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]

Jefferson Airplane possibly.

I think PAUL SIMON might finally have joined these ranks.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a difference, though, Tom? Byrne and TH basically vanished immediately. The shadow of Jefferson Airplane continued to loom over music for decades after they ceased to be a creative force. Partially through "classics" like Somebody to Love or White Rabbit, and partially because the boomers controlled music criticism for years and years.