I found a book on my shelves which I had not read. I remember picking it up for a quid at the remaindered bookshop in Waterloo a few years ago and starting to read it, but for some reason I stopped halfway through the introduction. I decided to give it another try and see why I stopped reading it before.
It is a book about music between 1991 and 1998 called Seven Years of Plenty, written by Ben Thompson. It should be exactly the type of book I enjoy, so what made me put it down before?
Perhaps it was such writing as this:
The reappearance of modernist avatars as ghosts of their former selves was one of the defining tendencies of the period under question. Those regarding it as a betrayal betrayed only their own intrinsic conservatism, as the most constructive option available to any provoker of reverence is to allow him or herself to be found wanting.
That was about the Sex Pistols playing at Finsbury Park and Lou Reed and John Cale playing together again at Glastonbury… I am tempted to continue just for a laugh, but not very. The warning signs were all there on page one, where the Introduction is preceded by a chapter called “Mission Statement”.
Plebs & Rock n Roll.It’s always been an uneasy mix 🙂
I could have also quoted “what meaneth the stadium angst of Radiohead”
Oh ‘Pseud’s Corner’ … nostalgia for His Higness Peter Cook MHDSRIP
I noticed a common feature with the terrible Dylan Jones book about ipods…
The author is a writer for umpteen newspapers and magazines so probably has many friends amongst the book/music/music book reviewers who provided extremely positive quotes for the back of the book – half of which are from publications he writes for.
The weird thing is that I’m starting to get into it now.