This blog has been carried by Peter Lawler for the last year or so, and the time has long since passed for yours truly to lend a hand. As a way of prodding myself into the unremunerated glories of blogospheric content production, I’ve given myself permission to muse upon old rock songs.
Most readers of this blog will have an intuitive sense of why one would regard such musing as a way to more clearly understand the politics, culture, and philosophy of our time, and as a way to more fully articulate and explore the postmodern conservative stance. They know that there is a lot of truth in Plato’s famous saying that “never are the ways of music moved without the greatest political laws being moved.”
I will be proceeding by way of writing about songs, and sometimes about rock-related albums, movies, critics, trends, and what-have-you. The songs will be chosen according to my thematic and symbolic needs, and not according any ranking of musical or lyrical excellence. Those already aware of my Martha-Bayles-schooled approach to pop music know that given the options of aristocratic music (classical and jazz), middle-class music (rock), and plain folks’ music (rock and roll, country, etc.), I firmly believe you’re better off with the first and the last. The middle is, generally speaking, inferior to both the high and the low. Beethoven and Berry both roll over Bowie, Mozart and Motown over Metallica. However, in terms of our present zeitgeist, born in the 60s and apparently set to live on forever, the middle is where the action has been, and where the poetic signposts have been placed. I will explain my thinking on all of this as I go along. But let’s get to the first song, shall we?
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