I had heard the song in the first time in ever but it just made me slightly depressed, knowing that ubiquitous 'Merry Xmas Everybody' is around the corner, I ahd not thought of that song this year yet. I really, really hate it. And as far as the "cheering up a depressed nation" arg goes - if the whole nation was really in as miserable state as that the LAST thing I would want to hear is a nasty, intrusive song like this.
I mean, I hate Xmas as well, which probably explains 100% of it.
well my argt abt slade has always been that they are SCARY well before they are cheery -- they twitch back the rug of orgafun to reveal the thug beneath
Oh I totally see that actually - I think I've only seen a few archived TOTP performances, maybe when quite young, but the impression left is definitely freakish in a bad way.
Re: the Oasis cover - I would post "it all seems very apt" but Marcello will probably shout at me.
slade were interesting -- and smart -- bcz no one was doin what they were doin then: which was getting across two linked but distinct energies in pop, bonhomie and bullying, turning a hinted nastiness into the hook without (eg) flourishing sociological or political worthiness as a get-out clause (which a lot of punk nastiness kinda did)
"Bullying bonhomie" is the perfect phrase which sums up why I hate Slade generally, and this song especially, even more than bullying political worthiness. b/c if you don't like the bullying politics you can step outside it and disagree without really feeling as if that matters, but if you want to step outside of the bonhomie that's tantamount to labelling yourself a grouchy fun-hater. ie, it feels worse to be outside of bonhomie even though you know it would be equally bad to be inside it b/c it just isn't your sort of bonhomie.
and surely the whole sentiment of "YOU MUST ENJOY XMAS" or indeed "we all enjoy xmas every one of us" is as equally political as er whatever worthy politics punk came up with? except sneakier, more disingenuous, "just a bit of fucking fun" aaargh. and in fact the NON-political nature of this "fun" is slade's own get-out clause...
sorry lex yr letting yr (somewhat justified) bigotry abt oasis get in the way of yr brains here: "just a bit of fun" is exactly what slade WEREN'T saying* -- they were saying** "there's no such thing as just a bit of fun"
*even in the xmas song, tho its context has shifted towards the "lovable" ever since "politics in pop" shifted into something you had to declare you were doing, rather than something unfolded in the sound or the act*** **"saying" as a mode of performance (see above); acting out the threat behind the smile -- making it visible as something you could discuss and critique and refuse (or play with, as something you were complicit in)**** ***you know this perfectly well when yr discussin eg R&B so it's not like this is a stretch for you! ****complicity that also applies to "just a bit of sexy" or "just a bit of thrilling" or whatever you want to use as the five-word redux for what it is you like in what YOU like!
Think both you and Mark are reading this differently from how I would/I did. Through early '70s rock aggression is assumed to have a political progressive significance, though actual smart people like Jagger and Dylan and Townshend are skeptical all along about the automatic significance and whether the sound necessarily puts you on the right side or even if there is a right side, the skepticism making them interestingly restless for a while but leading them to lame out more and more. In 1973 the "rock" sound has tended to divide between mellow and metal, both sounding way too workaday to my ears though I suppose they were the soundtrack to lots of afterwork relaxing and partying and drugging, the regular party following the regular job. Anyway, glitter and glam were putting the party upfront and bringing rock back to dance music but not simplifying it down - not saying this is mere fun or just a party, because it's a party that makes demands: demanding style, demanding desperation, demanding passion. Slade were at the plebe end of glam, partly because their manager had talked them into briefly pretending to be skinheads (before the skin days they'd been Ambrose Slade, flowers and prog, supposedly, though I've never heard those tracks or earlier). But they had glam's make-it-up-as-you-go style aesthetic - that style wasn't there to be embodied but rather had to be invented - even if ultimately Slade were too modest about their talent to sustain their greatness. But for several years Holder and Lea were creating melodies as good as anyone's and the group were creating an inventive rhythm that hasn't resembled anybody else's before or since, even if this rhythm seems to have scurried under everyone's intellectual radar. But the way I hear Slade, the NOIZE contains Terror and Aggression and Significance as givens (you don't have to pull up any rugs to find them, since they're already there as signifiers), while Slade is trying to find the celebration within it all. Maybe I'm overinfluenced by the fact that when I saw them live in NYC the crowd had at least as many girls as boys, all these glitter bunnies in rouge and wearing platforms. I'm sure that in Britain Slade got their share of hooligans, but in the U.S. the hooligans didn't know about them.
Anything else known about the would-be power-sharer if-we-can-rewrite-the-constitution-and-Musharraf-doesn't-renege's musical tastes? This could influence how I vote (if I had a vote).
Note to self: Search for 50,000-word college essay on the significance of Scorsese's using Mott's "All The Way From Memphis" as evocation of Dylanesque-Memphis-What-Thing-Ever-Elusive-Superword dream in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Monterey being Alice's Memphis Dream Again until she recognizes the actual inviting mundane Kristofferson reality, leaving budding adolescents Tommy and Audrey to dance into the unknown, elusive future. (And whatever happened to Alfred Lutter, anyway? Whipcrack comic timing. QUICK GOOGLE SEARCH. Not what I was expecting: "Provided the strategic vision and architectural design for the integration of legacy banking systems with a modern scaleable and reliable web application system for E*Offering.")
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:26 pm (UTC)I mean, I hate Xmas as well, which probably explains 100% of it.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:35 pm (UTC)Re: the Oasis cover - I would post "it all seems very apt" but Marcello will probably shout at me.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:47 pm (UTC)slade were interesting -- and smart -- bcz no one was doin what they were doin then: which was getting across two linked but distinct energies in pop, bonhomie and bullying, turning a hinted nastiness into the hook without (eg) flourishing sociological or political worthiness as a get-out clause (which a lot of punk nastiness kinda did)
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 03:57 pm (UTC)and surely the whole sentiment of "YOU MUST ENJOY XMAS" or indeed "we all enjoy xmas every one of us" is as equally political as er whatever worthy politics punk came up with? except sneakier, more disingenuous, "just a bit of fucking fun" aaargh. and in fact the NON-political nature of this "fun" is slade's own get-out clause...
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 04:09 pm (UTC)*even in the xmas song, tho its context has shifted towards the "lovable" ever since "politics in pop" shifted into something you had to declare you were doing, rather than something unfolded in the sound or the act***
**"saying" as a mode of performance (see above); acting out the threat behind the smile -- making it visible as something you could discuss and critique and refuse (or play with, as something you were complicit in)****
***you know this perfectly well when yr discussin eg R&B so it's not like this is a stretch for you!
****complicity that also applies to "just a bit of sexy" or "just a bit of thrilling" or whatever you want to use as the five-word redux for what it is you like in what YOU like!
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 04:19 pm (UTC)Note to self: Search for 50,000-word college essay on the significance of Scorsese's using Mott's "All The Way From Memphis" as evocation of Dylanesque-Memphis-What-Thing-Ever-Elusive-Superword dream in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Monterey being Alice's Memphis Dream Again until she recognizes the actual inviting mundane Kristofferson reality, leaving budding adolescents Tommy and Audrey to dance into the unknown, elusive future. (And whatever happened to Alfred Lutter, anyway? Whipcrack comic timing. QUICK GOOGLE SEARCH. Not what I was expecting: "Provided the strategic vision and architectural design for the integration of legacy banking systems with a modern scaleable and reliable web application system for E*Offering.")
no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-03 09:29 pm (UTC)