I was wondering when you would get to this in your McCullough retrospective. It is notorious, of course. As I remember it, Tony Wilson and the surviving band members were furious. And there is no denying that the last two paragraphs - in particular, the first sentence of the penultimate paragraph - are catastrophically ill-judged. But I think overall it is better than its reputation suggests. He's writing with raw feelings that are genuinely powerful, and incline me to forgive the points where he gets carried away and goes too far. And he situates Curtis in a place and time better than any other writer before or since. A work of flawed genius.
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Nowadays, the whale-fishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic,
melancholy, and absent-minded young men, disgusted with the carking cares
of earth, a...
Sad Songs
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Quite some time ago, Glen Goetze asked me about sad songs, for which
publication I cannot remember,
*1. What are your earliest memories of music?*
The ...
Future Rock
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A rock book I have never ever heard of before, by a writer I never heard of
before - until this moment.
Published 1976.
After this book, *David Dow...
anti-theatricality in politics (slight return)
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Things have been too grim for me to do these posts, but then this one came
along (the theater kids being the (mal-)administration, if that isn't
obvi...
Up Middle Finger
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This pair had a Top 10 hit with a song that is basically about an
intra-scene war - the nu garage rappists (Oxide + Neutrino, So Solid)
versus the old...
Still In A Dream - my new book, out in June
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Excited to announce the publication this summer of Still In A Dream:
Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984-94. On White Rabbit
Books. It'...
angel delights
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https://rada-ve.bandcamp.com/track/saturn-rings-songs
*Go on* - listen to that gorgeous bubble bath of synthtronica!
Another vintage release, with a vi...
I was wondering when you would get to this in your McCullough retrospective. It is notorious, of course. As I remember it, Tony Wilson and the surviving band members were furious. And there is no denying that the last two paragraphs - in particular, the first sentence of the penultimate paragraph - are catastrophically ill-judged. But I think overall it is better than its reputation suggests. He's writing with raw feelings that are genuinely powerful, and incline me to forgive the points where he gets carried away and goes too far. And he situates Curtis in a place and time better than any other writer before or since. A work of flawed genius.
ReplyDeleteYes it's overwraught but absolutely forgivable in the circumstances I think - and authentic in its heroizing impulse.
ReplyDelete