Each day in November, I’m revisiting a song from the 90’s — a decade that was a sorta coming of age for me. In that span, I experienced high school, college and my time as a young single guy in New York City. It was a decade of ups and downs, and the music never stopped playing during that span. It was always there with me. #30DaysOf90sSongs
When I first discovered the music of Toad the Wet Sprocket during college, I also met a very down-to-earth group of musicians. We were literally five feet away from the band in a near-empty Paradise Rock Club in Boston. They weren’t even the headliners. But, up until that point, they were the coolest, nicest guys I’d met in the music business. Pale and Fear were on heavy rotation in our dorm rooms, and eventually I discovered Dulcinea and this gem from the Empire Records soundtrack after graduation.
I played that album incessantly after college in my parent’s house. With those songs came fantasies of making it on my own and having an apartment in the city. This was the crazy life for me. Somehow it seemed to match the demeanor of the band. Laid back, and actually the furthest thing from crazy. Toad the Wet Sprocket is a down-to-earth, no-fanfare, mid-tempo band that’s probably more comfortable playing in pubs than arenas, although they got pretty big at one point. “Crazy Life”, to me, is the quintessential TTWS anthem. Jangly in its riffs, subtle in its harmonies and mid-tempo in its rhythm. I can put this song on repeat and forget about life for a while.
“Anyway now, it don't seem right. He is in there and you're on the outside.”