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.
The Future Shock Question....
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....is a bit too huge of a question for me to tackle but briefly*
1/ I’m not as depressed about music and lack of futurity as I was when I
wrote Retroma...
Posse and crew
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Two of my most cherished 'Mystery Tunes' - 'Do the Right Ting' identified a
while ago by a knowledgeable reader, and 'Honey Love' I only just spotted ...
Amazing Grace
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*Grace Jones* on the *Pee Wee Herman Christmas Special *from 1988
Jones clip via the fascinating, poignant HBO documentary on *Pee Wee Herman*,
which ...
Creelin' in the years
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It's the 20th anniversary of one of the heroic music reclamation projects
of our time - Creel Pone.Keith Fullerton Whitman gives the low down about
the lab...
In Full Bloom (LCD / DFA)
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*LCD Soundsystem, live, a week ago, Bowery Ballroom…*
… was more exciting than I’d thought. Came with minimal expectations really
(a guy and a synth and ...
Brutalist / Botanist
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This whole Brutalism thing has gotten a bit of out of hand now.... they are
scraping the barrel bottom, I think.
Mind, you, these photographs are co...
fave raves
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I'm not sure what the logic was exactly but as tie-in to Shock and Awe, *iD*
asked me to list my seven favorite / life-changing clubs /
nights-out-danci...
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