Ye Olde Hit Parade: Stop!

Editor's note: Ye Olde Hit Parade takes a look back at my favorite songs year by year (starting in 1978, when I really started paying attention to music).

1990: Jane's Addiction - Stop!

On to another decade. The world was definitely changing. The Cold War ended, the Soviet Union began dissolving, Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison, the Persian Gulf War started, Margaret Thatcher resigned as British Prime Minister.


As the calendar switched over to 1990, I was 22, living in Wenham, Mass., and working as a reporter for the Peabody Times. I don't remember if there was some crazy New Year's Eve party or anything, but there was a good crew of young reporters in our 20s among the four dailies in our chain and we would definitely rip it up regularly. We were all single and even though the economy was in a slump and we weren't making much money, we enjoyed ourselves.

The house-sitting situation ended during the summer, so I got an apartment in neighboring Beverly (where the newspaper chain was headquartered) with another reporter. Vinyl was being phased out, so by this time, I was exclusively buying CDs. My dad gave me my first CD player as a graduation present the year before, so I was building up my collection of them.

I started going to a lot of concerts this year: The Smithereens at the Orpheum in Boston, Aerosmith and the Black Crowes in Old Orchard Beach, Robert Plant at Great Woods in Mansfield, James Taylor at Great Woods (wasn't my idea), Little Feat at Old Orchard Beach, Living Colour at the Orpheum, Death Angel at the Channel and the Black Crowes at the same venue.

Musically, I was all over the place as usual. Classic rock was making a big push on local radio, helped by strong new albums from the likes of Robert Plant, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Aerosmith (carrying over from '89), and a greatest hits tour by David Bowie. For new music, I was into releases by Soul Asylum, Mother Love Bone, World Party, Alice in Chains, Digital Underground, the Black Crowes, Midnight Oil, Iggy Pop, Gary Moore, Sinead O'Connor, Adrian Belew, INXS, Hindu Love Gods and the Vaughan Brothers (released not long after the tragic death of Stevie Ray Vaughan).

The pop charts were pretty varied, with hip hop and its approximations by MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Bell Biv DeVoe, Technotronic and Snap!, dance music from Deee-Lite, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson and Madonna, and poppy schmaltz from the likes of Mariah Carey, Wilson Phillips and Michael Bolton.


I was consuming a lot of stuff, but the hottest band to me was Jane's Addiction, who had released their second album, Ritual de lo Habitual, in August. There was a sense of danger about them, I think mainly because you never knew if frontman Perry Farrell was going to OD at any moment. "Been Caught Stealing" was the big hit, primarily because the video was getting played on MTV constantly, but I liked the rest of the album better. Especially the opening track "Stop!", which just lurched into action after a brief intro. Guitarist Dave Navarro, long before he became a reality show regular, just drenches this album with ridiculous solos. Hot stuff, to be sure.

The album went double-platinum and Farrell followed it up in a big way by developing the Lollapalooza tour, which made its debut in '91 with Jane's and a bunch of other great acts crossing the country. Sadly, the band split up after that tour and didn't reunite until 2003; they still tour and release albums, but they haven't been able to recapture the magic of their first two records.

Still, Jane's Addiction was a good palate cleanser for the sweeping change that hit the rock world in '91.

Honorable mentions: Jane's Addiction - "Ain't No Right"; Jane's Addiction - "Classic Girl"; Living Colour - "Type"; Living Colour - "Elvis Is Dead"; Living Colour - "Love Rears Its Ugly Head"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Fuckin' Up"; Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Mansion on the Hill"; Robert Plant - "Hurting Kind (I've Got My Eyes On You)"; The Black Crowes - "Twice as Hard"; Mother Love Bone - "Stardog Champion"; Mother Love Bone - "Crown of Thorns"; Alice In Chains - "Man in the Box"; Soul Asylum - "Spinnin'"; World Party - "Way Down Now"; World Party - "Is It Too Late?"; Peter Murphy - "Cuts You Up"; Digital Underground - "The Humpty Dance"; Bell Biv DeVoe - "Poison"; Midnight Oil - "Blue Sky Mine"; Iggy Pop - "Candy"; Sinead O'Connor - "Nothing Compares 2 U"; Gary Moore - "Oh Pretty Woman"; Adrian Belew - "Phone Call From the Moon"; INXS - "Suicide Blonde"; Hindu Love Gods - "Raspberry Beret"; The Vaughan Brothers - "Telephone Song"; Janet Jackson - "Black Cat"; George Michael - "Freedom '90"; The Soup Dragons & Junior Reed - "I'm Free"; EMF - "Unbelievable"; Prince - "Thieves in the Temple"; Billy Idol - "Cradle of Love"'; Biz Markie - "Just a Friend"