Re: (TV) Ray / Marc /Ziggy

[Monica Kendrick <mkendrick@chicagoreader.com>]

>OK, Monica.  I'll grant you "Get Back In Line."  I forgot all about "Get Back
>In Line."
>
>Plus, I was, as my beloved Mott the Hoople so aptly put it, "Born Late '58,"
>and, so, much more susceptible to Beatlemania than a child of the (late)
>sixties might be.  For me, they're on some exalted level above critical
>analysis.  Let me put it this way -- a recent screening of the newly-remixed,
>surround-sound Yellow Submarine movie moved me almost to tears.  (I actually
>remember being disappointed I was too young to see them at Shea, and I
>remember watching them on Ed Sullivan.)

Well, I can certainly relate to that--it's kind of like how I feel about
Television! (tho' I did catch their reunion tour).

When it gets to the level of what moves one person and what doesn't move
another, there's not too much point in arguing. The Beatles never did it
for me, but I'm not going to try to cut them down too much to someone who
-did- feel it.

Since we're on the personal-confession level now, I have to 'fess that the
Kinks were (and are) my -dad's- favorite band of all time; "Sunny
Afternoon" is the first pop song I can recall hearing, and there's some
dispute in my family over whether or not I was actually named after
"Monica" from _Village Green Preservation Society_. The timing _is_ right,
and that album _was_ apparently in VERY heavy rotation round about the time
my naming was an issue....he says yes when he feels like teasing me (We are
all aware that the song is about a prostitute). Considering he named our
beloved dog after a Stones song ("Angie") and he liked them just a little
bit less than the Kinks, I am inclined to believe that the song _was_ my
real namesake, he just doesn't like to admit it. Although he and I have
always had our passionate disagreements about music as well as agreements,
there's no doubt that hearing that music at a _very_ early age certainly,
um, primed the pump. (Beefheart was another fave, imagine what -that- did
to shape me....I got a good essay about the _Grow Fins_ set out of it, but
I know it goes much deeper than that).



>
>Plus, let's say I'm of the ethnic persuasion to be not particularly amused by
>Ray's little ditty "When I Turn Off the Living Room Light" on "Great Lost..."
>Leading me to believe that our Mister Davies, though gifted, is not one of the
>world's great thinkers.  (Unless his intent here was to offend all women and
>Jews in his audience.  I could hardly imagine John Lennon being involved in a
>similar gaffe.)

Well, there's that allegation that they're singing "Baby you're a rich fag
Jew" on at least one of the "Baby You're a Rich Man" choruses (it was a
directed dig at...Epstein, could it have been?) but no one's -proved- that
that I know of. And I don't think Lennon -intended- to offend a whole slew
of Christians (at least not at the time) but he certainly did.

Of course also, some of the "Apeman" lyrics aren't the
most...um....culturally sensitive lines ever penned either, now are they?
Point.
>
>So on balance, if it isn't painfully obvious already, let me say that I
>(sometimes) LOVE the Kinks.  (Even if I can't reconstruct the exact order of
>their 60s output on a moment's notice.)  But better than the Beatles?  Geez.
>

Well, at this point it -is- a matter of taste. I know which of the two I
like listening to more, on the average. But since we've both revealed it's
a -childhood- thing, I don't think critical armwrestling is gonna get us
anywhere. It's an agree-to-disagree thing, though I stand by my point that
the Beatles don't necessarily mean as much or the same thing to those of us
who missed the 'cultural phenomenon' aspect.

Monica



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