View Single Post
  #63  
Old 05-30-2018, 10:57 AM
pandamagic
river
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: canada
Posts: 40
Re: Bells & Circles Ft. Iggy Pop
Quote:
Originally Posted by King of Snake View Post
For me the track, or at least Iggy's part is about having fun, doing what you want, being perhaps a bit rebellious. All these things should not be alien to people immersed in dance-music culture like us Underworld fans. Hedonism and escapism was always a big part of that. He speaks about more things than just the smoking on the airplane but I actually like how he zooms in on this banal detail when he remembers having fun, feeling good back in his day, and contrasting this with perhaps today, where some of these things are no longer possible (smoking on the airplane) or at least frowned upon (hitting on a stewardess).
Obviously UW saw that too, hence the repetition of the phrases "Smoking on the airplane" and "You can't do that".

It's not like UW's lyrics don't often do the same thing. "Lager lager lager"... Karl loves to zoom in on banal little details of the world, and in the context of the music they take on different meanings. Of course where Karl's lyrics came from a darker place, at least back then, Iggy here seems to recall details of those days with some fondness.
Actually this is a fair point, so thanks. I think I'm just more likely to be charitable to Karl's vocals because I get a sense of what kind of person he is (based on interviews, previous work, etc.) and he's always come across as thoughtful & likeable. Whereas Iggy has mostly just comes across as petulant and tiresome to me. So I guess that's just my bias. I do agree though that Iggy's rant isn't entirely out of place in the Underworld universe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by King of Snake View Post
Well, which part do you find "insensitive"? Smoking was not considered as bad as it is today back in the 70's. As he says in the track: "everyone was doing it". Also, I'm sure every decade has been really shitty for some group of people but what does that have to do with anything? While we are dancing our asses off to Underworld, other people in the world have nothing to eat. You, me, all of us here are priviliged in the extreme compared to most other people in the world. Are we then not supposed to enjoy our lives anymore? I'm sure Iggy worked hard for his success and fame and loads of people love his music. And he probably has had enough difficult times as well (remember Lust for Life is about fighting heroin addiction) so who are we to judge the guy's "privilige". As far as I'm concerned he can do whatever he wants to make himself feel good as long as it doesn't come at the direct detriment to other people.

I don't think it's a self parody. I think he's genuine. He's not taking himself too seriously, but that's not the same as parody. Of course all these big rock star types turn into a bit of a parody of themselves at some point (if they survive long enough), but that's part of why people like rock stars I guess. They're supposed to be larger than life.
I suppose I raise an eyebrow any time anyone gets a little misty-eyed about more "permissive" decades of the recent past. Like, didn't Mad Men teach us anything? Sure the furniture was cool but a lot of the rest of it was pretty gross. I'm old enough (though, not as old as Iggy) to remember when you could smoke everywhere and it was pretty fucking awful. I've also lost a couple of family members to lung cancer so I guess that's another personal bias. And before you go "wow you sound fun" remember that this is an Underworld forum so I guess I'm at least fun enough to like dance music. So there's that.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback. It's made me reconsider the track a little bit, though I'll probably just end up relegating it to the slowly growing list of "Underworld and Underworld adjacent tracks I never listen to" along with "The First Note Is Silent" and some of the 2012 Olympic stuff . . .