Alan D
Group: Members
Posts: 3670
Joined: Aug. 2004 |
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Posted: July 06 2008, 17:18 |
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Quote (Dirk Star @ July 06 2008, 21:01) | I just kind of took offence to the way he compleletly dis-missed it all out of hand like it was gospel fact or something. |
I think what has happened there, Mick (assuming that he wasn't just posturing for effect, as he might have been) is that your Guardian critic 'sees' something in early Elvis that he doesn't 'see' in later Elvis. If we were to talk to him about it, I expect he'd find all sorts of apparently rational reasons for supporting his claim. And if he were suddenly to find himself enjoying a bit of late Elvis unexpectedly, he'd find a way of rationalising that, too. People have been putting forward spurious 'rational' arguments for invalid, absurd, and even inhuman, ideas as long as eggs have been eggs.
To take the example of 'Man in the Rain'. Many people think this is a pastiche of Moonlight Shadow, and indeed it is; so if you regard it as a song on its own, then of course many people are inclined to declare it to be poor, and a sign of imaginative bankcruptcy. However, if you accept it in the context of this very autobiographically-driven album, and consider that the pastiche may be deliberate, then it becomes a kind of affectionate backwards glance (perhaps with a touch of irony) at a particular moment in the Oldfieldian career, and slots into place like a piece from a jigsaw puzzle.
When I listen to TBIII, that's how I 'read' 'Man in the Rain'. In that context, it makes me smile; it makes sense; it adds coherence to the album; I feel as if MO is tipping me a wink and I feel like winking back; and with all that in mind, I enjoy the song - quite a lot, actually. However, to Debbie Doubtful, who's unwilling to be persuaded to listen to it like this, it remains merely a poor pastiche and sticks out unpleasantly like a sore thumb. Is Debbie right? Or am I? Well, it seems to me that she gets a poor pastiche, whereas I get a fascinating integrated component of a near-masterpiece. If Debbie regards hers as the more accurate view, then that's up to her. But when you've been there and seen it yourself, you can't help knowing what you know.
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