tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post7743684376115806796..comments2023-09-06T02:38:57.320-07:00Comments on Music Sounds Better With Two: The Grounding Emotion: Elton John: "Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time)"Lenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912525192415808946noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-552611225113381497.post-27958015315937348592015-09-06T21:34:51.421-07:002015-09-06T21:34:51.421-07:00Eric Weisbard's observations about Elton repre...Eric Weisbard's observations about Elton representing the core of *pop modernity* perhaps explains why his chart success was generally greater in the US until relatively, and surprisingly, late in his career ("Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" was an exception, but then it was glammier and much more small-town working-class in subject matter than his other hits): the UK wasn't fully open to pop modernity at this point compared to its receptivity to both working-class tribalism and residual haute bourgeois innoculation from commerce - hence Slade, obviously, but also a particular *idea* of prog (not its totality, or its best manifestation, but its most public face). He was too much a total figure of pop modernity - for Weisbard, the true cosmopolitanism, the true equality - to reach his highest level of global popularity in a country where the working class was strong and powerful enough that it needed and felt for its own kind, its own voices. Pop modernity was viewed, by that working-class power force, as too rootless, too much something for everyone.<br /><br />Elton's latterday career, when he finally reached critical mass in the UK, may suggest that there was something in that. Certainly, pop modernity has been far more of a force helping the historic ruling class in Britain than elsewhere, but then "elsewhere", in all relevant cases, is not an only half-reformed feudal state; it could far more easily fit into Weisbard's dream in pretty much any other state but this.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.com