3. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

3. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Are You Gonna Go My Way?)

1993

Lenny Kravitz was a star on the rise with the success of his second album Mama Said. However, mere months after Mama Said and “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” rose up the charts Nirvana released Nevermind and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” changed the rock music scene dramatically and Kravitz’s adoration of the classic rock and soul stars of the 60’s and 70’s could have been seen as firmly out of step with the punk rock rejection of commercialism and stardom that became a key part of the culture and environment of the early 90’s grunge and alternative rock explosion. On the other hand though Kravitz’s music, especially his more rock-oriented music, had always drawn on the fuzzy, distorted, bass-driven sound that had become popular and so Kravitz’s third album Are You Gonna Go My Way? was likely a make or break album for Kravitz yet again. To his credit, Kravitz doesn’t really change his style much on Are You Gonna Go My Way? and the album continues to blend genres and update the sounds of his idols; nor does Kravitz ever shy away from the imagery or iconography of the era of the classic rock gods. Kravitz wisely did release the title track “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” as the album’s lead single and it is a propulsive rocker that manages to be simultaneously fiery and grimy at once and so is a spiritual, if not a true sonic, cousin to the grunge and alt rock that was reaching its peak at the time. Lyrically, “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” is a loose retelling of the life of Jesus, although one could be forgiven for not realizing that since the song has such an aggressive vibe. “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” became another big hit for Lenny Kravitz and was the perfect song to be on 90’s alt rock radio along side songs by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Green Day, and the like. It also happens to just be a great song; one of the best Kravitz ever wrote.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

2. “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Mama Said)

1991

Lenny Kravitz was able to tour to support his debut album by playing as an opening act for Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. He also earned more press when he co-wrote and produced the song “Justify My Love” for Madonna as a new track on her Immaculate Collection hits compilation. All of this led to greater expectations for Kravitz’s second album, 1991’s Mama Said. Mama Said met the higher expectations that Kravitz now had by becoming his first album to reach the Top 40, while also spinning off several successful singles. The lead single was the funky rocker “Always On The Run”, but the album’s big hit was the Curtis Mayfield and Prince-inspired soul ballad “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over”. Unlike many of Kravitz’s peers of the time who shunned the arena rock and soul sensibilities of the 1970’s, Kravitz embraced them and it is easy to play “spot the influences” on Mama Said, but his use and blending of these influences was relatively unique at the time and on the best work, like “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over”, Kravitz is able to rise above these influences and create something special. Indeed, “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” became Kravitz’s biggest hit reaching #2 in the USA, #11 in the UK and charting highly in many other nations.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

1. “Let Love Rule” – Lenny Kravitz: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Let Love Rule” – Lenny Kravitz

(From the album Let Love Rule)

1989

Lenny Kravitz was born in New York City and spent most of his early years living in either New York or Los Angeles. Kravitz was exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age as his mother was an actress and his father was a television producer for NBS News and this, combined with easy access to the music scenes in both L.A. and New York, meant that Kravitz grew up with an interest in a wide array of musical genres. This would prove to be a fact that would impact his career over the years as Kravitz would become known for his blending of the rock, pop, soul, blues, R&B, and other genres. After his parents divorced Kravitz spent most of his high school years in Los Angeles when his mother moved there after landing a role on the television program The Jeffersons. This led to Kravitz attending high school with singer Maria McKee, actor Nicholas Cage, and Guns ‘N Roses guitarist Slash, among other prominent figures. With all of these influences in his life Kravitz had turned to music as a young man and had become quite skilled on the drums and guitar. Kravitz decided that he wanted to be a musician and so began working on music to shop around for a record deal. Kravitz however did not find much interest as most labels found his music to not be “black enough” to promote to a black audience while simultaneoiuly not being “white enough” to sell to a mostly white rock audience. Undeterred Kravitz kept working on his music and drew on his show business connections to help him overcome the labels disinterest. Without the backing of label money Kravitz’ father paid for studio time for Kravitz to work on an album and Kravitz found a musical partner in studio engineer, bassist, and keyboardist Henry Hirsh, who Kravitz had previously met through his industry connections. Kravitz, with the help of Hirsh, and a few guest musicians, created his debut album Let Love Rule, a genre-blending album that mixed rock, soul, R&B, and psychedelic pop into something very unique and interesting, but also quite out of step with the music that was popular in the slick and glossy world of late 80’s music. Indeed, the title track (which would eventually be used as the lead single), was an effective and catchy example of how Kravitz was able to blend all of his influences. However, while Kravitz had an album, he still didn’t have a record deal. Kravitz was once again able to turn to his connections to remedy this situation though when he asked his friend Stephen Elvis Smith to manage him and help him get a record deal. Smith had worked with Kravitz’s mother on The Jeffersons and currently was the music advisor for the TV show A Different World which starred Kravitz’s girlfriend (and soon-to-be wife) Lisa Bonet. Once Smith was on board to promote Kravitz self-made debut album Let Love Rule he became the center of a five-label bidding war and eventually signed to Virgin Records. Virgin released Let Love Rule in September of 1989 and “Let Love Rule” became the first of five singles released from the album. “Let Love Rule” showed the potential star power of Kravitz, while the success of the hard to classify sound of both the song and album hinted at the changes that were coming to the music scene.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

