frantz

In the meantime, let’s say that everyone has their own bird and should be satisfied with that! :-)
Then, I may be wordy, but for the sake of "brevity," I’ll cite just a few references to serve as mere examples, the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. The discussion between high and low culture is not one I initiated, but it's a differentiation born to classify—essentially a convention. In reality, there is no high or low culture, but culture as such; if we want to fall into this game and consider (just as an example) high lyricism and pop as low, then we contradict ourselves if we think (again, just to illustrate!) of Pavarotti, who loved to sing alongside Jovanotti.
As for McLaren, I know the story well... you know my books ;-) but he could never have done what he did without the right social humus to welcome that ferment. Make a parallel with Warhol, who could never have created the Factory and gained the fame he enjoyed if at the same time pop art hadn’t been invited to the Biennale of '68, which was one of the most contested biennales, complete with barricades in the Gardens by the students, the very ones we might call the proponents of the "low." As you see, it's the same coin showing its faces. Regarding punk, well, the Ramones predate the Sex Pistols, and others come before and after, and Malcolm McLaren represents only an episode in history, perhaps the most marketing-driven. As always, all eras do not arise from a single episode but from a concatenation of events. It's like saying that communism only died in November '89 with the fall of the Berlin Wall—no, that's just a significant episode taken as a symbol!
@GEB, I don't understand what you mean by postmodern; I don’t find the connection to your discourse. I do not diminish the dignity of any musician; I just say that, in my opinion, the first ones you mention left much less of a mark in terms of innovation and originality compared to the second ones. And the fact that Pink Floyd had 80,000 spectators, of which I was one at their concerts, and the Fuzztones had 500, with me among them, has nothing to do with it! Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime while Picasso lived among billions, yet both were great artists. Orfeo Tamburi had equal dignity as an artist, but maybe only a few recall him; still, he lived off his art. In the sense that dignity exists for everyone; then, there are those who will leave a more significant mark through originality and content, and these are not always linked to commercial success.
One last note: I've been on DeB since 2003, when most still knew each other personally.

My sources are not the manuals of rock history, at least not only those; I have always been accustomed to studying what interests me through as many different sources as possible. For as long as I can remember, my studies have focused on historical and artistic interests of the 20th century, and I find (but I'm not the only one) that cultural trends reflect, if not anticipate, social trends—let's say that the former are a mirror of the latter. If, however, depending on the reader, we want to experience music as a cultural manifestation but as a pastime, entertainment, or at best a soundtrack for the unfolding day, that works just as well! My question then is: what is the measure for judging whether an album is epochal, beautiful, interesting, bad, or a total disaster? Is it catchiness, a well-placed refrain, all a matter of production and arrangement? In fact, I would love to hear your opinion on this. For me, music is a form of art; not every single song may be, in fact! But the fabric where they are born, the criteria and motivations behind their expression, and what they reflect or represent are worthy of reflection. The history and life of those who composed them and why—like why the Beatles made certain albums after their travels in the East, or in Italy, the "story" of Lindo Ferretti and his companions. If that weren't the case, I would just turn on the radio, tune into 105, and turn off my brain... which, more often than not, I do as well!

To those who consider rock merely as entertainment, I ask for forgiveness for my presumption, but for those like me who see rock as a cultural manifestation, a sign of the times, and representations of social "tension" comparable to other artistic expressions, well, I remain exactly where you placed me: in that spot that truly irritates you :-)
For me, the punk of the late '70s embodies in music the social tensions of that segment of youth that, by extreme measures, fights against the rigid society that fails to recognize their demands. That society which had disillusioned their revolutionary joy expressed just 9 years earlier, so well represented in music by so much from the late '60s (stg. Peppers as an example). The '77 social movement extremizes its position and ends up breaking with society through terrorism, just as that year music proclaims the punk’s no future. A few years later, such a situation cannot endure under social rules, and thus terrorism is defeated by the State but mainly by itself, just as punk dies killed by its own convictions (the inability to play and the anarchy it advocated). After them, the '80s (beautiful or ugly as they may be) represent the people's desire for rebirth in relation to the tensions of the years of lead, leading to hedonism, rampant capitalism, and in music, the Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran. For those who emerged defeated and couldn't find a rationale, there was nothing left but the birth of the first social centers, offspring of squatted houses, or for the more organized, the rise of the ecological movements that looked at the future with a different, more positive perspective. All of this was musically represented with dark for the more pessimistic and wave for the others, but when that form of art also dwindled, they went back to fish from the past, and the '60s twenty years later had become "fabulous," just like the '80s are for today’s youth. But this was only because every form of creativity had exhausted itself due to the dwindling of social impulses. When creativity hits rock bottom, it is reborn into a new life, and grunge came to clear the slate of the '80s thus cleaning the palette of everything that had nourished it in that decade. The Walls fell, communism ended, and a new social order was created, while in music, grunge in rock breathed new creative life into what had become creatively barren, and when old stylistic traits are copied, creativity fades!
If one enjoyed listening to music that had nothing new to offer other than the desire to create chaos, well, I was the first one along with many others!

