Re: (TV) RE: MELODY MAKER, April 15, 1978

["Joe Thornton" <joe.thornton@gmx.net>]

There's one thing Tom says there that I would take issue with:

> "I mean, to me there's a lot of humour on those records. Especially the
new
> one. Like 'Foxhole' is a joke in a way. It's definitely not a serious
song.

Yes, it's a joke in a way, but it's also serious, surely? The blackest of
black humour. ("I feel the shells hit, Moonlight web, Goodbye arms, So long
head.")

I say this because he wrote it soon after the Vietnam War, if not before the
end of it. Tom must have known several old friends who were sent to Vietnam.
It was no joke. I can't believe that the war wasn't in his mind, consciously
or sub-consciously, when he wrote the song. The song is full of savage irony
and suppressed bitterness. (Of course I wonder how Tom himself avoided the
draft, presuming he did.)

In a way I feel that the lyrics and the execution of the song are so
brilliant that Tom then explicitly 'put down' the song ("it's not
serious!"). Perhaps it was partly bravado and arrogance, partly the attitude
of the time. I mean, lyrics like "In the line of duty, In the line of fire,
A heartless heart is my proper attire." Bloody great, and Tom knew it.

This black humour is a kind of despair -- what else can you do in the face
of such lunacy? (And the lunacy is around us more than ever now.) I see the
same sentiments in Tom's 1987 song 'Bomb'. "It's these disintegrations I'm
looking forward to." Anyone else notice the similarities?

As I see it, Verlaine wrote three songs that are clearly about war (and/or
terror/terrorism). The third one is 'Words From The Front' which is totally
non-ironic (and no less brilliant). I can't think of any other Verlaine song
that is remotely like those three.

Anyway, I think 'Foxhole' is brilliant; a pinnacle of punk rock. And
Adventure is a great album, with just a few weaknesses. 'The Dream's Dream'
is, in its way, as great as 'Marquee Moon'.

--JoeT
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