This is one of the most profound sentences in rock critic history. It's something I've always tried to keep in mind on those occasions I dabble in the form.
― mike a, Friday, 9 December 2005 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:54 (eighteen years ago) link
i've heard a lot of it. most of it is bad but innocuous. i think what bugs me so much about "ram" is the fact that mccartney feels the need to keep throwing in these random little "do-do-do-do-do-dos" on every fucking song! horrible.
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 10 December 2005 01:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Laurie, Tuesday, 4 April 2006 15:43 (eighteen years ago) link
"It is for that moment--not for John Lennon the man---that you are mourning, if you are mourning. Ultimately you are mourning for yourself."
My problem comes in that I don't think any of this is special about Lennon's case. Whenever you mourn ANYONE, you mourn the passing of someone who affected you personally and profoundly, that's how you're going to mourn them. Mourning is a selfish process; it's the way we heal with wounds. So, yes, of course you're going to be mourning for yourself. I don't think that there was a difference between the people mourning Lennon and the people that mourn the deaths of friends and loved ones every day. In each case, you're mourning the passing of another human being that made you feel happy, optimistic, perhaps loved. And in each case, it's utterly selfish and all about the hole missing in your life that the other person used to fill. And that's perfectly fine.
I agree with Tim Ellison on his points. People needed to mourn Lennon. Bangs was just living up his persona of Bangs. But I think that, down somewhere inside of him, he was just as sad as anyone around him was. Maybe that was his way of dealing with it.
― Harrison Barr (Petar), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 18:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 18:04 (eighteen years ago) link
― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 07:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 07:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 07:39 (eighteen years ago) link
also a hilariously smug dave marsh piece on neil young which sadly got kicked out of the most recent edition.
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:14 (eighteen years ago) link
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:24 (eighteen years ago) link
need a library of ROCK here in london we really do.
― Real Goths Don't Wear Black (Enrique), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 09:31 (eighteen years ago) link
That piece actually made it into later editions (maybe because it's referenced in Marcus' terrific Beatles essay.)
J.D. OTM about the old Stone book. I also dig the Marcus "Rock Film" essay and Janet Maslin's piece on Dylan (both of which got dropped from later editions).
― Chairman Doinel (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago) link
NOOOOOOOOOOOO we must live in an endless 1975.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 15:44 (eighteen years ago) link
agreed the RS piece is better but the "teen" of the title isn't about Spector's age, it's about his constituency
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 5 April 2006 16:28 (eighteen years ago) link