Paul Morley's Brian Eno press release C/D?

Tim hopkins linked this on another eno thread.

he contradicts himself like 3 TIMES - did he even proofread?

I assume that's -like- a joke?

I thought it was a joke. I didn't think it was a joke. The joke was best the first time. The joke was best the last time. The joke was best this time. The best was joke last time. This joke was last time.

If we stop giving PM the idea he's a genius maybe he'll get good

I'm sure there are people saying the same about Eno.

It's a close to infinite universe, yes

I was shocked to read Pitchfork's review of the Eno remasters. They said:

Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)-- named for a Maoist opera-- is, in contrast to Paul Morley's cloying, written-in-a-night liner notes for these reissues, not the best of Brian Eno's first four pop records.

Written in a night, maybe, but clearly not read in a night by Chris Ott, or even read at all. If he'd gone through the whole thing he might have got the joke; Morley declares each of these four albums Eno's best. It seems that Post-Modernism (and let's make no mistake about this, Morley is a pomo critic) just hasn't reached American rock crit yet. Or even humour.

oh man - i hadnt noticed that ott didnt get the joke... that sucks.

hahahahaha - and momus, i was so confused when i read "Morley is a porno critic".

Can you explain where or how in my review there's evidence of me "not getting" Morley's totally lifeless, droll attempt at a "joke" (and "Post-Modernism"? Good God, get that Morley tattoo REMOVED).

i mean, DID you see that he called each of them the best album?

I got the joke/pun but what is abt it that makes this review pomo?

I would have a serious learning disability if I didn't notice the first sentence of every paragraph, Peter. As is ably supported by the sentence Momus has quoted, I simply think these notes were slapdash, sloppy and damningly distanced from the subject. They leave the impression that Morley has never cared about these records; he repeats phrases and adjectives he's recycled his whole career, passionless and stuck in his default mode (stilted dada ramblings).

Morley nicked the review off Jerry the Nipper. It is a fact that his review of Eno's 4 rereleased LPs is one of the best Jerry the Nipper etchings ever.

Oh learn some real jokes you pussies

HA, HA, they are all the best! HA, HA, pass the port oh fuck OFF

What makes the Eno sleevenotes pomo? Well, precisely what Chris is calling 'stilted dada ramblings'. The hallmarks are unmistakable: an unreliable narrator whose deliberate absurdities and playful, parodic shifts of tone (from sincerity to Music Hallesque gags, from George Formby to Maurice Blanchot) make sure that the writing 'interrogates the very conditions of criticism'. In a funny, down-to-earth way.

If this weren't pomo (and if we didn't know that Morley came up in the heyday of pomo, the late 70s and 80s), Morley would just be some oddball eccentric. He's not. He's taking rock criticism to places few others have been thoroughgoing enough (or self-indulgent enough, but what exactly is the critic's self when his declarations are bluff?) to go.

Chris, I don't understand how you can refute, seriously, a superlative which gives itself a fuzzy status by being applied to all the records under review. Such a superlative is clearly no longer a superlative, and therefore does not support refutation.

I disagree that Morley's notes were 'damningly distanced from the subject'. What's so great about his tone is the fact that, while being completely unreliable / playful and pomo, he also manages to be completely sincere. We really can believe that, while he's listening to each album, he does believe it's the best of the four, and leaves that contradiction intact in his account because, while being patently absurd and impossible, it actually does say something about what listening to music feels like. It's a permanently jubilant present to which we submit our ego and its illusory consistencies.

In an anti-pomo position, one would take everything at face value, to underscore the ridiculousness of such behavior in an inherently judgemental construct (praise, relativity, beauty or whathaveyou - opinion is hardly pomo).

But taking pomo at face value deliberately wouldn't be an anti-pomo position at all, it would just look (as it did, I'm afraid) like you didn't get the joke, or get the style. And to call Morley 'judgemental' when his judgements are so affectionately jokey is just silly.

Funnier than him tho

I mean, pomo taken at face value is more pomo. A joke repeated is another (less funny and less fresh) joke. Pomo mistaken as a kind of old school sincerity (when it isn't) is wilful misunderstanding. I still think the most likely explanation is that you forgot that Morley had called all the records 'the best' and are just covering over your tracks here.

