Leo wrote:
Last but not least: "Yonki Time" is meant as a goof and a spoof---Verlaine is poking fun at the serious, "arty" aspects of most of the lyrics of the pre-1979 Television and of his 1979 solorecord itself.To quote Milo Miles in the 1979 Boston Phoenixwho explains it better than I ever could:"Yonki Time" is the most outrageous juxtaposition of angles. Over a fragmented, calliope-tinged rhythm, Verlaine strings a series of lyrics ("so nice, to meetcha, isn't it ... guess I'll take the garbage out ... uh, what time did you say it was?") while a droll chorus snorts, coughs, whistles, and shouts ,"It's Yonki Time!" The number is less charged than the other cuts with superhero guitar, but it's still insistent - light because sober Verlaine is pulling an out-and-out gag, but also tense because the call-and-response voices suggest a nervous straight surrounded by threatening pinheads. As the song lurches along, it's clear that Verlaine is parodying himself (the impassioned poet reduced to non sequitur small talk) - that it is Verlaine behind the pinhead masks mocking his own sense of control. "
Sorry, but I think this is bullshit being pulled out of his hat by a rock critic who can't simply say Verlaine's sometimes a goofball who doesn't live up to the stereotype of the serious artiste (a type Miles is probably more comfortable with). Verlaine's not parodying himself; "Yonki Time" is just the extreme manifestation of the same silliness that produced lines like, "You said blah blah blah you got a pillow stuck in [or is it "to"?] your head." Or the silliness that led to the "Hi, I'm Johnny Cash" recitations at some of Verlaine's live shows.
I hate it when people think that to be humorous or goofy is to lose one's "serious" cred; IMO, it certainly hurt Woody Allen's output for a time. I myself think that humor can be not merely funny but at times beautiful - like the line from "Glory" I quoted above.
Re U2: It seems almost unfair to compare them with Television. Whatever musical influences they may have absorbed, U2's stock-in-trade is the ecstatic and/or (more often) anthemic song, not the more introspective tones of a Verlaine. (Verlaine can of course be ecstatic or anthemic, but he doesn't use this mode as compulsively or consistently as U2.) This is both their strength - and the source, I'm sure, of their popular appeal - and their limitation. "I Will Follow" was absolutely inspiring when I first heard it, a whirling dervish of a song. Other songs continue to have power for me, such as "In the Name of Love" and "One." But no, I've never been a big fan, because their sincerity too often trips over into pomposity, and (what I've heard of) their attempts to branch out musically a la "Zooropa" have been embarrassing, as others have said. On the other hand, Bono's ego is somewhat compensated for by the fact that the man really does try to do good in the world: What other rock star is lobbying for Third World debt relief?
- Jesse -------------- To post: Mail tv@obbard.com To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"