3 Songs From 1991 That Will Take You Back to High School

For a high school kid with a guitar obsession, 1991 was a good year. New rock bands seemed to be emerging every week, while longtime artists were finally releasing breakthrough albums. Certain songs from this time always take me back to high school. I can picture standing in the hallway, near my locker, talking about some new band my friends and I had just discovered.

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You could only dial up music on demand if you had spent the money to buy an album. And back then, you could still see your favorite band live by saving your lunch money. See if these songs from 1991 take you back, too.

“Breaking The Girl” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Anytime I hear a track from Blood Sugar Sex Magik, I think about the Hardee’s parking lot near my high school. Because that’s where my friend Dave and I headed to while we skipped class and listened to the new Red Hot Chili Peppers’ album. You can imagine the two of us rolling up the windows by the time “Sir Psycho Sexy” revealed the details of Anthony Kiedis’s cartoonishly horny character. But it’s the psychedelic folk of “Breaking The Girl” that reliably takes me back to the first time I heard this masterpiece album.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana

In October 1991, a fellow student told me he had an extra ticket to see Nirvana at Mississippi Nights, the legendary St. Louis club sadly demolished years ago to make room for a casino development. The ticket would only cost me $5, but I said no because I didn’t think my parents would let me go. (Add this to my regrets list.) So when I hear the opening chords of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, I visualize Kurt Cobain on the same stage I’d play with my own band the following year.

“You Could Be Mine” by Guns N’ Roses

I was at the 1991 Guns N’ Roses show at Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis when Axl Rose noticed someone in the audience taking photographs of the band. Wearing what to me looked like a fur coat and white biker shorts, Rose asked security to confiscate the camera before he leaped into the crowd during “Rocket Queen” to deal with the situation himself. (Even as a kid, I understood the absurdity of this entire episode.)

Then Rose, back on stage, said he was leaving “thanks to the lame-a** security,” threw his microphone down, and walked off, abruptly ending the concert. Then the crowd rioted. I can’t remember if GN’R played “You Could Be Mine” that night, but it always makes me think of this show.

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