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

[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! :(