Member-only story
The Incredible Band from the Grand Canyon State That Should Have Been Huge
But sadly, were not
The 1990s were a tough decade for me, musically speaking, for one simple reason: in his single worst decision since the recording of “Glory Days,” in 1989 Bruce Springsteen broke up the E-Street Band. Except for recording a few new songs in 1995 for his Greatest Hits album, Bruce allowed this travesty to continue until 1999. When added to the breakup of the Smiths in 1987, it’s a time I refer to simply as the Dark Days.
There was a glimmer of hope when Pearl Jam’s Ten album was released in 1991, but other than that one record, I never got into the grunge scene. I thought I would have to content myself with playing Born to Run, The River, and The Queen is Dead on repeat for the rest of my life (which I was already doing anyway). Then, just when I needed it most, the rock gods sent us a song by a band from, of all places, Tempe, Arizona.
If you were around in the summer of 1993, you know the song: “Hey Jealousy,” by the Gin Blossoms. The song was literally everywhere, and it continues to receive heavy play both on both radio and the dreaded in-store playlists today (in 2017, Gin Blossoms guitarist Jesse Valenzuela joked to Rolling Stone that “you can hear it at Lowe’s hardware”).
