Whoop! (There It Was!)

Automatic Baby "One"

Today's mp3 comes from a simpler time. A time when MTV used to have decent programming on it instead of shows where Xibit pimps yr ride and monosyllabic teenagers sit around and look pretty in orange county. The official name of the band performing this song was "Automatic Baby", culled from the latest album titles of its members, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. and Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton of U2.

Their performance of U2's "One" comes from Bill Clinton Inaugural Ball Ceremony, broadcast on MTV in 1993 (!). I've always tended to think that Michael Stipe had a better voice than Bono Vox (slightly), and this is back when both these bands weren't confounded me by going completely astray from where they started musically. It pains me to say I haven't bought a record by R.E.M. OR U2 in a long while, as I used to think these guys were brilliant. But alas, time changes. They remain superstars, but I just don't get the appeal anymore.

So like I said, it was a simpler time. Beavis & Butthead ruled the airwaves, Tag Team was busy stealing our hearts with their hearfelt ballad "Whoop! (There It Is!) and the Spin Doctors were getting nominated for Grammy Awards. Interesting story about the Spin Doctors. There was a Greek church up the street from my parents' house and once riding by it on my bike i noticed someone had spray painted "Spin Doctors Rule!" on the side of the building. I'll never know if that was meant to be sarcastic or if some Greek Orthodox Priest was just SO into 'Pocket Full Of Kryptonite" that he decided to desecrate his own church.

Ah, the nineties....