utterly forgotten but NOT OBSCURE

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

by terming david byrne "obscure", alexmacpherson touches the exact, interesting nerve i think -- maybe even more than with his legendary "why SHOULD i have heard of john wayne?" argument

which is that in every generation (wait, that's how BUFFY starts!! -- er er focus) in every generation there are figures very well-known to all who have just VANISHED from mainstream radar by the next cycle

it's not that they're still popular but currently unfashionable; it's more that "what they meant" is no longer part of the pop discussion -- is that right?

so why has byrne vanished this way? or is it just not making "the right kinds of records" any more?

(disclaimer: i LOVED LOVE LOVED early TH and have i think every record they made --- BUT i went off them INCREDIBLY fast, round abt "true stories", and it took me years to rediscover any fondness)

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

If yr saying what I think you are (not having heard CYHSY I don't know for sure) - CYHSY are still big fish in a small pond, which wd place their chief influence on the same area of the radar as say Nick Drake - a name to drop but not much else.

This is a major step down in fame for Byrne who was, as Mark suggests, famous and spoken of in the 80s WAY beyond his record sales.