Counter-Currents
3,253 words
Who are the greatest underachievers in music history? A few names come to mind. Of course, you have The Sex Pistols, who became a national cultural phenomenon in Britain and then broke up after one album. The Stone Roses are also strong contenders for the cup. Their earth-shattering 1989 debut album regularly shows up on Greatest Albums Ever lists (in 2000, NME placed it #1). When their sophomore effort finally emerged five years later in an entirely changed musical landscape, The Roses had transformed into banal Led Zeppelin clones before imploding with a most undignified whimper.
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10 comments
Made me a fan.
Nice piece. I had that album. For me, the great lost English band were The Auteurs.
Oh wow, thanks for this, I’m in a sort of music renaissance and finding great new stuff to listen to. I thought there she goes was original to six pence none the richer—silly me. I liked Oasis a lot so I should like this. I also miss Scott’s articles for this reason.
maybe Mavers is after a sort of Bobby Fischer style mystique, also achieved by Paul morphy in chess. We never saw them trip and fall, all we know is that shining meteor of youthful brilliance. A friend who is a very strong chess player related that once upon a time he was at some big national tournament or something, staying with another player. He played some blitz with the guys roommate, and was like, my god, this guy is playing grandmaster strength easily. He asked him,”why aren’t you playing in this tournament?” The guy says “I hate sitting in a cold room under some bright light, I’d rather read a book or something!” So the effect of talented underachiever is seen in other fields too.
have you guys heard Lorde’s album Pure Heroin? I’m much addicted to that now. It captures an urban desolation and wistfulness like I’m not sure what. Plus it has lots of info on other of “the boys” that I wasn’t aware of, so I was intrigued with that. Notice something strange about the videos; the video for Royals has the gladiators in it, and the video fro Team depicts the events of 400 Lux. Weird. Black Eye Peas is another great new band I like.
Interesting. For some reason I don’t think I listened to any new music in the 90s so I missed out on this entire phenom. As for The Gilmore Girls, readers know that I did not miss that at all. At “The 10 Best Gilmore Girls Music Moments” we read:
“The song that kicks off the entire series is none other than “There She Goes” by The La’s. Viewers are introduced to Stars Hollow as the tune plays and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) treks through town, giving viewers the illusion of following her but never quite catching up. The combination of the camerawork and the song’s titular lyrics make it clear that this is Lorelai’s world, and we’re all just living in it. It matches Lorelai’s personality perfectly, and also leads the audience to Luke (Scott Patterson), therefore hinting that he just might become very important to both Gilmore girls.”
This was likely intended as “filler” music for the pilot prior to having a budget for music, but like the classical music in 2001 it seemed best to keep it when the pilot was first aired.
Interestingly, while Carole King’s “Where You Go” became the eventual theme, the music most associated with the show was the music for the scene transitions, by Sam Phillips (not the guy who discovered Elvis, but a woman, who you may recall as the crazy terrorist in Die Hard With a Vengeance), a wordless bit that fans came to refer to as: “The La Las”. Make of that what you will. https://youtu.be/Z5hbfTJIMbk
Fascinating article, Mr. LeBlanc. I really enjoyed reading this.
“When one was acquired and Mavers was still unable to achieve the sound he heard in his head, he demanded that the studio find a vintage 1960s soundboard with authentic 1960s dust still on it.”
LOL!
Fascinating read. There always seemed to be something a bit ‘special’ about The La’s and now it all makes much more sense.
It’s worth adding that this is not so much a ‘white’ thing if I may make so bold, as an English thing, i.e. the English eccentric. Caligula was just mad, but the mad English visionary poet is unique because he burns out brightly in his youth. Syd Barret you already mentioned, but we also have poets like John Clare, Byron and the ‘Bright Star’ himself, Keats.
Pieces like this are why I love Counter-Currents.
I have The La’s casette tape – not even CD – from 1991. I believe a few members reformed as the group “Cast” in the mid-late 90s.
“There She Goes” reminds me of another great song of that era “Here Comes Your Man” by the Pixies (with more hard edges). Another band with one good album. I heard Kurt Cobain declared if there were no Pixies there’d be no Nirvana. What a great era in pop music where alternative really meant alternative.
Did you mean Brian Wilson? Thank you for the great article!
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