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

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

does costello blong here at all?

(not for me obv)

i think anyone i name will likely be a pre-rock figure -- jim reeves for example

one of the interesting dimensions of punk is that it was the last moment that rock culture wasn't niche-divided safely off against itself, so in the year-zero-fication of everything, EVERYTHING came back into play to be rejudged (apparently)

except for a handful of oddball one-hit-wonders maybe (thunderclap newman; python lee jackson; andy fairweather-low) -- who were none of em more than nine-day-wonders in the shadow of something else anyway, i don't think

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Costello: yes! I reckon he is a v.obscure figure to anyone below the age of abt 30, maybe. I don't really know much by/abt him at all (apart from Oliver's Army, obv, and Shipbuilding via Wyatt), despite being moderately clued up when it comes to pop history from the mid-70's onwards. What I have heard seems v.dull and uninteresting.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I have heard of Elvis Costello, very much so! And I think I've always considered him well-known. I don't think I've heard any of his songs though.

KEY POINT: Elvis Costello has a v memorable name. Many people may have mentioned David Byrne in passing to me over the course of my life and the name may well have just slipped out of the other ear. I am not very good at remembering 'ordinary' names. This is why I love tennis.

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

Don't really get this one - I wd think most people would know him as the most distinctive (and I don't necessarily mean musically) person to come out of punk, with the sole exception of the S3x Pistols. It's in the name and the big glasses, if nothing else (the "Dennis Taylor factor").

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

Whereas Byrne had the big suit, but it was obviously not enough.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Crumbs. Maybe I have a v.diff perception from most ppl then. I don't even think of him as having had anything to do with punk at all!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

He's always brought up along with Alan Partridge (who has an even more distinctive name, but is still a rung or two below Elvis) as "Punk of course let a number of good solid songwriters gain a prominence they wouldn't have otherwise"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I see yr funny joke there.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I don't! :(