Posted by joop (98.161.229.217) on May 14, 2022 at 11:14:48:
Man I feel old. As most old men do, I'm going to ramble incoherently for a brief moment...
I was a huge fan of the Black Crowes during the 1st album. 15 yrs old in 1990, so too young to have seen them live yet.
Brief jog down memory lane, it was my guitar teacher (who was a teenager and music fan in the 70s) that showed me the Shake Your Money Maker cassette and said "these guys are going to be huge, they get it. They sound like Humble Pie." I had no idea who Humble Pie was, so he let me borrow that, which I loved. That is how I heard about the Crowes originally, then of course they were all over the radio and MTV shortly thereafter.
I think it's important to note, in 1990/1991, there was this sort of classic rock revival happening with younger kids our age. The movie "The Doors" was released, meanwhile you still have hair metal on the radio and MTV. But, everyone knew someone who, in THEIR car, was listening to Led Zeppelin or some other mainstream classic rock. (Unbeknownst to us at the time, around 1992 filming had also begun for the movie Dazed and Confused.) I'm sure there are other examples of the classic rock revival bubbling underneath the surface at the time, that I'm forgetting here.
So I just remember waiting and waiting for the next Black Crowes album to drop. No internet, no rumors. In order to hear something about the Black Crowes, you had to leave MTV on all day and hope you caught an MTV News segment giving you some kind of idea of what they were up to. (or from a heavy metal magazine of all things)
By the way, when you watch snippets on YouTube today, of one of those MTV News segments of the Crowes, give props to whomever originally recorded that. You had to dedicate a significant amount of time to watching shit you really did not want to watch on MTV and be ready to hit the record button if MTV News came on, not easy to capture those.
On a day I had MTV on as background noise, and I can still see this vividly in my head, a 16 yr old's bedroom, tiny TV with the big back on it, and actual clicking turn knobs, maybe a 12" screen at most, sitting atop my dresser... the premier of the Remedy music video came on. I believe this would have been April of 1992, because it premiered before the album was released.
I had not really seen the band in some time and suddenly here they are, the band looks different now, they look even cooler, they look more confident and the song was incredible. I think it added to the experience that I couldn't hit replay and watch it again 10 times. I had to sit there and think about what I had just seen, and just couldn't wait to hear and see it again.
Everyone knows the rest, the album comes out a month later and holy shit, do I remember driving around with that album on 10. (dimed out as they say)
5 months later in Oct 92, I was making the drive to Birmingham, AL with friends to see them live for the first time on the High As The Moon tour. Mind blowing to this day. That 2nd album, combined with the show they put on, combined with where they were at that point in general, the world was theirs.
Just an incredible time, super glad I was able to witness that. Lots of musical things I wish I could have seen, that I am too young to have witnessed in the world of music... but at least I saw that. It wasn't just another album, it was the songs, the look, the show, it was an experience.
Cheers to The Southern Harmony release anniversary, which holds a special place with me. A group of young, hungry bad-asses who answered the question "can they duplicate the success of their 1st album" with an overwhelming yes.
~different times~