6. “Telling Stories” – Tracy Chapman: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Telling Stories” – Tracy Chapman

(From the album Telling Stories)

2000

Chapman has always been a private, even reclusive, person. She is an artist who is far more interested in saying something with her art than in being a star. This can be seen in her relatively quiet demeanor (although she can be very funny), her reluctance to heavily promote herself, and her understated music videos. However, the biggest indicator of this may simply be that Chapman waited five years to follow-up her massively successful single “Give Me One Reason” and the accompanying album New Beginning with a new album. By the time 2000’s Telling Stories was released any momentum from her previous album’s success was pretty much gone. Somewhat ironically, Telling Stories feels much more like a new beginning than her previous album ever did. While Chapman never strays too far from her core sound on Telling Stories the songs on this album are much fuller and more diverse than that of her previous albums. Telling Stories feels more like it is a sonic cousin to the music of Sheryl Crow, Natalie Merchant, and The Wallflowers, more than of Chapman’s earlier work or her late 80’s folk revival peers like Suzanne Vega or the Indigo Girls (although by 2000 Indigo Girls had moved in a similar direction to what Chapman is exploring here). This more rock and Americana influenced sound can be heard on the warm and propulsive title track “Telling Stories”, which also served as the album’s lead single. Of course, as is typical in Chapman’s strangely hit-and-miss commercial career, playing to the mainstream did not score her any major hits, but the album did go gold and is another excellent record in Chapman’s already discography. 

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

4. “Building A Mystery” – Sarah McLachlan: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

4. “Building A Mystery” – Sarah McLachlan

(From the album Surfacing)

1997

Sarah McLachlan released her fourth album Surfacing in 1997 and it became her biggest hit and first album to achieve notable sales and chart success outside of North America. The first single was the mysterious and sensual “Building A Mystery”, a song that went to #13 in the US (#3 on the US alt charts) and, unsurprisingly, to #1 in Canada, and helped to launch the album that would elevate McLachlan to the rank of a full-blown star. Indeed, “Building A Mystery” was only the first of four successful singles from the album as “Sweet Surrender”, “Adia”, and “Angel” all broke into the US Top 30, with the latter two songs going Top 5. McLachlan also won two Grammy Awards for songs from Surfacing. “Building A Mystery” won the award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, while the instrumental closer “Last Dance” won for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. In her native Canada Surfacing and its songs were nominated for four Juno Awards with Surfacing winning Album Of The Year and “Building A Mystery” winning Song Of The Year, among other awards. The momentum “Building A Mystery” built up as the lead single helped Surfacing become McLachlan’s most successful album yet and the later singles on the record became some of her first real hits in markets like the UK, Europe, and Australia. In spite of all of this success McLachlan became frustrated with radio stations who wouldn’t play female artists back to back or concert promoters who would not schedule two female artists in a row at the same venue. To disprove this anti-female bias McLachlan booked a co-headlining tour with herself and Paula Cole in 1996. The show in McLachlan’s hometown featured not only her and Cole but also Lisa Loeb and Crash Vegas’ Michelle McAdorey and was billed as “Lilith Fair”. The 1996 tour with Cole was a success and McLachlan decided to bring back her “Lilith Fair” (named for the Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam’s first wife who refused to be subservient to him) in 1997, expanding it to be an all-female traveling concert festival. Lilith Fair proved to be the most successful traveling festival of the year and featured among others, Sarah McLachlan, Suzanne Vega, Jewel, Indigo Girls, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Lisa Loeb, Joan Osborne, and many others. With the success of Surfacing and her point made with Lilith Fair, McLachlan had become one of the most successful and important people in the 90’s alternative music scene.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

2. “Everyday Is Like Sunday” – Morrissey: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “Everyday Is Like Sunday” – Morrissey

(From the album Viva Hate)