Nick, you're out of your mind.

Yes... and no.

I agree with Momus about the refutation?

Momus, did you read JtN's review?

It was more like Roberts than Morley. But Morley nipped, I mean ripped, it off.

It is a fact that the very maddest of people on this thread is Chris Ott.

It is a fact that the very maddest of people on this thread is Momus.

It is a fact that these are not facts.

It is a fact that Momus and Paul Morley are about the same age, share a French-influenced intellectual outlook (and a British need to debunk it), and both come from a funny little post-modernist island where everything is secondhand and sincerity is not as simple as it looks. What's more, they seem to share a sense of the absurd, and how being arty and being funny, or being sincere and being slippery, are not at all at odds. Lewis Carroll also came from this odd little island, a fact which is neither here nor there, but crucial.

'Momus is quite wrong to say that the very maddest of people on this thread is Chris Ott.'

'Did he say that?'

'Look, it's there in black and white!'

'But he also said the very maddest of people on this thread was himself!'

'That's neither here nor there, but crucial.'

'If this weren't pomo (and if we didn't know that Morley came up in the heyday of pomo, the late 70s and 80s), Morley would just be some oddball eccentric.'

But he does come across as an oddball eccentric here, and I've read and enjoyed 'words and music' as well as much of his work for TV.

The only thing that annoys me in the Morley piece is the sloppy editing, eg:

Here Come The Warm Jets is the only Eno record of it's kind, and the only record of it's kind.

Nick, that was intentional. You are ill-equipped in this debate.

I enjoyed seeing Ott's little book slagged off in the Guardian the other week.

Jerry, if you have time could you write an actual critique to offset that worthless "slagging"? I know you don't have access to any real media outlets, but, you know, a blog entry would suffice. I'm only hoping for a review that indicates someone read the book.

No one read your book?

Plenty of people bought it, but, it appears most of the people talking about it didn't read it, or are woefully out of their element talking about it.

(Don't worry, Chris, I was just kidding. I know several people who read it, if you want to talk to them.)

For the record, I don't think I've ever seen rock liner notes that weren't ill-formed, rhetorically overheated, or grammatically appalling (particularly w/r/t comma usage, for some reason). So I'm ill-equipped to find any particular example of them particularly shameful.

But the "it's his best" routine is cute. I'm not even sure I'd describe it as a "joke" -- just a cute rhetorical routine.

I take that back: I did sort of like Kurt Loder's notes for the VU reissues.

You know, I was talking to my editor the other day about my lack of access to real media outlets like indie rock websites.

It's just that it's (ha ha!) such an agonizing rehash of his Joy Division schtick. Like..."Oh dear Lord in heaven, thank you for depositing on Earth, with your infinite grace, this work of art so powerful as to render language useless. I stab at thee, Shakspurr, child of Satan. And so. It was. I listened, perceived. Beyond perception: thoughtless, careless, etc. ibid. Deliver us all in not delivering. Care for us all in not caring. The End."

That great Jerry, I was busy making about five times what you do the other day and *not* cowing to an editor because I don't need to walk around with a tattoo on my head that says "I WRITE FOR A LIVING AND WHAT A LIVING IT IS!"

I think we've found the new Marcello, here.

hey guys. maybe we all need a 2-week break... let the wounds heal?

Wounds ... heal?

I stab at thee.

I think people should write liner notes like the ones on Harry Belafonte's first Calypso records, like, "the talented young J-Kwon is truly a credit to his race."

I don't get Ott's point about passion, I haven't looked at that Morley thing today but I think he did sound distanced from it as I recall; but that's ok bcz lots of passionate reviews I don't care for. Its not the only model for reviewing a record.

It does sound like he cares bcz I agreed with the basic track descriptions, the running pun through it links it all well because there was a sense of Brian developing his music across those four records.

I just had a quick look and there were other things like throwing a lot of names and maybe not explaining how it works in to the music but post-'words and music' that makes sense to me.