Schlock of Ages
- 31 May 07, 10:50 AM
The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ music series Seven Ages Of Rock will tackle punk rock this Saturday, and I feel afraid. Because they have already dealt with Hendrix and Dylan, Bowie and Lou Reed, and they΅―ve taken all of the mystery, edge and confusion out of their acts. I can already imagine the upcoming script (think ΅―70s polytechnic lecturer) reducing some of the formative eruptions of my youth to flat declarations.
It might seem disloyal the criticise another Beeb production, but I love all this music and I chose to defend it against the sociologists and woolly historians who use the word ΅°quintessential΅± and talk about a ΅°musical collage΅±. The tone of last week΅―s show suggested that we should be taking notes, and so I did. When Bowie became Ziggy, the narrator told us ΅°he had kick-started a revolution that would take rock music to a different planet΅±. Excuse me, but that΅―s a chronic example of mixed metaphors. It΅―s also a terribly glib idea. Furthermore, who invited Peter Gabriel and silly old Genesis to the classic rock party?
So I may miss the Saturday transmission. Instead, I΅―m pinning my hopes on the Julian Temple film, ΅®The Future Is Unwritten΅―, which opens at the QFT, Belfast on June 29. I fully expect noise, contradiction and punk rock emotions. It may not make complete sense, but hey, this ain΅―t no media studies module.
The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Comments?? Post your comment
Totally agree! By the way, don't even think of trying to read the Joe Strummer Biography, got a copy to review for N.V.T.V. Thought it was me, but totally unreadable! By the way godd to see John(could have been a model!) Rossi and the band "The Black Token" doing well. Remember John from the Peacefrog days. My daughter Victoria and I gave John "could have been a model" in those days! What is his secret to always looking so young? He could bottle it and sell it!
Complain about this post
I thought the Strummer biog was excellent. All the stuff about his days in The Clash has been well documented in the past so there was not much new there. But the account of his post Clash career was excellent and I would have to say I could not put it down.
Complain about this post
I'm still reading the Joe biog, which starts slowly, but I guess it will gather pace. Chris Salewicz is a good writer. I'm still incensed by the public school bore who reviewed the book for the Sunday Times and surmised that Strummer had "reverted to type" by settling down with a posh gal.
Complain about this post