Favorite Songs of 1993

During 1993, I was spending some time going back to some of the old albums of some of my favorite artists from the 1960s and 1970s. The group Yes was my main focus that year, and (to me) their most interesting works were the six album-side-long pieces that they recorded from 1973 to 1974 on three of their albums. The best of these, Close to the Edge, became my favorite song of 1993 (and my all-time #10), although it was first released way back in 1973.

I also kept up with the contemporary songs of 1993. REM's beautiful 1992 album, Automatic for the People, spawned a 1993 hit, Man on the Moon (a tribute to Andy Kaufman with a nod to Charles Darwin), that grew on me, as much for its great lyrics as for its poignant-but-eerie sound. Porno for Pyros put a whole new spin on the "aliens are going to come down and save us" myths with their satirical Pets. Sting's best solo work (in my opinion) was the lush 1993 love song Fields of Gold. The pared-down band (of one) Tears for Fears spoke about the beauty of decay with Break It Down Again. John Mellencamp put out a new CD with two compelling (but different-sounding) tunes: Human Wheels and When Jesus Left Birmingham. Beck burst onto the hit scene with his catchy-but-ultimately meaningless Loser. The Counting Crows and Sweden's Ace of Base each made their debuts with hits that I liked in Mr. Jones and All That She Wants, respectively. Tones of Home , by Blind Melon, was a catchy, jazzy piece of "scat-rock". And ex-Led Zeppelin stars Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (along with Whitesnake's David Coverdale) engaged in a "friendly" competition of sorts with concurrent releases. Plant's best from his Fate of Nations album was his melodic and mellow 29 Palms, while Coverdale/Page's self-titled album contained, surprisingly, several good tracks. My favorites were the long, slow Over Now and the very-Zeppelinesque Easy Does It. Too bad that this would be Page and Coverdale's one and only collaboration!