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Utopian Turtletop. Monsieur Croche's Bête Noire. Contact: turtletop [at] hotmail [dot] com

Sunday, June 03, 2007



Aimee Mann is a singer and songwriter. Writing on the Op-Ed page of the Sunday New York Times today, she says that
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is her favorite record. But she never listens to it. Because its musical influence is vast and she’s burned out on it. And its lyrics, though having some nice concrete images that poetry workshops would approve, are shallow. And its music, though hugely influential, is problematic. Paul’s cheeriness is shallow and masks an underlying unhappiness, and nothing is more depressing than a brave face, especially a shallow brave face. And John’s melodies, she’s “ashamed to say,” are underwritten. She could do better! Just give her some of those songs, she’ll trick out some Lennon melody with a little more body, a little more life, not abandon it unfinished, a poor slip of an underwritten thing, as he did. She says so herself -- listening to the Beatles now is like realizing that she can beat her “own father at chess or arm-wrestling.” But it will always be her favorite record!

What an interesting shmear of Oedipal self-contradictions! I personally feel that she need not worry about having eclipsed her artistic parents -- but we all have our own perceptions, don
’t we?



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