The year of the Springsteen video for “Dancing in the Dark” was actually 1984 (fitting year, eh?) and it strikes me that the lyrics are apt: “This gun’s for hire/Even if we’re just dancing in the dark”. You know the “even if” bit is REALLY saying, “Yes we ARE just dancing in the dark!” And that seems to me to be an astute description of what pop culture is all about – or, at least, what it has resulted in.
(I don’t think that Bruce is aware of any of this. He never struck me as the brightest. I mean – who, with the slightest feel for the absurd, would agree to “co-authoring” a book with Obama called “Renegades”?)
Isn’t there a theory of fascism that posits it to be a phenomenon that stems from the middle class? And that it’s the slide from a moderately affluent life style into an uncertain state that produces that fear and rage that leads to support for the rising führer figure? That prompts me to muse on the celeb class. Springsteen, Baez, etc.
One thing I was going to say – though it might be just as well that I didn’t! – is that there is a story about how Elvis Costello was visiting America and had a few drinks in a bar with some of those West Coast ageing hippies (probably Crosby, Stills etc.) and was so riled by their sanctimonious self-satisfaction (priding themselves on their rebel credentials whilst living the good life etc.) that he turned around and vented that infamous racist diatribe against Ray Charles. You wouldn’t side with him on that matter but you could see why he felt provoked. Charles himself (who wasn’t present!) was wonderful about it, saying that nobody should pay any attention to what a guy says in a bar after a few beers. I cite this merely to illustrate that sickly descent into reactionary smugness demonstrated by those old “protestors”.
The year of the Springsteen video for “Dancing in the Dark” was actually 1984 (fitting year, eh?) and it strikes me that the lyrics are apt: “This gun’s for hire/Even if we’re just dancing in the dark”. You know the “even if” bit is REALLY saying, “Yes we ARE just dancing in the dark!” And that seems to me to be an astute description of what pop culture is all about – or, at least, what it has resulted in.
(I don’t think that Bruce is aware of any of this. He never struck me as the brightest. I mean – who, with the slightest feel for the absurd, would agree to “co-authoring” a book with Obama called “Renegades”?)
Isn’t there a theory of fascism that posits it to be a phenomenon that stems from the middle class? And that it’s the slide from a moderately affluent life style into an uncertain state that produces that fear and rage that leads to support for the rising führer figure? That prompts me to muse on the celeb class. Springsteen, Baez, etc.
One thing I was going to say – though it might be just as well that I didn’t! – is that there is a story about how Elvis Costello was visiting America and had a few drinks in a bar with some of those West Coast ageing hippies (probably Crosby, Stills etc.) and was so riled by their sanctimonious self-satisfaction (priding themselves on their rebel credentials whilst living the good life etc.) that he turned around and vented that infamous racist diatribe against Ray Charles. You wouldn’t side with him on that matter but you could see why he felt provoked. Charles himself (who wasn’t present!) was wonderful about it, saying that nobody should pay any attention to what a guy says in a bar after a few beers. I cite this merely to illustrate that sickly descent into reactionary smugness demonstrated by those old “protestors”.
Jack Littman. You're welcome.