Looks me in the eye when he shoots

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Weirdly voting has now completely collapsed for "Teardrop" - v.odd.

A hard song to listen to: "Johnny Reggae" by The Piglets. How come it wasn't banned? This is kind of what I was talking about w.r.t Vanilla on the poll the other day - wrong, off, but in a vigorous way.

Unguilty pleasures (again): getting buzzed on authenticity and punkiness etc. *is* - or can be - a wicked pop pleasure, can't it?* As long as there's something rousing in the mix, anyway, so "yes!" to flag-waving U2, "no" to solemn Dicky Ashcroft (your examples will hopefully vary). There's no attitude or position that can't provide some transient enjoyment. Is this "irony"? WHAT OF IT.

"Sonnet" has just come on the radio to prove me right (& punish me).

*cf Rock Dreams - the great rock stories work cos they're exciting and connective more than because they're 'true', but this is no reason to throw them out, just to enjoy them differently (more poppish-ly?)

I might - MIGHT - do the Madonna Canon today. *rolls up sleeves*

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I always interpreted popism as totally allowing for authenticity and so on - just demolishing them as prerequisites for good music. Popism for me = any music can be good for any reason, and no reason is more valid than any other (and music can also be crap for the exact same reason). eg I love 'Nothing Compares 2 U' because, yes, I think Sinéad O'Connor sounds honestly emotional on it. Or indeed 'Be Careful', with the remove that in Sparkle's case I know perfectly well that it's a fictional situation she's singing about.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Who are you and what have you done with our Lex? (IE are you really saying that there are good reasons to vote for Three Lions and not vote for Sparkle?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No because the fact that all reasons for liking a song are legitimate is secondary to the song actually being any good, which Be Careful most definitely is and Three Disgusting Lions is assuredly NOT.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There are excellent reasons to vote for 3 Lions - less so 3 Lions 98 I'll grant you.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

give 5 reasons why 'Three Lions' is not good. i don't like it either (but nervously/reluctantly went along with it at the time, see also 'Vindaloo') but am interested in just confirming why it is shit.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

GAH I suspect you have caught me out, this is what comes of sweeping statements like the one I made above. Nevertheless:

1) execrable lyrics
2) relentlessly dull guitar stodge
3) even worse than the enforced fun i referenced yesterday, enforced patriotism
4) we all know how much i hate laddishness
5) and football

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The original 3 Lions works partly because it's a quite NON-laddish football song, it's coming from a perspective of vulnerability as well as defiance.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I actually don't know the difference between them, I thought Three Lions '98 was just a re-release?

I forgot to mention to most important and obvious reason why the song is detestable in any case. BADDIEL AND SKINNER = INDEFENSIBLE.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Different lyrics - and a different perspective too.

Three Lions - "football's coming home" refers largely to the tournament being held in the UK, with a tangential "and we hope we win it" meaning.

Three Lions 98 - the tournament is in France, so "football's coming home" is about the expectation of bringing back the trophy, i.e. more triumphalist (also the performances in Euro 96 and between that and the 98 world cup had been more encouraging)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The UK hosted Euro 96?! I don't remember that! Where was it held?

"Football's coming home" with regard to a football tournament in my country would fill me with DREAD more than anything else, I am 99% certain that Three Lions is not a good song but even if it was it would be completely tainted by association for me.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

haha but baddiel and skinner = the queer dialectics of laddism!

(i had an argt w.GUY BECKETT of old-old-skool ilm abt this very topic and he "left"* immediately after) = did i win or did i lose :(

*(also known as "didn't come back for three years")

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

but all laddism is homoerotic anyway, this does not make it acceptable! (nb it might, if say justin and usher were the lads in question)

i think you...won! (i have never heard of guy beckett before.)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

if hypocrisy is the tax that vice pays virtue, then laddism is etc

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

>The UK hosted Euro 96?! I don't remember that! Where was it held?

In England, funnily enough. Perhaps it was a lot more absorbing if one was living within a 10 mile radius of Wembley Stadium.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hang on isn't Wembley Stadium being built AT THE MOMENT? And that's why the Jubilee line keeps closing?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

That's the replacement Wembley Stadium. They mislaid the old one.

It was held all over the country! But it was most inescapable in London.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This may be the only time in my entire life that I will give thanks for an adolescence in Somerset. We didn't have it there!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Jumpers for wickets.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I know even less about cricket than I do about football.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

They knocked down the old one and are building a new one.

CHECK THE MEANING

[zenith.livejournal.com]

If my interpretation of an advert I saw on the telly is correct, then during the video for Richard Ashcroft's abominable 'Music Is Power', at the moment when he sings the lyric "it's just like a flower", he holds up a flower and waves it around.

Re: CHECK THE MEANING

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Actually, even the career of Richard Ashcroft can bring one a certain amount of joy.

Re: CHECK THE MEANING

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Main problem with Faithless's Mass Destruction: no significant WMDs in the video.