From Zero To 60, Part 4:

Ten Songs From My ” Thirties” Years

Over the summer, I invite you to join me by celebrating a song from each of “my years,” to the present. These 60 songs may not all deserve 10’s on our TNOCS scale, but they all mean something to me. And I look forward to sharing them with you.

Part 4:
In our 60-year timesweep, we’re up to the early 1990s.

By age 30, I was at a point where I could almost casually say “I’m gay” like one would say their eyes are blue, they’re 6-foot-5, or they’re a Gemini.

I’m a 5-foot-9 Leo with brown eyes, but you get the drift.

It helped that I was in a serious relationship. Serious enough that when the man I love decided to leave the Midwest and return to Raleigh, N.C., where he’d lived for 16 years, I followed. As I think about the songs in this set, where I live looms in the background.

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1993:

Really? A Disney soundtrack? What’s funny is that I’ve never seen “Aladdin,” – nor do I intend to.

In the first few months Tom and I were together, it felt like every song was made for us. “I Will Always Love You.” “If I Ever Fall in Love.” “Faithful.” “Walking on Broken Glass” (Just kidding there!) None was more effective than this duet in capturing both giddy infatuation and the promise of something deeper.

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1994:

I remember walking out of the theater feeling two things about the movie “Philadelphia.”

Frustration that we didn’t see Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas’ doomed lovers kiss even once.

And, as a Springsteen fan: a sense of pride in his musical contribution, much riskier than either Hanks’ or Denzel Washington’s acting. The Oscar for Best Original Song was well deserved.

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1995:

Songs like “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” and “Losing My Religion” hit my personal charts in my Midwest days.

But in Raleigh, I listened to Top 40 WDCG-FM (“G-105”), hearing songs like this and learning of the band’s nearby connections (their early co-producer was based in Winston-Salem, roughly the distance from Raleigh that South Bend is from Chicago).   

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1996:

This song resonates not only because of its Midwest-meets-South vibe. It also was a hit while I was in Miami, Fla., at the annual convention of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

That weekend, Hurricane Fran tore through the Raleigh area, disrupting power for weeks. I spent much of the weekend using FTP to connect with my high school-age writers on the student-produced website NandoNext, editing dispatches about Fran’s impact. I realized how we could marshal online reporting to provide an immediacy something print journalism could not.

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1997:

I must admit, though this group was a critical darling, this song and the CD it came from proved the extent of my interest.

G-105 gave “Hell” enough spins for me to hear it, like it and buy it. Other artists to get similar traction: Ben Folds Five (“Brick”), Gran Torino (“Moments With You”), Sister Hazel (“Change Your Mind”), Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals (“Steal My Kisses”).

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1998:

Most people find the title track to Madonna’s “Ray of Light” irresistible. I do like it, but this stunner is what lingers long after I’ve listened to it. It’s one of those times a song’s production wowed me as much as an artist’s singing or a songwriter’s lyrics. This isn’t “Lucky Star,” “Angel” or “Material Girl,” but the sound of a woman making a recording for adults. At 35, I was ready to hear that.      

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1999:

I like this song as much for the opposite reason. Cher, then 52, released a recording so of its moment that teens as well as adults went nuts for it. Its lyrics and Cher’s attitude don’t sound adolescent, but the groove fit with stations that played Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, and Brandy and Monica.

I appreciated someone confident enough in herself to not be thrown by age differences. As someone in a relationship with a man 18 years older, I was used to such differences.

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2000:

I bought Stone’s “Black Diamond” because I loved how her “No More Rain (In This Cloud)” interpolated Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Neither One of Us.”

What I wasn’t expecting was that this CD’s “bonus track” would become my favorite. (I didn’t know Lenny Kravitz had previously recorded it.) By 2000, my personal charting had less and less overlap with Billboard’s pop Top 40.

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2001:

I’m fond of several Lonestar songs, including “Everything’s Changed” and “Amazed.” I’m not a fan of the “hot AC” mixes that ramp up the guitars and encourage over-singing by Richie McDonald.

I loved the album version of “I’m Already There.” It was in its second of three weeks at the top the weekend of Sept. 9, 2001. Two days later, terrorist acts in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania shook the world. As U.S. AC stations determined what songs were most appropriate for their format, they jumped on the remix of this song, greatly diminishing my fondness for it. Though it was on my chart for 18 weeks, only 6 were after Sept. 11.

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2002:

You wouldn’t think Grant had much in common with Madonna or Cher, right? What unites them is a vision to follow their muses – irrespective of whether the mainstream appreciates it.

In Grant’s case, this meant returning to her roots with the CD “Legacy … Hymns and Faith,” which included this original composition. When it comes to her faith, Grant lets her work speak for her. She sings:

I give you my life
Precious and rare
Knowing wherever I’ve been, you were there
Sometimes I’m faithful
Sometimes I’m strong
Will you protect what you already own?

I appreciate not only her conclusions but her willingness to ask the questions.

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Next time: An end to one career…

… and the start of another.

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