Bullying is Back ! Haven'r you heard. Big time !. I've just listened to Salman Rushdie talking about going into Act Five of the Play and his thoughts on Nigel Farage and recent accusations of schoolyard antisemitism racism and general grubbiness.. I have parents who are thirty years down the line from me. I can't imagine what this is like for them.
Rushdie says we never forget our youthful moments of being bullied. That they stay within us waiting for the right moment for them to unfold like pockets of immediately identifiable and familiar pain. That the urgency of life and examining the significance and implications of these increases with time. I'm with Salman.
That political and personal outrage and violence what seemed exceptional back in the Eighties has become more frequent, if not normalised. .
Which brings us to Tears For Fears. My record player sends me spinning back in space and time once more . To my first ever gig. At The Hammersmith Palais. Late '83. In Support of Thompson Twins.
I watch my 17 year old self a few rows from the lip of the stage with his steel rimmed Lennon glasses and aloof, mournful air. While my 60 year old self lets the cartridge descend on The Hurting, the opening track on, erm The Hurting surely one of the best singles never released.
Lionel Bart meets New Romanticism on a green in Bath. Curt and Roland Excellent teeth and stellar haircuts. Arthur Janov paperbacks perched in their long coat pockets. Primal Scream ? Eat yer heart out ! .Pavlov's dog fetch the bone rover. Let Tears For Fears take over !
There's a lot of misery and gloom on The Hurting. But it's immaculately packaged. Like Milk Tray ! chocolate supposititorries for the teen scene born just too late ... for Joy Division. Bit never fear. Pale Shelter is nearly here!
I still like this record. It's cool and bristles with inchoate rage and commendable ambition. Suspicion and pretension and chunky jumpers. Lots of hits ! You can change !
No comments:
Post a Comment