Why Do Geezthetes Love Dexy's?

*ahem* Not that I would have any experience with that, of course.

I think the Guvnor is central to what I'm talking about, but my point was that the geezer-Dexy's thing seems to be more than one man's idiosyncrasy - there seems to be a collective agenda or agreement in play.

What Eyeball Kicks says is interesting, and connects with some of JtN's theories (which he really ought to expound on this thread - as a sympathetic outsider to geezerdom. perhaps he could give some kind of answer to my question). Then again - DMR sound nothing like the Smiths.

'some great albums' - like what?

Anyway - I don't think of Tico, Baran, the Guvnor or Cabbage (for instance: presumably there are more names) as that kind of fan either.

I begin to think that some wires are being crossed here.

I dunno. Compare 'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels' with 'The Smiths' & 'Hatful of Hollow'. Songs built on dependable bass-guitar, while Johnny Marr/horns get wild. Singers undisciplined whooping, falsetto, low mournful tones. Long song titles. Smiths had horns on early demos and there are implied horns on, e.g., 'What Difference Does it Make', 'I Don't Owe You Anything', 'You've Got Everything Now', 'This Night Has Opened My Eyes'. They sound very similar to me, at this point. 'Meat is Murder' & 'Too Rye Aye' v. different, true.

I mean, describe to me what you think Kevin Rowland was about.

It's all about the "intoxicate us" bit innit?

I am also amazed, N., that you claim that I don't talk much about why I like certain lyrics. It could seem that I have hardly ever talked of anything else.

Kicks: 'Implied horns' is ingenious, but not to me plausible. I don't hear them, implied or otherwise.

Your other points are good, though.

I don't think I know these horn-filled Smiths demos. Does anyone else?

LOLOMGWTF

They're mentioned in Johnny Rogan's books - though they are not available on bootlegs or anywhere. I presume they exist. 'Handsome Devil' was one of them, I think & should've been on my list above. And its guitar part sounds to me like a horn part, i.e. it would sound less odd played with horns.

N: probably this is a result of your living a long way away or something. But enigmas are well and good and not to be dispelled.

But it seems to me that you are saying that I am saying: "I quite like Dexys, but don't understand why others are so crazily passionate about them" - and you are responding: But PF, you are like that (dispassionate and lukewarm) about all pop.

To which I respond:

1) I am not at all like that about all pop - I am crazy for pop and have been for almost as long as I can remember;

2) I am not questioning the right of DMR fans to be passionate about DMR - that would be natural;

3) the point is, the Geezthetes are NOT that sort of gang / cult / tunnel-vision fan - they are eclectic, catholic, humorous, even ironic (if that last word can be used without misunderstandings and cans of worms being opened). So that aspect of the band does not seem to explain the band's centrality to the Geezer vision.

Meanwhile: far from these antics in the forbidden zone, the Guvnor has surfaced to correct my insertion of an apostrophe into... Dexys' (sp?) name.

regards,

REB

Alexi Sayle, Geezeraesthete

I.e. Dexys are what the middle class,geezathestes contingent anyway, wish the working class were like.

One of the reasons I like Dexy's in a backwards looking way is how funny they are. There is a wide eyed staring CONVICTION to Rowlands delivery and the seeming manifesto behind the group. This manifesto seems a touch at odds with the Geezeaesthetic one, which is what attracts me. There is almost a cautionary tale wrapped up in how REAL and AUTHENTIC this pop music is. Thinking about Burn It Down, first track, first album is a very Geezeaestetic song however, coming as it does almost with a reading list of suggestions.

May think further on this. But with a relatively small subset of people there are bound to be certain intersections (even with Tim's often gleefully contrarian pop tastes).

* The conflict between the manufactured and the authentic. Or, if you will, the fusion of the manufactured and the authentic. The Dexys were an extremely thought-out and planned band, a group formed in theory, shaped by ideas much more than of animal instinct. Still, its whole purpose is that of expressing real emotion, real soul, authentic raw feeling. There is a clash here; something vibrant and vital; distance from the raw rock'n'roll ideals, but at the same time a will to express the sweat and tears that anti-rockists usually avoid.

* The glorious failure. Rowland's inability to succeed, his compulsive destruction of all that goes well. Wanting glory, then dispising it when it comes. There is something so tortured here, something so fundamentaly tragic, that relates to so many aspects of life. There is something almost mythological in this pattern.

* The constant re-invention. The cyclic nature of the Dexys - something is built up, constructed, and then it inevitably falls down again due to the very nature of the construction. The Dexys are not one band, but tree (or four); different but same. The usual rules or clichés about the life span of a group do not apply to the Dexys, because they had to re-invent themselves over and over. Again, the mythological aspects of the band - you must burn to come out whole and new again.

(However, I don't know what 'geezeaesthetic' means so I don't think this answers the question, sorry.)

Today people have restored a little of my faith.

lookin' goooooood