Kieran “mentioned”:https://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002937.html Jonathan Coe’s vicious and funny take-down of Thatcherism, “What a Carve-Up” in passing a couple of days ago. It reminded me of a bit in Coe’s more recent novel, The Rotter’s Club, where he identifies the ‘death of the Socialist dream’ with the extinction of prog-rock.
bq. He giggled like a little maniac, and stared at me for a second or two before running off, and in that time I saw exactly the same thing I’d seen in Stubb’s eyes the day before. The same triumphalism, the same excitement, not because something new was being created, but because something was being destroyed. I thought about Philip and his stupid rock symphony and I swear that my eyes pricked with tears. This ludicrous attempt to squeeze the history of countless millennia into half an hour’s worth of crappy riffs and chord changes suddenly seemed no more Quixotic than all the things my dad and his colleagues had been working towards for so long. A national health service, free to everyone who needed it. Redistribution of wealth through taxation. Equality of opportunity. Beautiful ideas, Dad, noble aspirations, just as there was the kernel of something beautiful in Philip’s musical hodge-podge. But it was never going to happen. If there had ever been a time when it might have happened, that time was slipping away. The moment had passed. Goodbye to all that.
I don’t agree with the sentiment or the identification, but it’s an interesting and clever metaphor. I’m also curious to know from UK/Irish readers whether the sequel to the Rotter’s Club is as good as the first volume – hasn’t been released on this side of the Atlantic yet, I don’t think.
{ 8 comments }
Jo Wolff 12.04.04 at 8:57 pm
I found the sequel A Closed Circle rather disappointing. I think the consensus is that it is not as good as The Rotter’s Club, but there is disagreement about how far it falls short. For me the charm of The Rotter’s Club is its brilliantly rendered memories of the UK in the 70s. Stories about the last few years don’t stir me in the same way. Others admire the attempt to treat the very recent past and present with historical detachment.
bob mcmanus 12.05.04 at 12:11 am
Down here in Dallas, this old fart saw “Stubb’s” and “Rotter’s Club” and “Progressive Decline” and without following the link bands like National Health and Hatfield & North instantly came to mind. I listen to Canterbury stuff every day. Just picked up a new copy of “Lark’s Tongue” yesterday.
“the ‘death of the Socialist dream’ with the extinction of prog-rock.”
umm. This is interesting. America had no significant prog-rock scene, and currently, the strongest remaining comes from Scandanavia, if I am not mistaken.
Matt Weiner 12.05.04 at 6:45 pm
What, Bob? You spit on the mighty legacy of Kansas and Styx?
Jasper Milvain 12.05.04 at 9:35 pm
May be worth noting that the bit quoted is in the voice of a character, Doug; it’s a good parody of a certain sort of British journalism (the used-to-be-on-the-NME school, contemplative branch) as well as an interesting metaphor.
I found ‘The Closed Circle’ thin (especially after rereading The Rotters’ Club), but there seems to be a belated attempt going on to defend it.
This is from the Independent’s books-of-the-year supplement:
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/story.jsp?story=589075
And this is from the Observer’s:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/booksoftheyear2004/story/0,,1366520,00.html
anon 12.06.04 at 5:11 pm
Just picked up a new copy of “Lark’s Tongue†yesterday. … This is interesting. America had no significant prog-rock scene, and currently, the strongest remaining comes from Scandanavia, if I am not mistaken
Not only is King Crimson still making new music (so new they refuse to tour with golden oldie retreads like what Yes have become, despite the potential riches on offer), four of the five current members are Americans.
Just a data point.
Actually, apart from KC’s unique uncompromising “vision” it seems that whatever impetus there was in “prog rock” as a movement drifted into “world beat”. Could this fact give even more resonance to the original metaphor?
Probably not.
anon 12.06.04 at 5:19 pm
Just picked up a new copy of “Lark’s Tongue†yesterday. … This is interesting. America had no significant prog-rock scene, and currently, the strongest remaining comes from Scandanavia, if I am not mistaken
Not only is King Crimson still making new music (so new they refuse to tour with golden oldie retreads like what Yes have become, despite the potential riches on offer), four of the five current members are Americans.
Just a data point.
Actually, apart from KC’s unique uncompromising vision — or whatever — it seems that whatever impetus there was in “prog rock” as a movement drifted into “world beat”. Could this fact give even more resonance to the original metaphor?
Probably not.
Jimmy Doyle 12.06.04 at 5:24 pm
Closed Circle not as good, methinks. Plot “twist” blindingly obvious, social commentary ditto (did you realise that mobile phones are ubiquitous?), and I found Coe’s didacticism on Iraq and related matters obtrusive (and I like to think I would have found it so even if I’d agreed with everything he said, which I didn’t).
anon 12.06.04 at 5:28 pm
(note to CT admin – new comments aren’t appearing, although the counter increases – sorry for any duplicates)
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