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]

also no one much is following up my "symbolises something that no longer matters to pop" idea -- which i think is probably more interesting than "currently not active in the marketplace = forgotten"

(i would probbly place p.sarstedt here if his one-hit-wonder weren't so MASSIVE still)

jacques brel?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

p. sarstedt is only massive today ;)

what about peej harvey? she disappeared and took "shouty wimmin with a guitar" shaped pop with her, didn't she?

Huggy Bear, yesterday

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

no PJ, no KT?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think arguably the PJ Harvey/Tori Amos/Hole demographic of the 90s is now served in two directions - the more adult/arty female singer-songwriters like Regina Spektor, Bat For Lashes and Joanna Newsom, and the appropriation of guitar angst into teenpop via Avril Lavigne et al. I think there's kind of this gap in the middle though, Harvey and Amos occupied a pop space in between Lavigne and Spektor. The closest is probably Karen O and her Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Prob the Long Blondes as well but they're shit.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hehe, i was betting to myself that you'd mention Karen O. does she play guitar though? i've only ever seen her rolling around on stage...

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

No. They have a man guitarist. Karen O's job is rolling around on the floor in a very cool way.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

which, of course, is at least as important as gtr playing as any fule kno ;)

another PJ

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

what about PJ PROBY?

(a key figure for Nik Cohn in Awopbop... - was Cohn out on a limb in this respect, or did other critics rate him?)

I only knew of him for his notoriety as The Guy Whose Trousers Ripped Onstage Oh Noes until v. recently. And I've not heard any of his records.

Re: another PJ

[mcarratala.livejournal.com]

I think Cohn's love for him was disproportionate – as well as the chapter in Awopbop..., he borrowed huges chunks of Proby's life for the stinkingly awful novel I Am Still The Greatest Says Johnny Angelo. That said, Proby had a number 3 hit in the UK. But I think I've maybe heard one of his songs, once, ever, probably on Sounds of the Sixties on Radio 2.

Re: another PJ

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah this is an endearing element of Awopbop though I think!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Something of the spirit of Brel lives on in the LYRIC INDIE which I occasionally fulminate against - Starry Srah and I went to a club at which she was DJing and witnessed a performance by one Philip Jeays who was billed as 'the English Brel' - barrysarll is a huge fan - I found it well outside my comfort zone and all a bit arch.

But I think the micro-subcultural level on which all this takes place (despite Jeays having memorable tunes and well-crafted words; see also Momus, at least on the words front) actually proves your point that this tradition has been - in the US and UK at least - erased from pop.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i LOVE jacques brel!!!

(nb i have never heard him perform his own songs)