As I say during the broadcast, I was having a hard time deciding whether I wanted to play ambient music or disco. So I played both. I have trouble with decisiveness, with finality.
To force a segue here, I am confident that someone like Morrissey would have hated this program, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. This was the night after the day we Found Out (I guess?) about Morrissey through that horrible softball interview on his own website. Finally freed from wilful misinterpretation and journalistic malfeasance, he reveals that he...is Douglas Pearce, basically? Truly uncanny. Being an aesthete, I used to think Death in June was ripping off the Smiths' visuals; I didn't realize it was an exchange.
Hero worship will enable and force you to do some mental gymnastics, and to cling to mere possibilities. Saying that reggae is vile might have been a reference to its patriarchy and homophobia. It's possible that the chorus of "Panic" wasn't about lynching black people. There's a chance that "We'll Let You Know" and "National Front Disco" are not endorsements. [In my defense, this is more of a probability. But there I go. Or do I? I can't tell anymore.] And so on. But that's my problem all along. Post-1976 we are not supposed to have heroes, I guess, but I do. I've never "gotten it."
I could write a paragraph about when I got "woke," because part of me had to know, but who cares? I've been wrong.
Was he ever anything but "devious, truculent, and unreliable?" I would like to think that the person who wrote "Well I Wonder" and "I Know It's Over" was a great chronicler of loneliness. Even fascists get lonely! It didn't occur to me at the time that perhaps he was lonely because he'd preemptively ruled out the possibility of companionship with most of humanity. I'm still struggling with this reckoning. Those Smiths songs must have been the work of a different person. Right?! Sigh.
I would have been better off seeing Morrissey from the start as many of my friends did, as a Ridiculous Person. [And I did, sort of, but I just loved him anyway.] Or just being on Team Robert Smith, though I never quite understood that beef. But things didn't happen that way. As I've written elsewhere, the Smiths came along when I needed something to come along.
What to do now? I wonder if, after a few more similar interviews, Smiths records will become like Death in June records, a kind of eBay contraband. [I'm thinking also of Spotify's new policies regarding hateful speech and hateful behavior.] Probably not, I guess. But they are a kind of emotional contraband. Will I jettison mine? I told you I have trouble with decisiveness and finality.
BOMBAST playlist, 2018 April 18, 2100-2300:
notebooks out plagiarists
https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis
Greatness in Me, You Can't Make Me Feel Less: Transmission 489, 2019 October 16
Despite All My Rage, We Still in a Daze: Transmission 488, 2019 October 13
Melt the House, Wake the World: Transmission 487, 2019 October 9
The Night Is Made of Rocks: Transmission 486, 2019 October 5
Can't Be Trusted 'Cause You're Living in the Past: Transmission 485, 2019 October 2
When One Road Close, Another One Go Open: Transmission 484, 2019 September 25
U_D_M Detour 39, 2019 September 21
If I Could Just Explain the Way My Mind Is: Transmission 483, 2019 September 18
U_D_M Detour 38, 2019 September 14
From Childhood's Hour I Have Not Been As Others Were: Transmission 482, 2019 September 11
Business Is Ok But I Miss Working with the Young Folks: Transmission 481, 2019 September 8
Off and On He's Been Here, Guess He'll Never Go Home: Transmission 480, 2019 September 4
U_D_M Detour 37, 2019 August 31
Apologizing Is Terrifying: Transmission 479, 2019 August 14
She Reassured Me with an Unfamiliar Line: Transmission 478, 2019 August 9
You've Been At It So Long It's Chronic: Transmission 477, 2019 August 7
Rest in Power, Emma Durutti: Transmission 476, 2019 July 31
Maybe You Should Know That I Suffer from Sudden, Startling Revelations: Transmission 475, 2019 July 10
Expression Experts: Transmission 474, 2019 July 6
U_D_M Detour 36, 2019 June 29
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