for Mitch Miller...

In the face of a massive art history paper comparing two works I know (shamefully) little about, thoughts of a very good friend who I love to pray for, and the recognition that at some point, I'll need to sleep...I have just spent a few hours (kind of) starting and definitely finishing Nick Hornby's "Songbook". If you're reading Good Rocky, you probably already realize, that I am a ridiculously large fan of Hornby. (Once, after reading a relatively insightful book I decided I might have to hate it for a brutal misquotation alongside a misspelling of his name (*cough* Blue Like Jazz *cough*) and to this day still harbor a little bitterness...) I've read everything he's written and he never ceases to inspire the author in me, only it's a jaded inspiration as everytime I realize, I will never write like Hornby does.

Annnyhow. This excerpt is going out to the gang at Mitch Millers...not because I'm judging, but because I'm loving, and maybe it'll inspire some discussion..(and maybe it'll just piss solgaard off)...

"That's the thing that puzzles me about those who feel that contemporary pop (and I use the word to encompass soul, reggae, country, rock -- anything and everything that might be regarded as trashy) is beneath them, or behind them, or beyond them -- some preposition denoting distance, anyway: Does this mean that you never hear, or at least never enjoy, new songs, that everything you whistle or hum was written years, decades, centuries ago? Do you really deny yourselves the pleasure of mastering a tune (a pleasure, incidentally, that your generation is perhaps the first in the history of mankind to forgo) because you are afraid it might make you look as if you don't know who Harold Bloom is? Wow. I'll bet you're fun at parties.
...The very people that are snotty about the disposability of pop will go over and over again to see Lady Bracknell say "A handbag?" in a funny voice. They don't think that joke's exhausted itself? Maybe disposability is a sign of pop music's maturity, a recognition of its own limitations, rather than the converse."

Let me quickly clarify: I don't think the Mitch Miller's bunch is snotty. I found them all inviting, edifying and delightful. I'm just saying, would I not have got a couple rolled eyes if I mentioned my love of "London Bridge" at the table? Perhaps, but that's the thing, I think I might've rolled my eyes at them if they hadn't at me. Sooo...I hope you had just as good a time with Hornby as I have tonight.