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Jacques Derrida dead at the age of 74.  Gallantly carried on the hundred-year-old Continental tradition of killing Plato dead.  Wrote some interesting and playful stuff.  Forged his own signature once.  Was haunted by Marx at one point.

John Lennon would have been 64 today.  Made rock and roll smart, for better or worse.  Opened with a bunch of killer pop tunes with brilliant melodies (and about 3/4 of the originals on the Beatles’ first four albums), then wrote a bunch of beautiful, languid slow tunes with curious lyrics.  Oh yeah, and “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey,” which kicks butt.  Met Yoko.

And Nick called to tell us that he was on the Hardball pre-debate show last night.  And almost got to ask a question!  That would have been interesting.

Posted by on 10/09 at 11:02 AM

  1. E-Bay, that’s some funny stuff. I got a good chuckle out of that. It’s down to $200 now but check out the bid history :^)

    Posted by  on  10/09  at  01:20 PM

  2. I suppose this means that Derrida could not have been John Lennon’s father?

    Posted by Charlie Bertsch  on  10/09  at  02:07 PM

  3. Made rock and roll smart, for better or worse.

    Um, no.  Plenty of smart rock and roll out there before, just not in the way you seem to mean.  The Coasters’ music is smart as hell - and the group proved itself smarter than their songwriters Leiber and Stoller by refusing to record the latter’s anti-whitey anthems of the later ‘60’s.

    But Lennon was a key figure in the development of “smart” rock and roll as ROCK and singer/songwriter crap (along with Dylan, who showed him a thing or two.) Why either of those developments should be applauded is beyond me.  It’s all downhill after “Please Please Me.”

    Posted by Modern Kicks  on  10/09  at  04:52 PM

  4. Alas, poor Derrida. Pancreatic cancer. Can’t have been easy or painless.  An era passes.  Alas.

    Posted by  on  10/09  at  07:47 PM

  5. Damn, Modern Kicks, you saw my gambit and raised me.  Yes, of course I know there was smart rock before Lennon, but I think you know what I mean about the cult of the literate singer/songwriter.  As for your Lennon narrative, well, I think it’s mostly downhill for Lennon after A Hard Day’s Night, even though he wrote some gorgeous dreamy stuff 1966-71 along with the occasional paint-peeling rocker, and people who have “Lennon/Imagine” shrines in their homes have pelted me with rotten apples for years for saying so.  But all downhill after Please Please Me?  Come on-- do you really want to write off smart-as-shit melodic lines and great middle-eight transitions ("I’ll Be Back,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “You Can’t Do That,” “No Reply"), dazzling Arthur Alexander knockoffs ("All I’ve Gotta Do,” “This Boy,” “Yes It Is"), and mid-period gems like “It’s Only Love” or “Wait”?

    Posted by Michael  on  10/09  at  07:48 PM

  6. And of course

    Will you still need me
    Will you still fed me
    When I’m sixty-four?

    MKK

    Posted by Mary Kay  on  10/09  at  09:29 PM

  7. Write them off?  Not at all.  “All I’ve Got to Do”, for instance, is one of the sexiest songs ever made (though I’ve never cared much for “Wait”.) I’m just saying it was all downhill - things didn’t get outright bad for at least a few years.  Until, say, after “Rain”.

    Posted by Modern Kicks  on  10/10  at  12:37 AM

  8. WTF?  “after ‘Rain’?”.  Let’s see, off the top of my head as I half-watch the Dodgers get eliminated, that means no “He Said She Said”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, FREAKING “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “A Day in the Life”, “I Am the Walrus” and......oh, please, that’s just nonsense.

    Posted by  on  10/10  at  05:57 PM

  9. Actually, I’m not crazy about “Strawberry Fields” and “Walrus,” but I’m quite fond of “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Julia,” “Sexy Sadie,” “Cry Baby Cry,” “Come Together,” and of course “Monkey.” (Not to speak of “Cold Turkey” and “Instant Karma” from the immediate post-Beatles era.) I sometimes like “Hey Bulldog” too, but it’s a little like a medium Stones song-- great riff but not all that much going on after the riff announces itself.  ("Monkey Man” being the most obvious example.) So I wouldn’t bail out entirely after “Rain” either (which isn’t much of a song, imho).  Still, when you compare that output to the absolutely stunning first half of the Beatles’ career, when John seemingly wrote a brilliant melody with a deft bridge and a crafty middle eight every six hours or so, it’s a pretty dramatic difference.  But this is matter for a full-blown post, sometime in the future. . . .

    Posted by Michael  on  10/10  at  06:12 PM

  10. Ok, mea culpa - I stopped worrying about this sort of thing years ago and had forgotten that “Rain” was released before Revolver.  So consider the latter the line drawn, including ”She Said, She Said”, but omitting “Tomorrow Never Knows” - that one’s pretty bad.  And never mind the crappy Indian stuff - that stinks no matter when it came out.  To be fair, I declare the same to be true of any songs the later Beatles recorded from The Music Man.

    “I am the Walrus”?  Dear lord.  I didn’t realize people thought like that anymore.  As for the other songs Dr. B?©rub?© mentions, approving of them would only make things less entertaining.  And we can’t have that.

    Posted by Modern Kicks  on  10/10  at  07:34 PM

  11. Can we all at least agree The Dave Clark 5 peaked with “Try Too Hard”?

    Posted by  on  10/11  at  07:09 AM

  12. OK, but only if you agree that it was all over for the Monkees after “Head.”

    Posted by Michael  on  10/11  at  07:28 AM

  13. And it was all downhill for Bowie after “The Laughing Gnome.”

    Posted by Modern Kicks  on  10/11  at  08:46 AM

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