even so, I am 100% certain that if someone doesn’t want you anymore, then the best course of action is to walk the fuck away. You don’t interrupt your ex in the middle of dinner to whine about how your life is fucked up because he left. Have some goddamn pride.
You certainly do not ask him “are you thinking of me when you fuck her”. No. That would be embarrassing as a drunk dial much less lyrics in a song.
Like I said, my coping skills aren’t great, but I don’t recall ever reaching that level of bitterness in my life. And my life hasn’t been particularly easy.
There is also no excuse for the song Ironic. Or am I being to hard on Alanis? I guess it might have been too difficult to try to sing “Isn’t it a coincidence”.
Randy listens to Little Steven’s Underground Garage station. He finds a reason to go out alone every Saturday morning so he can listen to Ko Molena’s show. He needs his Ko time. He tolerates my Lithium radio habit.
So, I hope you are having an amazing weekend. I hope you hear some good tunes. We’re quiet and good and we have bourbon, so yay! I had an article on Vibrant Nation talking about empty nester wannabes. Come and visit me there. I’m always kind of lonely and fretting when I’m not here.
Dude, the stuffed dog, was quite popular last week. Haha. Randy has dozens of these pictures. He’s going to update Dude’s page once a week. He’s here if you want to see what he’s up to.
Here are a couple memes I had on Rubber Shoes In Hell’s Facebook page:
Depression and other issues exist in my head. It really sucks. Sometimes I wish I had a physical disability instead. Like a missing leg. At least others would understand. At least there are real options for a physical handicap. But anyway it is still amazing to be alive and I am grateful for that.
I am so much right there with you!
Oh gosh 90s music! So interesting to hear a 2016 take on it! And those two memes are a.w.e.s.o.m.e!
Thank you!!! 🙂
I like the movie “Dogma,” and it gets disrespected a lot. I read an article last week about how basically, Kevin Smith’s movies have been all downhill since “Clerks,” but I like “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma” a lot.
The Nineties isn’t my favorite decade for music, though. Maybe someday, I’ll have a better chance to explore more of it.
It’s not my favorite decade either and before listening to this station, I would have dismissed most of it…but now that I’m listening and remembering some shit I loved, I am getting a new appreciation for it.
We just watched Clerks the other night. I LOVE Dogma. I even loved Jersey Girl. I wasn’t crazy about Mall Rats, though. Chasing Amy was pretty good.
Two words for you, Lithium Woman.
Chris. Cornell.
I have no idea why I didn’t know I loved him in the. 90’s, so I have to love him twice as hard in this century.
I LOVE it!
Glad to know that Alanis is happily married these days. She definitely went out with a lot of jerks in her time-didn’t we all.
I actually married them. Hahaha
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
not Alanis 🙁
You mean you DIDN’T send a copy of ‘Perfect’ to the father-figure for Christmas that year? With the lyrics printed out so he wouldn’t misunderstand a single fucking word????
I might have to stay home all weekend, now.
*grabs Jagged Little Pill cassette and drag-crawls back to bed*
HAHAHAAH…I knew SOMEONE would love that album..I mean, it was very popular. I just didn’t connect at all with it.
I connected WAY TOO MUCH 🙂
She was my first girl-crush ….
But, it is KINDA funny to listen to 7 and 9 year old boys singing, “I’ve got one hand in my pocket and the other one….”
or asking, “What is ‘ironic?'”
Never mind that they also knew the album well enough to hum the opening bars of the next song right after the last one ended…
Aahh… Alanis. I still quote her.
It freaks people out when 90’s music comes on and I know every damn word. AND I LIKE IT. It’s what was playing when my kids were teenagers and that stuff sticks. My music is sorted into groups, named by the street I lived on when it came out. Most days I choose “Fox Squirrel Ridge Road”, which is where I lived in the 90’s. It’s my lithium station.
I LOVE it. That is awesome. I also have a knack for remembering lyrics. My youngest is the same. He’s got a head full of music as well. He’s mostly hip hop, but he loves RHCP and Nirvana.
*high fives Halfa1000miles*
I KNEW you were awesome like that!
Carolina, you win the 90’s for sorting your music by the streets you lived on! Simply outstanding!
We worked our way through a couple of country music stations on Sirius until it felt like they put a tape in. Now we’re into classic rock of the 70s and 80s.
I just paid the Sirius bill. Daaang.
Walk. Yep. The only way. Thank god for my friends who took me in the first time I walked. Took a month for me to find and apartment I liked. They never push me.
If you Dr. prescribes lithium for you, take it un less your doctorate degree trumps theirs. On that subject, for mental health issues you go to a psychiatrist, right? I mean everyone should know that.
