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]

The other thing to remember in all this is that Lex DID know who Talking Heads were.

A reasonably informed music fan will have heard of The Smiths, and of Morrissey, but not of Johnny Marr, say.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

And that the whole hullabaloo started from this point - that Timberland had namechecked David Byrne rather than Talking Heads, and so should get a gold star.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Haha I have heard of The Smiths and Morrissey (UNFORTUNATELY) and have no idea who Johnny Marr is! Erm also in The Smiths I am guessing. Guitarist? Why would anyone pay attention to the guitarist?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Guitarist, yes but also co-wrote every Smiths song (basically, he did the music, Morrissey did the lyrics). Also, he had a unique guitar style.

But let's not get sidetracked.

By the way, in defence of The Lex I think David Byrne IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN 'obscure'. I think mark is overstating in his opening post Byrne's penetration into the mainstream, cover of Time magazine or not. Certainly outside of the US I doubt he has ever been a household name. My parents would not have known who he was at any point. I shall e-mail my sister (age 18 at the time of TH's big hit and very much into music) to ask if she knows who DB is. My guess is she won't.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

but this is about the "disunification of rock discourse" isn't it? in the early 80s -- when "people who wrote about pop" were still all corralled into a smallish mutually self-ware world, he was a NAME

actually the grateful dead probably fits my definition -- i am STILL not sure if i have ever heard anything by them (but i think i knew that they existed, if not why they mattered, back in core punk days) (they existed as the ENEMY) (haha: "the grateful dead streak rock and roll like blood streaks vomit" © p.morley)

marr was very often sold back in the day as the secret hook of importance for the smiths, to folks who might find morrissey too fey and gay and weird

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

but this is about the "disunification of rock discourse" isn't it?

It was on the other threads, yes. You seemed to me to be seeking to widen it to popular culture in general in your opening post of this thread. If not, my mistake.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yes it's not very clear bcz i'm not sure that *i'm* very clear about it -- i think that i feel that one of punk's negative triumphs was to pull what i'm calling "rock culture" back from the goal of full participation in -- and even domination of -- full-on mainstream pop culture

ie in order to get its best complexity in it turned towards niche-marketing itself (which gave it better autonomy but less outreach) (and indie-fication plus what koganbot calls pbs-ification)

but byrne was (possibly) at least a figure on the horizon, representing the COMING THING, while "rock discourse" still toyed with this bigger ambition

(hence time cover etc)

so i can only "take it wider" to acknowledge that history refuses to LET it go wider (but this also explains yrs and my difficulty finding similar figures in our past?)

[thomppw.livejournal.com]

is morley's quote there actually anti-grateful dead? it sounds like it ought to be but it is very hard to read it when actually reading it to mean such