1988

Viva Hate went all the way to #1 on the UK charts and, perhaps somewhat surpringly, to #48 in the USA where the album earned support from college radio and, to a lesser degree, from MTV. Morrissey followed up the success of “Suedehead” with the second single “Everyday Is Like Sunday”. “Everyday Is Like Sunday” is a dramatic ballad based on Neville Shute’s novel On The Beach about nuclear holocaust and living in a place so boring and unimportant that nobody even bothered to nuke it. Thus, the song’s protaganist must wait for a natural death rather than a quick one. While the song is quite morbid in its literal interpretation, “Everyday Is Like Sunday” is more a song about loneliness and longing and wanting to be someplace other than where you are. It was another hit for Morrissey and peaked at #9 in the UK. Following the success of Viva Hate Morrissey wrote a handful of other songs with Stephen Street before moving on to begin a writing and working partnership with the production duo of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. These various writing sessions (which also saw him working with former Smiths bandmates Andy Rourke, Craig Gannon, and Mike Joyce on some tracks) eventually led to the release of three non-album singles – “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys”, “Interesting Drug”, and “Ouija Board, Ouija Board”. The first two of these, co-written with Street, reached the UK Top 10 while the latter, written with Langer and Winstanley, went Top 20 in the UK. All three songs were also hits on the US alt rock charts. Morrissey then decided to begin work on the follow-up to Viva Hate and entered the studio with Langer and Winstanley on that album. However, that project would end up going in a different direction than expected.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com

1. “Birthday” – Bjork/The Sugarcubes: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

1. “Birthday” – The Sugarcubes

(From the album Life’s Too Good)

1988

The Sugarcubes formed in 1986 in Reykjavik, Iceland around the core of vocalists Bjork Guomundsdottir and Einar Orn Benediktsson, although all of the members of the band had long been part of Iceland’s alternative music scene. Indeed, Bjork, who would become the band’s focal point and then later have a massively successful solo career, also started out as a solo artist when she released a solo album in Iceland at age eleven. However, this collection of Icelandic all-star musicians formed as The Sugarcubes with the stated intention of leaving behind much of their alternative music past and forming a “cute” pop band. The Sugarcubes began playing shows in Iceland and abroad and their brand of alternative pop rooted in post-punk began to earn the band comparisons in the press to The B-52’s or Talking Heads. Soon The Sugarcubes rode this buzz to sign a record deal and they recorded their debut album Life’s Too Good. While the sound of the record was positive and pop-centric, much of this pop appeal was done sarcastically with their tongue firmly in cheek. The first single released by The Sugarcubes was “Birthday”, an English language version of a song that the band had released in Icelandic a year earlier. “Birthday”, released several months ahead of the release of Life’s Too Good, introduced Bjork’s unique and powerful vocals to the world as she sang a vocal part that alternated from pixie-like wonder to a banshee-like wail in the space of a few notes. “Birthday” became a favorite of UK DJ and tastemaker John Peel and the NME and Melody Maker single of the week in August of 1987. All of this attention in the UK built up the buzz surrounding the band and the release of Life’s Too Good in April of 1988 proved to be a surprising commercial success. The Sugarcubes early success in the UK then spilled over to the American college radio scene where “Birthday” was successful enough to actually earn some crossover airplay on mainstream American radio and eventually scored the band a spot performing on Saturday Night Live. Other singles like “Coldsweat” and “Motorcrash” would be released. None of these were as successful as “Birthday” but they sustained enough success to see The Sugarcubes tour America before embarking on an international tour as well. It was an amazing rise to fame and success for a band from Iceland that consisted of indie artists who had formed a pop group on a lark, largely to make fun of pop music.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

7. “Ten Storey Love Song” – The Stone Roses: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

7. “Ten Storey Love Song” – The Stone Roses

(From the album Second Coming)

1994

While The Stone Roses Second Coming did not completely eschew the dance/rock textures of the Madchester scene that the band had helped make famous (third single “Begging You” leans into these in fact) the band did pull back from them for much of the album. Lead single “Love Spreads” was more a psychedelic rock song and the follow up single “Ten Storey Love Song” was one of the most classicist songs that the band would ever record. A midtempo love song that made sense playing alongside bands like Oasis and Blur on the radio, “Ten Storey Love Song” was a solid hit in the UK, peaking at #11. However, behind the scenes The Stone Roses were beginning to fall apart. Neither singer Ian Brown or drummer Reni showed up for the first day of filming for the “Ten Storey Love Song” video. Brown would eventually turn up to film the video but Reni never did (a man wearing a mask of Reni’s face pops up in the video a few times though) and Reni would announce his exit from the band a short time later, just two weeks before the band was to go on tour in support of Second Coming. Replacement drummer Robbie Maddux was brought in just in time to have a series of UK concert dates cancelled. The band also had to cancel their planned “comeback” appearance at the famous Glastonbury Festival in June when guitarist John Squire broke his collarbone in a mountain biking accident a few weeks before the show. The Stone Roses finally were able to kick off their tour in support of Second Coming in November of 1995, almost a year after the album was released. In spite of the delay the tour sold out all of its scheduled dates in a day. However, the band continued to fray when guitarist and main songwriter John Squire announced his departure in April 1996. The remaining members recruited new guitarist Aziz Ibrahim and kept the band going for another six months before Brown and Mani agreed to end the band. The Stone Roses would not play together again until 2012 when the band played a one-off show that was only announced an hour before showtime. However, 2013 saw the band play several large festivals including the Isle of Wight, Coachella, and the Glasgow Green. 2016 finally saw The Stone Roses release their first new material since the B-side of the “Ten Storey Love Song” single had come out in 1995 when the band released the stand alone singles “All For One” and “Beautiful Thing”. The band played their last show in 2017.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

