I have often gotten the sense from Stephin's music that he is a gay white man who lives in a gay white world, so that he probably means well but is occasionally racially insensitive. "Queen of the Savages" is hard for me to listen to, but I know it's a parody. On the other hand, what would you have to be not thinking in order to write "'Strange Fruit' with and without wind chimes"? It's just like, please pick any other song besides that one, thanks.
(PS: did you know that "Strange Fruit" was written by the adoptive mother of the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?)
There's just this occasional feeling I get from his songs because race never turns up as a real thing, and not a dramatic trope. Oh, with one exception: "Fear of Trains."
The kind of things Sasha Frere-Jones and Jennifer Hopper are saying are pretty irresponsible, as far as I can tell. I'm just going from his music, and there's certainly nothing wrong with neglecting to address something in a particular way. Sasha and Jennifer seem to be make claims about Stephin as a person, and there's nothing to justify that, as far as I can see. It's just weird.
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Date: 2006-05-11 01:56 am (UTC)(PS: did you know that "Strange Fruit" was written by the adoptive mother of the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?)
There's just this occasional feeling I get from his songs because race never turns up as a real thing, and not a dramatic trope. Oh, with one exception: "Fear of Trains."
The kind of things Sasha Frere-Jones and Jennifer Hopper are saying are pretty irresponsible, as far as I can tell. I'm just going from his music, and there's certainly nothing wrong with neglecting to address something in a particular way. Sasha and Jennifer seem to be make claims about Stephin as a person, and there's nothing to justify that, as far as I can see. It's just weird.
Also I trust Drew Daniel on just about anything.