We are up to 1995, and we are almost out of my teenage years.
We are also full-bore into my Tower Records career, which exposed me to a lot of new music and some very interesting people. In late fall 1994, the store temporarily moved into a space that had previously housed notorious sex club Plato’s Retreat. Given the general weirdness of life as a Tower employee during that time, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that the ghosts in those walls had a lot of fun stirring up trouble with the residents.
If you believe in that sort of thing, anyway…
Away from work, the two women I was living with followed one another out to the West Coast, which necessitated a search for roommates. The two co-workers I wound up living with all year were a demonstratively gay black cellist and a straight-laced white Army brat from Georgia. An unlikely pair in the beginning-then cellist gave Army brat pot for the first time, and within months, Army brat was wearing tie-dye and designing bongs in his room. It was that quick.
I also began the first major steps towards coming out, went to my first Pride parade in New York, saw my first arena show (R.E.M.; Luscious Jackson opened), developed a massive crush on a co-worker named Arthur (whom I’m still friends with 20 years later), did a TON of underage drinking (back in the days when it was rare for a bar in NYC to check ID), and…well, I’m sure there was a ton of other stuff I did. I just don’t remember much of it. Here are 40 great songs from 1995.
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me/U2
Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me)/Portishead
Old School/2Pac
Pea/Red Hot Chili Peppers
What Would You Say/Dave Matthews Band
Roll To Me/Del Amitri
Tabloid Junkie/Michael Jackson
You Oughta Know/Alanis Morissette
Undeniably/Terence Trent D’Arby
Shit, Damn, Motherfucker/D’Angelo
One More Chance/The Notorious B.I.G.
Someone To Love/Jon B. featuring Babyface
Melt Away/Mariah Carey
Every Little Thing I Do/Soul For Real
Get On Up/Jodeci
J.A.R. (Jason Andrew Relva)/Green Day
Name/Goo Goo Dolls
A Girl Like You/Edwyn Collins
Fairground/Simply Red
Carnival/Natalie Merchant
Til I Hear It From You/Gin Blossoms
Army Of Me/Bjork
Player’s Anthem/Junior M.A.F.I.A.
Ice Cream/Raekwon featuring Ghostface Killah & Method Man
Seether/Veruca Salt
Shadowboxing/GZA
Love Tried To Welcome Me/Madonna
Sumthin’ Wicked This Way Comes/TLC
Love Me Still/Chaka Khan
Walk In The Sun/Bruce Hornsby
Betcha Never/Vanessa Williams
Time Bomb/Rancid
I’ll Stick Around/Foo Fighters
Downtown Venus/P.M. Dawn
Back For Good/Take That
Drowning In Your Tears/The Rembrandts
Crazy Love/Brian McKnight
Fade Into You/Mazzy Star
Tell Me-Groove Theory
No Talking, Just Head-The Heads featuring Deborah Harry