My spelling up and left me this morning.
My spelling always blows.
Funny, Randy says the same thing..it’s like they’re playing the same songs over and over.
My husband too. He does not pay attention to lyrics whatsoever. He likes how a song “feels”. He told his daughter he liked a song by Pink, and I had to tell him that the lyrics said “it’s just you and your hand tonight” and he had no idea… He is super conservative and saying that to his daughter embarrassed him. Ha.
HAHAHHAHA
I hated Alanis at the time but now I enjoy her. I’m a music person, not a lyrics person–half the time I have no clue what the song is about, I just like the melody.
I missed a lot of music in the early 90s because my kids were in the DIsney music phase–I didn’t really listen to Nirvana until I saw them get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2 years ago, now I love them. On the other hand, I know the lyrics to all the classic Disney movie songs by heart. In reaction to Disney over- saturation, I haven’t seen an animated movie in years.
I always pay attention to lyrics. Randy is like you, he’s about the music, not so much the lyrics. It’s the whole package for me. I have to have good lyrics..or at least “not annoying” lyrics. haha.
I know a lot of Disney songs, too. My youngest watched Tarzan a billion times.
My husband too. He does not pay attention to lyrics whatsoever. He likes how a song “feels”. He told his daughter he liked a song by Pink, and I had to tell him that the lyrics said “it’s just you and your hand tonight” and he had no idea… He is super conservative and saying that to his daughter embarrassed him. Ha.
You Oughta Know isn’t about the bitterness to me — it’s about the betrayal. So many women do things like give up perfectly good jobs because their partner has an opportunity across the country, or do all the housework because he “works late” (except he’s not), or work at a crappy job so he can finish law school. Then they get dumped the moment they’re not useful to their partner anymore. In my observation and experience, the user gets all the support and then cheerfully walks into their next relationship, while the person who got used gets to spend years picking up the pieces and learning how to trust again. Plus people say things like, “you let yourself be a doormat!” when really they’re more like a fraud victim.
That’s why the parts about “you said you’d love me until you die, well you’re still alive” and “Mr. Duplicity” are so important. She’s there to remind him it’s not just a breakup from emotional differences blah blah blah. There was other, more practical stuff on the line. “Are you thinking of me while you fuck her” to me is more an implication of “are you going to screw her over like you did me”.
Anyway.
THAT is a valid and interesting perspective that I never considered because I was too annoyed by the way I saw it. hahaha. Yeah, I can see that. Probably not enough to actually be able to listen to that song and like it..but I WILL sing the one hand in my pocket song extra loud the next time I hear it.
I worked at a classic rock radio station in the ’90’s so I missed a lot of that music. But, I love all music and now I’m listening to Spectrum on Sirius radio. I’ve downloaded some of Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats recently. I like their sound. And, I love how some of the classics like, the Rolling Stones and Paul Simon and Steven Tyler are still working. Not to mention Bruuuuce who just broke a record with a four hour+ concert in Philly.
b
I love Bruce so goddamn much. I’ve seen him live 3 times. The River tour, the Tunnel Of Love tour and then Randy and I saw him around 8 years ago. I don’t remember what that tour was called. The last one was the most disappointing, but he was still awesome. I love him so much. Him and Tom Petty..I have adored them since high school.
I never connected with Alanis either. Most of the 90’s I was listening to country music.
On Sirius I listen to a little bit of everything. My kids grew up in the 80’s so that stuff brings back memories.
Ahh depression it feels so good when it leaves but it always comes back.
It does always come back, doesn’t it? I’m trying very hard to appreciate the space in between more than I do.
Here’s what Precocious Daughter and I listen to on Sirius:
Classic Rewind
Classic Vinyl
Deep Tracks
First Wave
Lithium
XMU
Alt Nation
50s on 5
60s on 6
70s on 7
Underground Garage
Broadway
We could program in more, but holy crap that’s a lot of stations already.
Back in the 90s, my Bestest Friend and I send each other a lot of mixtapes. One of hers had several songs from Jagged Little Pill. She later apologized for that. 🙂
I need to give all those stations a listen, I really do. I’m getting stuck in the 80s and 90s.
I read the empty nest wannabe story, but you have to be a member to comment over there, so I’m doing it here instead. I never realized what a pain in the ass I was to live with until I moved out of my parents house when I was 18. After that I made a point of learning how to be a good house mate. Why I didn’t see my parents as actual people when I lived with them I don’t quite know.
