Taking Sides: The Beatles vs. N-Trance

well, n-trance, obviously.

great run of singles.

As I think about it more actually, what's always been most compelling about "Set You Free" is its ambiguous mixture of emotional sincerity and emotional condescension. Desire as playground bully.

"Set You Free" is one of the most eschatological pop songs ever written, but the heaven it envisions is self-repudiating. Desire as collapsed eternity.

Life, oh life, oh life, oh life,
doo, doot doot dooo.
Life, oh life, oh life, oh life,
doo, doot dooo

Desire as Des'ree.

The Beatles were a great band, but they were also possibly the greatest advertisement for the banning of music. "Strawberry Fields Forever" tried to offer a way out of this confusion. Did it succeed? I think 9/11 provided the answer to that.

I'd like to eat a Christmas cake
But I'd fear seeming like a fake
I'd rather jump in a lake

Life oh life

EXACTLY.

I think the Beatles were the last band not to understand the potential of innovation. Their innovation was a cardboard cut-out of populism. Innovation as inverted democratic nostalgia.

now we've got a three-way grudge match.

Des'ree's 'You gotta be' is kind of what the beatles were aiming for on the Get back sessions, but couldn't have come near however hard they tried. Desire as a big fat Ringoesque sham.

xxpost
Last statement is wrong on two counts, Beatlesband definitely understood potential of innovation, at least until the White album and several bands since them have purposefully avoided any interest or desire to innovate.

Though you are right about Set Me Free.

N-Trance is what the beatles could have been if they'd gone back in time, stolen Louis armstrong's band, killed Hitler, and taken snuff with Conan Doyle.

Proportional representation as the chained leg of Desire.

Des'ree airbrushed out of the same photo next to Lenin and Trotsky.

"You gotta be" was the first manifestation of post-Fukuyama MOR.

First-past-the-post as the denial of the bawdy.

N-Trance's version of "Stayin Alive", in contrast to "Set You Free", is the musical equivalent of a hung parliament.

Enjoying this thread.

Nate Dogg

Kelly Llorenna's abrasive vocal delivery on "Set You Free" = what Paul McCartney was aiming for on "Helter Skelter".

I think the rerelease of "Set You Free" in the 00s was N-Trance's first gesture of self-victimisation, their Plastic Ono Band. Desire as therapy session.

Nate Dogg

-- The Reverend, Sunday, 22 June 2008 21:06 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

well, n-trance, obviously.

-- Frogman Henry, Sunday, 22 June 2008 20:22

This is what happens when dogma overrides reason.

GET RAW WITH THE FEVER ON THE DANCE FLOOR

No thanks; it makes me think of Spandau Ballet's "Raw."

N-Trance is what the beatles could have been if they'd gone back in time, stolen Louis armstrong's band, killed Hitler, and taken snuff with Conan Doyle.

N-Trance is what The Beatles could have been if Charles Manson had killed all the band members and started releasing albums himself under the Beatles monicker.

Only murder can set you free.