One thing that will stick with me about November 1994 was how flipping COLD it was on Thanksgiving. A cold snap had hit, bringing high winds and high humidity. There wasn’t any rain or snow, but it felt like something was going to hit sooner or later. It didn’t help that the heat in the building had gone kaput a day or so earlier and the landlord was slow in getting it fixed. I’d decided to stay in the city as I couldn’t afford to take time off from work and D had no plans either, so we both chose to have our T-Day turkey at the apartment. Even Z had chosen to spend the day with friends elsewhere where it was warmer.
That night, after watching some movies and holing up in my room, we realized that windows in my room were drafty as f*ck to the point that it felt like I’d left them open. I called the landlord to ask what could be done, and he said to talk to the building manager…who’d also chosen to spend the day rather than freeze. After much aggravating back and forth, he brought over his dinky little space heater and called it done, and I stapled one of my bedsheets over the window. The damn thing billowed like a sail the entire night. We burrowed under multiple blankets and hoped we wouldn’t a) freeze from the cold or b) burn from the space heater being on all night. Thankfully neither happened.
Suffice it to say, he fixed the windows two weeks later (on a much warmer day, of course). I don’t think that landlord liked me after that, but that was a perfect example of when I will definitely make a noise if certain lines are crossed. Oh well!
The Black Crowes, Amorica, released 1 November 1994. After the one-two punch of their first two great albums, they dropped this third one which was…not a big hit. It’s great, but it’s kind of weird and drug-influenced. I’d hear “A Conspiracy” on the radio every now and again, but it disappeared from the rotations soon after.
Sparks, Gratuitious Sax & Senseless Violins, released 1 November 1994. I’d always been a passive Sparks fan — they were fascinating but I never got around to buying any of their albums — but I do remember hearing “When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way'” during the short time I had cable, as they’d play it on MuchMusic quite a bit.
Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York, released 1 November 1994. By the end of the year, fans and industry alike were still coming to terms with the suicide of Kurt Cobain. This was a recording of their performance from the previous November, revealing that for a loud grunge band, they could play soft and still nail it. Their cover of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” is purely haunting and breathtaking.
Tom Petty, Wildflowers, released 1 November 1994. Petty’s second solo album was not quite as popular as Full Moon Fever but was just as great. “You Wreck Me” and “You Don’t Know How It Feels” were hit singles that got quite a lot of play on both alternative and commercial rock radio.
Eagles, Hell Freezes Over, released 8 November 1994. So named after Don Henley’s response to whether the band would reunite, their surprise actual reunion was a wonderful mix of live acoustic renditions of their hits and four completely new songs.
Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, No Quarter, released 8 November 1994. Another surprise reunion was the two Led Zeppelin leads doing the same: live acoustic renditions of many of their personal favorites, both covers and originals.
Letters to Cleo, Aurora Gory Alice, released 15 November 1994. Boston bands pretty much had their own renaissance in the early to mid 90s, slightly overshadowed by the PNW but strong nonetheless. This band was a huge hit from the get go with singles “Here and Now” and “I See”.
TLC, CrazySexyCool, released 15 November 1994. Another pop album you could not escape, this one has so many great singles and radio hits on it that it’s considered one of their finest. You still hear “Waterfalls” every now and again on pop radio.
Moist, Silver, released 15 November 1994. I discovered this band — with this video, actually — via MuchMusic, a Canadian alternative group that wasn’t as angry or edgy as grunge but could easily fit into the genre. A band worth checking out.
The Beatles, Live at the BBC, released 30 November 1994. In a way, you could conceivably see this collection as the revival of the Apple Records label, which had kind of been in stasis for years, especially since the cd releases of their catalog in 1987-88 had been considered the final statement in their discography. This was the first official Beatles compilation to be released since 1988’s Past Masters volumes, and as is typical of the band, it wasn’t a gathering of already-released tracks, but a treasure trove of BBC sessions (of which there are many). [You could possibly also see it as a dry run for the Anthology project that would drop the following year; by this point they’d recorded “Free As a Bird” and were working on wrapping up the miniseries.]
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Next up: The end-of-year wrap-up and vague future plans
Walk In Silence 