Blue Lines Revisited, Pop, or at least the sort of pop that gets written...

Pop, or at least the sort of pop that gets written about, exists in a state of permanent yearning to be more than it is. It speaks to the infatuated so well because it is itself infatuated – with the street or with the academy, it makes no difference. Preposterous to think now that the Beatles ever seemed raw or real (to these ears they always come across as narcissistic craftsmen) but in 1966 Lennon’s quoting the Tibetan Book of the Dead and McCartney’s borrowing of kitchen-sink drama tropes probably did seem like a blow for Art and realism in pop.

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Tom Ewing (via 67752)

Good grief, where did that get dredged up from? (rhetorical qn: it’s on my site somewhere) I still agree with the cultural cringe stuff but the specific example of Beatleness wasn’t well thought out.

One of the things that’s interesting about the Beatles is that they were really aspirational in this way - there’s often a role model or ideal behind what they’re doing - but very unusually their aspirationalism was quite far-sighted and they were very good at meeting their models halfway (both of which are probably as near as things get to “being original” anyway). So yes, once you know about AMM or Fluxus or Hamburg Exis or the Tibetan BOTD you “get” the Beatles more but what’s hard to recapture is exactly how far ahead of their audience they were.

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