So here we are friends, 25 years after 1984. And you know what that means; a brand new year of Happy 25th Birthdays. Yet it is with much sadness that we will bring to you all the best of 1984.
1984 officially brought to an end the "first wave" of postpunk music. It was in 1984 that the door began to slowly close on the "new wave," the door, according to Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up And Start Again POSTPUNK 1978-1984, having been "opened when (Johnny) Rotten, rechristened with his surname Lydon, formed Public Image Ltd."
Not too far into Waist High's second reading of Rip It Up, and Lydon's long-reaching influence becomes very apparent. His influence far more significant than this blogger remembers from Rip It Up's first reading. The year 1978 was the end for The Sex Pistols, "Many wondered whether Lydon had thrown it all away, that awesome power at his disposal, effectively abandoning the audience he'd mobilized and who were now looking for leadership." PiL was the beginning of that leadership, that first wave. PiL was the beginning of what this blog is about.
So that Waist High can be the best blogger that she can be, she is going to sneak away from posts for a bit to give Rip It Up, "one of the first important historical studies of the eighties," the slow and proper second reading that it deserves. And because Waist High will be sneaking away for a bit to give Rip It Up the slow and proper second reading that it deserves, the lowlifes that cut their hair short to try to look more youthful but have failed miserably are going to be getting a reprieve from my shaming of them.
But I will never stop wondering, What kind of person sends hatemail on Christmas??
So as I thank Simon Reynolds for writing one of the better books that I've read in my lifetime, a book which includes one of the sweetest combinations of words that any new wave blogger could ever hope to read about her topic's importance: "the shining synth-paved path to tomorrow," may the lowlifes thank John Lydon. For without him, this book might never have been written, and for without which I might have kept my promise to them to shame them publically every week for the exact period of one year for sending me hatemail on Christmas. Lucky sods.
Quotes: Tom Lappin via thescotsman.com & Simon Reynolds
