Xgau headscratchers

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Here are the two phrases from CG reviews that have kept me up the most nights (or something). Explain them or list yours.

from Paul Simon - Paul Simon:

"William Carlos Williams after the repression: 'Peace Like a River.'"

(the repression of what/whom? someone already pointed this out, maybe in the tribute book)

Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return to the 36 Chambers

"His compulsion is to turn an absence into a presence."

(I've read this as absence from the culture-at-large. But the absence of what?)

gabbneb, Saturday, 4 January 2003 22:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

well, I think you need the whole review to make sense of these (I think you could make sense of the second one, the first one seems to be a ref to something I don't know so that would mean looking it up).

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 4 January 2003 22:54 (10 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...
for ODB, in context, it seems to be a "return of the repressed" thing going.

Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 8 February 2003 16:07 (10 years ago) Permalink

lets have another start at this hehe (when this week's xgau thread started i did think there was a thread dealing w exactly the same issue) one but I thought 'no way'.

it turns out that I was the only one who bothered (not that it was much use).

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 8 February 2003 20:24 (10 years ago) Permalink

Yeah let's see if this one can ever catch up to that other one - only some 629 posts behind now!

Vic (Vic), Sunday, 9 February 2003 04:43 (10 years ago) Permalink

9 years pass...

"Zager & Evans make Simon & Garfunkel sound like Marx & Engels."

tropical storm mysac (crüt), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 05:37 (8 months ago) Permalink

^ cracking me up. what the fuck does that mean??

tropical storm mysac (crüt), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 05:37 (8 months ago) Permalink

xgau buttscratchers

buzza, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 05:40 (8 months ago) Permalink

He's comparing Zager and Evans' sociopolitical lyrics unfavorably to Simon and Garfunkel's.

timellison, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 07:00 (8 months ago) Permalink

Christgau can be cryptic, but that one seems fairly straightforward: if you think Simon & Garfunkel are lightweight politically, wait till you hear Zager & Evans. (Not fair--"Mrs. Robinson" and "At the Zoo" are very astute, I'd say.) It'd be like saying Sarah Palin makes Dan Quayle sound like Winston Churchill in the erudition department.

Of course, we won't know for sure about Zager & Evans until 2525. They may yet be revealed as prophetic.

clemenza, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 11:15 (8 months ago) Permalink

if man is still left alive

Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 11:17 (8 months ago) Permalink

I've yet to hear an explanation for this:

Gomez, Bring It On [Hut, 1998]
Really the roots-rock-they mean it, man ("Whipping Piccadilly," "Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone"). ***

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 11:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

he vaguely nodded at a british hype but never had cause to elucidate based on a later album

da croupier, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 11:54 (8 months ago) Permalink

You've copied the dashes wrong, turning "roots-rock-they" into a meaningless hyphenated phrase.

The original is: "Gomez, Bring It On (Hut/Virgin): really the roots-rock--they mean it, man." Translation: they sound like old men.

Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 11:56 (8 months ago) Permalink

The "they mean it, man" party I took as suggestion how ernest the group was, but I still don't get it.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 11:58 (8 months ago) Permalink

Yes, they are earnest and British.

Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 12:00 (8 months ago) Permalink

His comment on Metal Machine Music as being Environments for hipsters or whatever had me scratching my head until last year when I finally found out exactly what Environments was. Had always thought it must be a work by a specific avant garde artist.

Stevolende, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 12:17 (8 months ago) Permalink


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