This will probably be the furtherest throwback I will do this year. In a interview I recently did I was asked what was the defining, life chaning, album for me and I couldn’t come up with one. Now that I think of it, it wasn’t an album that did it for me, it was a collection of songs from various artists being played on Rage that led to my obsession with music. I used to fill up 3 hour video tapes with Rage and watch them in full, several times over. It was a few years later before I bought and listened to whole albums.
1989 was the first year that I really started to love music and follow particular bands (I was 7 at the time). So the bulk of the music that I would say changed my life came from this year, and the bands I discovered in that year are ones that I have listened to ever since!
I pretty much liked every song I heard back then, even the ones that were in the Top 50, infact I knew more, and cared more about the bands in the Top 50 back then than I do now. However the ones that stood out for me tended to be the ones that were only played around 2 in the morning or at the very bottom of the Top 50. They aways seemed to be more interesting and sparked my curiosity. There was also a sense of pleasure to sing a long to songs at school that no one else knew.
So here are my Top 10 songs of 1989 which can also double as the Top 10 songs that influenced Tomatrax! Just to add to the nostalgia I’ve added the opening and closing theme tunes to Rage.
10. Public Image Ltd – Disappointed
9. Metallica – One
8. Pop Will Eat Itself – Wise up sucker
7. Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Sheriff Fatman
6. Public Enemy – Fight the power
5. Faith No More – Epic
4. REM – Orange Crush
3. The The – The Beat(en) generation
2. They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse in your soul
1. The Cure – Lullaby
