I remember reading a newspaper article back in 1987 that was about the 20th anniversary of The Beatles releasing Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The article was cleverly titled ‘It was Twenty Years Ago Today’, taking the opening line of the title song.
At the time as a 13 year-old I wondered how old you must feel when your music is twenty years old.
Recently I’ve been hit by a succession of ‘it was 20 years ago today’ moments, as if 1991 was some magical year of coolness. Over the last few months as the anniversaries of Nevermind, Truth or Dare and My Own Private Idaho have rolled by – each has taken me back to the year I turned eighteen and moved to Perth.
I’d always loved Madonna but when Truth or Dare: In Bed With Madonna came out people began to ask if she’d gone too far? This black and white documentary of Madonna on the road of her world tour had everyone talking. We talked about her demonstrating fellatio on a bottle, we also talked naively about fellatio.
We talked about her being rude to Kevin Costner – outrageous! He was, after all, fresh from acclaim for Dancing with Wolves. We talked about her swearing during rehearsals. And the concert footage that burst out in colour from the back and white documentary – we’d never seen anything like it – so close to the action. That was 20 years ago.
Nirvana sounded like nothing else, it was loud, it was messy and it was angry. Suddenly in late 1991 everyone had a copy of this album, grunge music seemed to come from nowhere, soon there would be The Big Day Out and other mega-festivals would follow but Nirvana was the first sign that we had found something to be tribal about.
Nirvana arrived in time for the end of the school year, when everyone was getting their drivers licenses, heading to the beach and soaking up the sun. My friends Jeremy, Justin and Sian decided to form a grunge band and asked me if I wanted to be in it.
I declined based on my inability to sing or play an instrument. Which on reflection a strange thought because Smells Like Teen Spirit is not exactly a song that’s crooned. We’ve been hearing that album now for 20 years.
My friends were shocked when I told them I’d been to see Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. I saw at the rundown and grimy New Oxford, which is now the much nicer Luna Leederville. It was a shocking film because River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves had a series of sex scenes in it, shot as a series of black and white stills, close ups of their body parts… Ok it’s hard to explain now, but that was shocking, today it would make you blink an eyelid.
I was obsessed with River Phoenix – obsessed since I read an article about him in the UK magazine SKY. I’d seen all his films, collected pictures of him, had my hair cut like his.
River Phoenix was my idol and there he was… being gay. Awesome! Afterwards I bought a jacket just like his characters and wore it everywhere. My Own Private Idaho is an intriguing film; I’ve re-watched it many times always finding something new in it. I’ve now been watching for 20 years.
Not everything in 1991 was amazing. We did wear hyper-colour T-shirts and listen to Betty Boo. I’ll admit that I had a 96fm rocks my suburb sticker on my car’s bumper and constantly ran out of petrol because I couldn’t find the roster station after 6pm.
But what will be remembering in 20 years time, in 2031 will be looking back at Lady Gaga and Katy Perry? Will we still be talking about Submarine or Thor? Will we be remembering Facebook timeline? What do you think will last the test of time?
Graeme Watson
***
