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.
anti-theatricality in rock (slightest of returns)
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Spencer Dryden on the Jefferson Airplane's stage act, 1968: “It’s
disorganized. We never know what’s going to happen. It’s different every
time. We have...
Science fiction and music
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Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded, by
Jason Heller
4columns, June 2018
By Simon Reynolds
Strange Stars starts with...
A Number of Names, A Trove of Titles
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Talking about futuromania, about phases when the chase to get to tomorrow
ahead of the pack is the fiercest... oooh that first half of the '90s.
Looking...
Archive Fever
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Looking up an old tutor of mine who had impressed me, to see if his spoor
of publications was distinguished in the field, I came across a lengthy
t...
Not Feeliesing It Really
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*The Feelies / Died Pretty*
*ULU, London*
*Melody Maker, November 29 1986*
*The Feelies*
*The Good Earth*
*Melody Maker, Sept...
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I like the way he reprimands himself for not having bought his pale blue
pegs from the right shop - “should have been from Lord John or Take Six”.
The mo...
WHEN MATTS MAKE BOOKS
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This is quite a long-running series, now! Not talking about the When Mates
Make Books posts, of which there are countless, but specifically When Matts
Make...
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...
RIP David Lynch
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"Six Men Getting Sick" was Lynch's first exploration into film, made during
his second year of study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in
Phi...
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