I hear you knocking1/8/2023 ![]() They’re using you.” - Aphex Twin on Madonna, 2001.… MADONNA - "Music" “Her whole career’s been like, oh, they’re the trendy person of the moment, I’ll work with them to make me younger.This is an extremely wonkish post, so reader beware. Sclerotica Before I start writing about Number Ones again, a quick bit of stattery around the current state of the charts.The Pollards Of Lop Episode 1: Cover Versions Last month's Twitter poll was about Cover Versions, and to accompany it, I was joined virtually by Cis, Mark and Pete to CAST THE PODS and talk about cover versions….It retrospect, it’s a mildly oddball thing, not that great, but, from my point of view, something of a bright point amidst the dreck of early 70s commercial pop–and the slide guitar is priceless. But this cover wasn’t sentimental in the slightest–the electronically pinched voice, the weird evocation of 50s bluesmen, and the oddly cheerful mood of it all struck me as quite sardonic and thus madly subverting the mainstream of pop at the moment. It was a cover of a song I remembered from early childhood (the version I knew was sung, as I recall, by one Gail Storm, later remembered for her slightly grotesque commercials for alcohol addiction treatment). What I liked about “I Hear You Knocking” was its sardonic value. By late 1970/early 1971, we were undergoing the infantilization of pop music at the hands of child rock stars and stars of television shows aimed at the barely pubescent. I actually liked it–“loved” it would be pushing matters–but I liked it much more than most of what was being played on US radio at the time. (It doesn’t hurt that Fogerty’s records have a better rhythm section, singer, and songwriter in the bargain.) There’s an underlying (and sometimes overlying) grouchy mood of “These kids with their music these days” to much of Edmunds’ pre-Nick Lowe music that leaves a sour aftertaste. If I compare this record with the music John Fogerty was creating with Creedence Clearwater Revival at the exact same moment, the differences are clear: while basing their sounds on very similar influences, Edmunds’ work sounds hermetically sealed, while Fogerty’s feels alive and electric with the energy of its moment. What once seemed defiant now feels persnickety. Hearing it now, when singer-songwriters with Martin guitars are a niche market, not a dominant species, and after I’ve had three decades to become familiar with many of the pre-Beatles musical genres, Edmunds’ record has lost some of its spark. Heard in the context of 1970 (way too may sensitive singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars) by an 11-year old me who’d heard essentially no pre-Beatles rock and roll or R&B, this single sounded thrilling.
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