May 4, 2009

everyone today is turning on


Rebecca Kennedy, Glowing Eyes

* Best drug song? You be the judge: Sniff Swig Puff (And Your Cares Are Gone), sung by Rock Hudson and Bea Arthur.

* Beatles v. Stones, as seen by Ian Svenonius. Excerpt/conclusion:

"While SYMPATHY searches through history for examples of dialectic upheaval, THE BEATLES are actually looking backward from the future onto their own time, warning the Soviets of the folly which will befall them if they are seduced by Capitalism. 'You don't know how lucky you are, boy,' they insist, as they survey the wreckage of modern Russia. Such an appraisal of the song leads one to examine the other tunes comprising THE WHITE ALBUM, most notably Lennon’s, REVOLUTION, which decries the extremism of particular incendiary groups. One line declares, 'If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't gonna make it with anyone, anyhow…' In lieu of their pro-Soviet posturing earlier on the record, we recognize that this reflects the Sino-Soviet split, which occurred around this time, when Mao was incensed by Kruschev's denouncement of Stalin. This fissure prompted Nixon's cynical collusion with the Chinese and the isolation and eventual defeat of Russia. 1968 was also the year of the Cultural Revolution in China, which precipitated horrible barbarity against intellectuals in the name of agrarianism. In Western pop, '68 was similarly the year that cerebral psychedelic music was refuted in the name of the 'roots' country/blues revival, typified by Creedance, the Grateful Dead, Burrito Bros., etc. This would spell the end of THE BEATLES, who had essentially invented intellectual psychedelia, while it furthered THE STONES career, who represented the mass proliferation of a rural aesthetic. THE STONES VS BEATLES dialectic then, was actually Lennon/McCartney's industrial Sovietology vs Mick and Keith's agrarian Maoism, a direct reflection of the ideological conflict of the time. The inability of the revolutionary super-powers to find common ground spelled Communism's inevitable dissolution in the face of Imperialism, with the absorption of Russia, as a new Third World and China's embrace of exploitive imperialist tactics."

* "I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult." -- E. B. White

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