on not being chumps about the charts

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

me semi-defending elvis costello's biggest hit: not sure i'm making a particularly remarkable general point, but there you go

Comments

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Wow, is that really his biggest UK hit? I figured it'd be "Alison" or "Pump It Up" or "Every Day I Write The Book" or "What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding."

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It got to Number Two!

Mark this piece is excellent - grebt analysis of the song, the specific points about Costello need making and the general point about the charts is a well-worn one but probably does need restating again and again.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

(i think we should get him to do the other 55 songs as well ;))

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yes that will speed things up eh

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

Alison not even a hit according to everyhit! "I can't stand up for falling down" and "Goodier for the roses" his only other top tens...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Mark have you read D4v3 M4rsh's book of 1001 favourite singles? He talks about "Less Than Zero" in that and makes a related point, i.e. he summaries the content of the song and then says "This isn't my overcomplicated critics interpretation of it, this is WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING in the song" - his point IIRC is then, Costello could briefly do this well, nobody else can, and once people start the game's up for rock anyway.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

haha this is yr rather skewed take on DM's point, tom: "once people start the game's up for rock anyway" (FSVO "rock", which DM doesn't mention at all!)

he says of LTZ (and makin out on the sofa while mosley is on tv): "It is something no one would have ever thought to sing about before 1977, and it is a way of thinking that no one who takes pop music seriously can avoid ten years later" (isn't the secret yet public argumnent of the title of DM's book -- which i love, despite him being bigoted and rubbish on loads of the best stuff from the UK -- saying that CHARTPOP is the "heart" of rock and soul)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well "rather skewed" is "10 years since I read it"!

I think at the time I first read it (when it first came out, or just after), being very keen on the UK stuff he is rubbish on, I took away the idea that he was a grumpy old sod when it came to cleverness and the rock scene after punk. This stayed with me for my second reading, when I was getting into all the old soul stuff he really loves and paying less attention to the wrong bits.

I do think that's his not-so-secret argument - I like the way he gives the chart position of every entry!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i think he's very conflicted -- he is certainly very anti "prog" in the old-skool or the glam or the popu sense, but his favourite band EVBER is the who, and what he likes is townshend's intelligence

maybe it's "intelligence" vs "cleverness"? (and i think he's sort of right, but his tastes and prejudices somewhat obscure how he's right)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i have no complaints to make about the conversation it has generated so far! i specially like when marcello sez "but that may be drifting off-topic"

[koganbot]

I commented here.