Nonetheless, I still maintain my stance that the front & back cover-art, AND the graphics on the disc, are very in tune with the mid 90s. I don't know if it's b/c they're ingrained in my mind from having listened to this CD quite heavily during 1996-1999 or if there's some link that I'm not sure how to explain...the back cover I always thought represented the wackiness of the 90's, which is evident without knowing anything about fashion or contemporary lingo/slang, or prevalent thoughts of the time. All one needs to do is look at the music charts. What other time could a serious song like "Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies become a pop song on the basis of the singer's unusually deep baritone? It's almost like CTD became household names as a comedy act - people turn on the radio and they be like "what the...?" but they keep listening...with a mix of "I know what you mean dude" and "Is it weird to feel weird listening to this song"/"No, man. It's like Father Time is singing us a song"/"Yeah, that's what I thought. I can kinda dig the lyrics though. Is that weird?"/"Uh...did you get teased a lot in high school or something?"/Uh, no man...I just...uh...nevermind"
I get a kick out of reading reviews for CDs on Amazon, by bands like Chumbawamba ("Tubthumping"), OMC ("How Bizarre"), Natalie Imbruglia ("Torn") and Joan Osborne ("One Of Us"), and seeing how they don't get the artists'/bands' one hit wonder status. People are always like "this artist is much more than just one song" and I'm always like "Get a clue: nobody cares". Someone was defending Sarah McLachlan's follow up to the mega-hit album SURFACING, titled AFTERGLOW, saying that people are unjustly raising their expectations through the roof and that she's only human. My eyes rolled back soooo far. People have every right to expect a follow up album to be an improvement over the current/previous one. For better or worse, it's a dog-eat-dog world. If you don't have something people want, you're a useless shell waiting to die. Sarah McLachlan's music seems to have an addictive quality to it though, thankfully for her. I personally don't like the electronic approach she took with LAWS OF ILLUSION and I found the song structures to be a little too weak as well. AFTERGLOW seemed like a half-baked attempt to cash in on the success of SURFACING, which is odd considering it took 7 years to get released...The Fray will probably have the same thing going for them. HOW TO SAVE A LIFE was a masterpiece and even though they seem unwilling or unable to replicate that album's awesomeness, people will continue buying their music.
Anyway; I was talking about the 90's....yeah, I don't know what I was thinking in regards to WHY the back cover-art for BIG ONES was chosen. I mean, it's not like Aerosmith or anyone working with Aerosmith would have any reason to take a come-back era recap and make it look like Aerosmith was/is the definition of the 90's. I mean, I guess as far as bands who were doing hits CDs in 1994 and around there, Aerosmith was probably the closest thing to the definition of the 90's. The forefathers of the grunge movement that almost eclipsed the possibility of Aerosmith's GET A GRIP's success were too new to the music biz to have enough hits to make a hits CD with, and most of the other bands who were popular at that time were short-lived or one hit wonders. In 1997, Gin Blossoms' record company, for some reason that I don't quite get, decided to make a compilation of their music when they only had two CDs and a song from EMPIRE RECORDS to their credit (that last one of which wasn't even written by them). Some bands, by the '96/'97 time frame probably COULD have had enough songs to build a hits collection with if they hadn't taken 2-4 year breaks between records. The Goo Goo Dolls released A BOY NAMED GOO in '95 and followed that up in '98. Counting Crows took just as long to follow up their debut. So did Tori Amos. Bjork actually did pretty well in terms of a steady output. But she didn't put a hits CD out until 2001 or somewhere around there, probably b/c 99% of her music was too out there for most people to find on the radio or MTV even. Oh, and Alanis Morrissette took 3 years to follow up JAGGED LITTLE PILL. If these artists had done one album every year like Aerosmith and every other rock band from the '60's and 70's did when they first got into the business, and had 2 or 3 songs average on each record that people at least heard once or twice on the radio (even if the songs weren't bonafide Top 40 HITS, they could still appear on a hits CD), then every one of those bands could have had a hits CD no later than 1999. In the case of Tori Amos and Counting Crows, I'd say more like 1995 for Tori Amos and 1997 for Counting Crows AT MOST. Aerosmith really didn't have that many hits in the '70's, although they did have a huge number of "fan favorites" - probably 95% of their output from 1974-1976 was/is well regarded by people who bought GET YOUR WINGS, TOYS IN THE ATTIC and ROCKS. It took 7 years for Aerosmith to get a hits CD out, there was only 10 songs on it and two of those songs weren't really "hits". Well, idk - maybe "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" did get a fair share of airplay back in its time, I don't think I've EVER heard it on the radio...and they also did not write that song, nor did they write "Come Together", which was part of a soundtrack for a movie that had something to do with The Beatles, I think...
But anyway..........I guess if nothing else, the cover-art for BIG ONES reminds me of how crazy a time it was for ME - I was in a group home, trying to sort out anger issues that I had, and when I came out of the group home, I was living with my mom's boyfriend and his 16 year old daughter who was the most obnoxious and trendy punk you're likely to meet. If the 90's were to be defined by her, it'd probably be a rollercoaster kaleidoscope of sex and drugs to a soundtrack of Guns N' Roses & Nirvana, with soundbites from Beavis & Butthead thrown in. And I kind of got the feeling she wasn't alone when I was watching MTV YEAR IN ROCK 1994. And I can remember my face must have looked like this more times than I care to remember during those days
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