I still remember the payday from my delivery driver job when I drove the truck to Berkeley and bought Jagged Little Pill (and No Joke by the Meat Puppets) on cassette tapes at Rasputin on Telegraph Ave. I had heard two songs from Jagged Little Pill on the radio, and I was sorta worried that the rest of the album would suck, especially next to a new Meat Puppets album. I remember being pleasantly surprised by the songs themselves, but sort of put off by the album as a whole. In retrospect, she was nineteen years old when she recorded it, and as such, was a far better musician at that age than I had been. There is no denying that she can sing well, I just had a hard time making the songs fit together into a listening experience.
I don’t tend to listen to Alanis much these days, but I still listen to No Joke from time to time, and whenever I bust out one of my guitars, there is at least an even chance that I’ll be playing my version of “Vampires” from that album.
I loved the Meat Puppets..that’s a band I’ve been enjoying listening to again.
Michelle, I love you like Hell, but I loved Alanis too. There was a time in my life I could relate to her songs sooo much. I am one of that kind of women in the world that went so low.
Good for you that you didn’t. Please don’t judge me.
It is a long long time ago and I came back to the better me but I surely found comfort in her lyrics at the time.
In the present world and age we have you, Michelle.
We listen to what you tell us and find comfort in your words. Every periode in a persons life values a different storyteller. This is is just an honest comment.
Oh man, I would NEVER judge another person for their musical taste..this is just my take. Well, unless you really love the song “She’s Having My Baby”. Then I might judge you a little.
LOVE dude!! please keep a link to the photos…..can’t help but smile at that naughty little dude! my easy bake oven was THE best Christmas present ever!!! although, I admit I did love the chemistry set too (been a scientist at heart since I started blowing up test tubes in my “laboratory” in the chicken coop when I was a kid!!)
Hahaha. Oh, I will! Randy is having way too much fun with this. He is very sweet and he does make me laugh. He’s so goofy.
Big fan of Lithium. Even got my 18 year old daughter appreciating grunge which is saying something since all she ever listens to is rap.
My 18 year old son listens to nearly exclusively rap..but he also likes grunge. I love it when he listens to my music and I try very hard to listen to his. I am still trying to grow my appreciation for the artists he likes.
I hear you. I’m struggling too. I wonder if it’s a star alignment thing. Or maybe there’s just more assholes in the world.
I dunno. I really don’t. I just want it to stop. I’d also like to be able to sleep. That would rock.
So, whether you like her music or not, try the Alanis Morissette random lyric generator:
http://brunching.com/alanislyrics.html
HAHAAHA..that was awesome!
Alanis is Canadian so I have to say I like her–it’s one of our laws. Aside from that, so many things in Ironic are just so not, which is also ironic, which was maybe what she was aiming for, which is to say “completely baffling her audience with things that aren’t that much of a problem”. The last time I got a fly in my Chardonnay, I flicked it out and kept drinking. I’m just glad that the guy who wrote the Pina Colada song wasn’t Canadian or I’d be in jail now because I can’t get behind that.
Oh god no…that song is horrid.
Yay, Canada!!! 😀
You know how you have a love-hate relationship with certain songs?
I have to confess that “You Oughta Know” is one of those songs for me.
I love the way it sounds. I love the music as a pure visceral expression of anger. It’s the lyrics that bother me. Every time I listen to it I think, “Criminy, why couldn’t she get that pissed off about something that really matters?”
And if it’s true the song is addressed to Dave Coulier then she’s too fucked up to be allowed near a recording studio. Seriously, no one should get that upset about Dave Coulier no matter what he did.
Yeah, those lyrics have always annoyed me..although, to be fair to Alanis, I have not lived her life, so who knows?
We recently bought a jeep that came with three years (can you believe three?) of free Sirius radio. This weekend, while I was detailing the jeep, I remembered your post. So I put on Lithium while I worked. Brought back some good memories.
I’m writing (been writing, will probably continue to write forever) a book about how going online changed my life. That started back in the early 90’s with BBS’s (soooo old) so I put 90’s music on when I write. It seems to help the words flow better when I am listening to the same music that was playing during the events I’m writing about.
I am so glad! 3 years? That’s freaking awesome!
You Oughta Know was ruined for me forever when someone posted online that they’d always thought the chorus lyrics went “it’s not fair to deny me of the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me”.
Now I lose it every time imagining an ugly custody battle between Alanis and her ex over a poor derpy cross-eyed bear.
HAHAHAHAHHAHA
God I missed you while I was away. So good to be catching up.
I kinda like indie folk, but mostly listen to them while I am driving. I hate commercial radio, because of, well, the commercials. lol
I’m glad you are back!!! Yay!!