Tag: 1990

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August 27, 1990 — Stevie Ray Vaughan dies

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One of the all time guitar greats, Stevie Ray Vaughan began his career working with smaller bands, but grew to such popularity and renown that he was soon able to front his own band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

On the night of August 26, 1990, Vaughan played at a concert in East Troy, Wisconsin. The event was a sellout, and Vaughan’s loyal fans were treated to an encore guitar jam featuring Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and of course, Stevie himself.

But shortly thereafter, Vaughan was involved in a helicopter crash that claimed his life. He was only 35 years old, and his death inspired a large number of musical tributes. He would have liked that.

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July 4, 1990 – “Die Hard 2: Die Harder” is released

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The second film in the Die Hard series, this sequel went out of its way to draw attention to the fact that it was a sequel – lines like “how can the same shit happen to the same guy twice?” were a non-too-subtle reminder of that. That said, the film was reasonably successful commercially (if not artistically), and the franchise would continue.

Die Hard 2 is the most blatantly sentimental and patriotic of the Die Hard films – released on July 4, set on Christmas Eve – no tactic of cheap manipulation was left unused by writers or marketers for this one. But who cares? Bruce Willis shot bad guys and stuff got blowed up real good. What else do you want?

Die Hard 2.jpg
By POV – Impawards, Link

As mentioned in:

Die Hard — Guyz Nite

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March 25, 1990 — The Happy Land nightclub in New York is torched

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Happy Land nightclub had been ordered closed for building code violations during November 1988, including the lack of fire exits, alarms or sprinkler system. These faults were never remedied, and fire exits were later found to have been deliberately blocked (to prevent people entering without paying).

The evening of the fire, Julio González had argued with his former girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano, a coat check girl at the club, urging her to quit. She told him to leave, and when he refused, she called the bouncer. González tried to fight back into the club but was ejected by the bouncer. He was heard to scream drunken threats in the process. Later that night, González returned to the establishment with a container of gasoline which he spread on the staircase that was the only access into the club.

In the resulting fire, 87 people lost their lives. González was convicted of 87 murders and 87 charges of arson, and sentenced to 25 years to life on every charge (a total of 4350 years), although he will be eligible for parole in March 2015 (the sentences for multiple murders are served concurrently under New York state law).

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January 15, 1990 — They Might Be Giants release “Flood”

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They Might Be Giants’ third studio album, and probably their best known, “Flood” features their single best known song – a cover of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” – as well as “Birdhouse in Your Soul” which was a top ten hit in both the US and UK. It would go on to be their best selling album, achieving platinum status in 2009.

The album as a whole is one of the most consistently excellent of all their albums, and is widely regarded as their best (although that may be something of an artifact of it being the most widely owned of their albums). It would be followed up by “Apollo 18” two years later.