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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... there is this corruption of sensibility that sets in after the first
few decades as a music nut, where you get more of a buzz from contemplating
shit...
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...
None more Old Wavier
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Fascinated by this particular performance of a song that was among the
select group of pre-punk songs to cut through to me, a child then not
paying th...
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'...
RIP Kenny Morris
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One intriguing counterfactual in rock history is what would have happened
if drummer *Kenny Morris* and guitarist John McKay had not quit *Siouxsie
and t...
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