6. “Love Spreads” – The Stone Roses: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

6. “Love Spreads” – The Stone Roses

(From the album Second Coming)

1994

Following the release of the “One Love” single The Stone Roses and their record label went into a protracted legal battle that kept the band from releasing new material for four years. Ultimately, Stone Roses would win and sign with Geffen Records but the heyday of Madchester had long passed by then and the alternative music scene had shifted significantly. Guitarist John Squire had also become a new father and his desire to be home with his family also slowed worked on the new album, as did a dispute between the band and producer John Leckie, who ultimately decided to leave the project. In spite of all of these setbacks and delays the buzz and buildup for the release of The Stone Roses second album was still hotly anticipated. Indeed, it built up to a point that almost no release could have lived up to the hype. The Stone Roses themselves didn’t help their own cause by cheekily naming the album Second Coming. Second Coming was finally released in December of 1994 with “Love Spreads” as the lead single. The album found The Stone Roses pulling back from the dance textures and “Madchester” sound of their previous work to some degree, in favor of the more straightforward rock and roll that the band had pursued in their early days. This was likely a wise decision as the classicist sound of Britpop had replaced Madchester in the years since Stone Roses had last been on the scene. This shift in sound can be heard on the bluesy riffs and 60’s psychedelia of lead single “Love Spreads”, a strong song that hit #2 in the UK and #2 on the American alternative rock charts. In spite of this success though “Love Spreads” didn’t impact the public consciousness the way many of the singles from The Stone Roses had and it was soon apparent that The Stone Roses weren’t the center of the British music scene anymore and that Second Coming could not live up to the massive expectations. Still, “Love Spreads” is an excellent rock song with vague flourishes of both dance/rock and psychedelia, and another deserved hit for the band.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com 

2. “She Bangs The Drums” – The Stone Roses: An Artist A Week/A Song A Day – A History of Alternative Music

2. “She Bangs The Drums” – The Stone Roses

(From the album The Stone Roses)

1989

The Stone Roses would undergo some final lineup changes in the year prior to recording their self-titled debut album. Rhythm guitarist Andy Couzens would be forced out of the band and bassist Pete Garner would choose to leave the group, replaced by Mani, who had played with an early version of the band called Waterfront. This lineup of Ian Brown, John Squire, Reni, and Mani, would be the classic lineup of the band and would be the foursome to write and record their seminal debut album. In the run-up prior to the release of The Stone Roses the band would release the non-album single “Elephant Stone”. “Elephant Stone” would not be a hit but it did serve as a transitional song between the group’s earlier more British Invasion indie rock style and their more psychedelic and danceable music that would soon make them famous. Indeed, like many of their early singles, “Elephant Stone” would be re-released after The Stone Roses became more successful and the re-release of the song would hit #8 in the UK. Their debut album The Stone Roses was released in April of 1989 and the first single from the record “Made Of Stone” was a minor success, peaking at #90 (although it too would later be re-released and go to #20). However, the first Stone Roses song to earn much real traction and mainstream airplay was the second single from their debut album, “She Bangs The Drums”. “She Bangs The Drums” draws on elements of sunny psychedelia, noise rock like The Jesus & Mary Chain, while still also maintaining some of the echoes of British Invasion era pop that the band’s earlier work drew more heavily on. “She Bangs The Drums” doesn’t lean as heavily into the dance culture that would soon define Manchester as “Madchester” but it does have a rhythmic pulse unlike their past work that new bassist Mani adds to the band. “She Bangs The Drums” was the first Stone Roses song to crack the UK Top 40 at #36 (and would hit #34 when it was re-released eight months later). “She Bangs The Drums” didn’t make The Stone Roses superstars but it did announce they were to be a presence on the scene right as that scene was about the exploder into the mainstream.

Follow all the posts at the Alternative Reality site: www.alternativealbumsblog.wordpress.com