A Point of View
Posted by Paul Thompson on 3 May 2008 - 12:05am.
A great little piece from Clive James, as usual, in A Point of View on Radio 4 this evening (text here). It's a long time since I've heard anyone really talking with some consideration about great talent and how a national teasure has left the rails.
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Hmmm....
Not sure I agree Paul.
The Snoop Dogg element of the article is ill-focused and ultimately irrelevant, and whilst Ms Winehouse has undoubted talent, mentioning her in the same breath as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday is pure hyperbole.
Agreed
CJ at his. . . let's be charitable and say "most pushed for time" rather than "laziest". The Snoop Dogg section almost had both feet in Daily Mail territory, with its faux Bewildered-of-Basingstoke ostrichery (he's a self-confessed fan of The Wire and he can't figure out what "bust" means in a gangsta-lite lyric? Yeah, right, Clive.)
National treasure?!!
You're joking, right? I cannot for the life of me understand what the appeal of this woman is. She is the Sade of the 21st Century. Very few people outside of frappacino supping London wankers actually give a damn. Out of morbid curiosity, I watched her last Glastonbury performance on the telly. Dire doesn't even begin to describe it. I was expecting a rendition of "My Boy Lollipop" at any second. I don't care if she's been on the crack pipe. It was embarrassing.
It's music for dinner parties. whilst the women sit in the drawing room talking handbags and anti-aging creams and the men smoke cigars in the dining room discussing house prices and immigration. It sums up everything that is turgid about music today.
You want national treasure? Try Chris Difford, Andy Partridge or the delightful Clare Grogan who, in her appearance in the recent podcast, made me fall in love with her all over again.
Let's hear it for the new Sade!!
The reason that I found this article interesting was that Clive James was reacting to her talent purely on an emotional level; the comments were not made by someone who is steeped in rock n' roll folk law like everyone in this parish. It was good to hear someone in the public eye be lead by their heart and bothering to emphasise the talent rather that the scandal.
That "All that's turgid about music today" comment is very amusing... especially offering up wrinkly Chris Difford and Andy Partrige as alternatives, they really are incredibly cutting edge aren't they. Dad rock rules! Get your slippers on mate. I love songs about sniffing handbags just as much as the next dad but I can't imagine many but the very select few thousand who buy these albums could really care less.
It takes a really extra-ordinary talent to touch millions of hearts around the world. It may well be Ian Curtis on the big screen this week but Amy is the one who they'll be making the films about in 20 years time, and I hope I'll be around to watch.
Huh?
I thought the national treasure was Snoop Dogg. Hang on, I'll read it again. . . .
Dad Rock?
I'm torn on the Amy debate - I appreciate her work, but she hasn't hit me where I live yet. Following a tangent, however, I do wonder why we feel so fond of chucking out phrases such as "cutting-edge" or "dad rock". Music is, or should be, an incredibly personal experience. Every label that's slapped lazily on to its rump can only dilute that. Mr. Difford, to use an example, may be an older gentleman now - what with having lived in linear time and all - but his new album is a thing of beauty. I'm a much younger man than he by decades - although I must admit I have fathered children - and it means a lot more to me than records that have apparently touched the hearts of millions.
In fact, I'm always somewhat concerned by music that is alleged to matter to a majority of people. Surely, so many individuals can not be feeling and thinking, at any level of depth, in such a similar way. Perhaps I am peculiar. Actually, strike the perhaps. I know I am peculiar.
To me music is like a sexual partner. I'd much rather he or she WASN'T touching millions of other people whilst touching me. : )
Give me good, intelligent, sincere music and build a heaping bonfire of the bad, cliched and shallow. And don't bother trying to tell me what KIND of music it is in the meantime, I'll know if I like it or not.