Rocktober 7: Nelson

"After the Rain"

By the time 1990 rolled around, I was a seasoned hair metal vet. I knew what I liked and what I didn't, and when a new band popped up, it didn't take long for me to decide if they were for me or not. When Nelson made their debut with "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection," the answer seemed to be "not." They just seemed a little bland, a little too pretty, a little too...wholesome? I mean, look, I was a good kid—quiet, attentive, obedient, a bookworm, got good grades (although junior high, where I was at this point, was a little bump in the road for me in that regard), rarely got in trouble—and part of the attraction of this type of music, I think, was that it was loud and brash and bold in ways that I wasn't and never would be. So I guess my first impression of Nelson was that they made the sort of music that I would make, if I had any musical talent, and I wasn't here for it.

(I wanted to learn to play the bass guitar very badly at this point. My parents bought me a regular guitar. They were undoubtedly right to do so, but it wasn't the instrument I wanted, and after cursorily learning some chords and scales and a handful of riffs, my brief flirtation ended.)

At any point, some short time later "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection" faded from the radio and MTV and was replaced by their second single, "After the Rain," the title track from their debut album. This is the one that drew me in. Knowing me, it was the theatricality of the video (which has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics of the song) that drew me in at first, but eventually I had to admit it was a good tune. I didn't spend much time with the album until much later on, but I was at least ready to pay attention to their singles.

This is the only one of their albums that had any real success—by the time they followed it up, the music world had moved on from this style. But if you look on Spotify, they have a ton of music available. I guess that shouldn't really come as a surprise, given their musical background (twin brothers Matthew and Gunnar Nelson are the sons of Ricky Nelson and the grandsons of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson). I have no idea what any of it sounds like, but I respect the hell out of them still plugging away at it after all these years.