Costello, Zevon and the VelvetslondonkdsSeptember 2 2003, 03:21:32 UTC
More thoughts about Zevon coming when I have the time. One explanation of your mp3 player's assessment of The Velvet Underground and Nico might be if it works on the first track. Sunday Morning?
On the vexed Costello race issue - the "one less white nigger" line on Oliver's Army I think is talking about aristocratic contempt for working class cannon fodder and comparing it explicitly to racism (and it is a rare, but genuine, phrase from UK colonial days for what in the US would be referred to as "white trash"). It's not directed in any way at black people. The only ways you could get offended by it would be if you regard the word as so offensive that it should never, ever, be used by a white person, or if you regard comparing racism with class prejudice as minimising the former
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Re: Costello, Zevon and the VelvetsdherblaySeptember 2 2003, 05:54:07 UTC
Oh, I don't see all that much wrong with the line taken out of the context of the Ray Charles remark (it's no more offensive in and of itself than "woman is the nigger of the world" or some such), and Elvis Costello's public persona is largely an undiscovered country to me. I'm just overdramatizing.
The MP3 player is based on a database constructed from user submissions, so if no one can figure out where to pigeonhole the Velvet Underground, it ends up with some very strange suggestions.
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On the vexed Costello race issue - the "one less white nigger" line on Oliver's Army I think is talking about aristocratic contempt for working class cannon fodder and comparing it explicitly to racism (and it is a rare, but genuine, phrase from UK colonial days for what in the US would be referred to as "white trash"). It's not directed in any way at black people. The only ways you could get offended by it would be if you regard the word as so offensive that it should never, ever, be used by a white person, or if you regard comparing racism with class prejudice as minimising the former ( ... )
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The MP3 player is based on a database constructed from user submissions, so if no one can figure out where to pigeonhole the Velvet Underground, it ends up with some very strange suggestions.
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