Back Tracks 11

The whole idea of writing these weekend music guides came out of an idea I had for a newspaper column - look back each week on the top albums or songs of ten years ago. Billboard posts their top albums and singles each week, and include links to the corresponding charts from five, ten and sometimes fifteen years back. I thought it would be fun to talk about what has stood the test of time, what causes me to cringe, or what makes me laugh. So, this week, I decided to give this a try.

Ten years ago this week we reveled in the ascendancy of the Snow man, and the tongue-twistin' Canadian dancehall reggae of Informer. It was the #1 single, off the #5 album 12 Inches Of Snow (oh, how witty! It has so many levels - snowfall accumulation, 33 rpm record diameter, crude exaggerated sexual metaphor - need I go on?). Regardless of how uncool it was, or how preposterously bad the album was (besides the #1 song, the rest was worse than filler), Informer was and is a great party song. I found a mix tape I made around this time ten years ago and found Informer on it. I turned up the stereo, started bopping along (cue trumpet: da dada di da da. Da dada di da da), and realized I still know all the words. I started doing that high knee raised straight arm stomp, bit my bottom lip, listened to MC Shan set the scene, and I rolled.

Informer
You know say daddy me snow me-a (gonna) blame
A licky boom-boom down
'Tective man he say, say Daddy Me Snow me stab someone down the lane
A licky boom-boom down

Was I cool? No. Did I look the fool? Probably. Did I care? Not a bit. Never again will a white Canadian homeboy have a number one dancehall rap/reggae hybrid monster jam. While we will all remember grunge, and Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden have their place, I won't hide my Snow-y side.

Take me to the station, black up my hands
Trail me down 'cause I'm hangin with the Snowman
What an I gonna do, I'm backed and I'm trapped
Smack me in my face, took all of my gap
They have no clues and they wanna get warmer
But Shan won't turn informer