Emotions are fleeting, but records remain. At least in my life, that's how it is. I have for myself a nice and hard-earned collection of records; rather, if we want to be precise, we are talking about vinyl, which cyclically rides back onto their/my turntable, and listening to them today, the judgment becomes free from the emotions of the past.

I have this record, along with the Fuzztones, Fleshtones, Chesterfield Kings, the whole Scandinavian neo-sixties scene of the '80s and also the Italian one with the Boohoos in the lead, and in my opinion (now in my forties) the neo-sixties of the mid-'80s was, to put it in Fantozzi's words, "a crazy load of crap!" It’s true that at that time wave music was being played by Gerry Scotti on DeeJay Television, and that Sandy Marton was dressing cooler than Bono and Jim Kerr combined, and back then the Cure, to be great, should have vanished along with Joy Division. So, the neo-sixties Garage Punk gave a jolt to what no longer had any edge, namely the music of that time; however, it was an imitation, sometimes poorly and sometimes moderately well, of what the Stooges, the Beatles of Sgt. Pepper, and many lesser but unfortunately original bands had done too long before! I went crazy watching how Rudi Potrudi commanded the stage, but I was 18 years old! It's the same for today's 18-year-olds who crowd concerts for the Killers or Franz Ferdinand... what’s there to get excited about? It’s all stuff we’ve heard before, and too much of it! I believe that period was the usual "creative empty recycling" when a decade has nothing left to say to you; in fact, then came Grunge, which thoroughly cleaned the '80s of all its debris, and like every cycle, it had its proper epitaph... but that’s another story.

I have this record, along with the Fuzztones, Fleshtones, Chesterfield Kings, the entire Scandinavian neo-sixties scene of the '80s, and even the Italian one, with the Boohoos at the forefront. In my opinion (now in my forties), the neo-sixties of the mid-'80s was, to put it in Fantozzi's words, "a crazy load of crap!" It’s true that by then the wave was being played by Gerry Scotti on Dee-Jay Television, and Sandy Marton was dressing cooler than Bono and Jim Kerr put together. Back then, the Cure needed to disappear along with Joy Division to be considered great, and that’s when neo-sixties Garage Punk gave a jolt to what was no longer jarring: the music of that time. However, it was a copycat act, sometimes poorly and sometimes decently, of what the Stooges, the Beatles of Sgt. Pepper, and many lesser but alas original bands had done too long before! I was crazy about how Rudi Potrudi commanded the stage, but I was 18! It’s the same thing for today’s 18-year-olds who crowd the concerts of the Killers or Franz Ferdinand... what’s there to be excited about? It’s all stuff we've already heard, and way too much of it! I believe that period was the usual "creative empty space" of when a decade has nothing left to tell you. Indeed, that’s when Grunge came in and swept the '80s clean of all its debris, and then, like every cycle, it had its proper epitaph... but that’s another story.

A touching film, as minimal in "sign" as it is rich in "meaning." A story, or rather a personal drama within history, or rather within the collective drama, featuring an ending where the communicative shift emphasizes a dramatic scream and the reality of the images distorts the "poetic" and creative structure of the drawing.

1:40 PM, I got it at FNAC.

Poor Ghigofiba and poor PD... two "animals of the area" on the verge of extinction, with little sorrow for many!

I bought it myself not long ago at that interesting price, but even if it had cost much more, it would have been worth it. It’s a superb album, not the absolute best, but superb!