Dina asks:
> Junior says:
> >In my mind, it was always the Byrd's version of "The Christian Life."
> >I couldn't understand it any other way than as an ironic gesture at
> >the time....
>
> Why do you say that? And do you still think so?
What I meant was that that cut, on Sweetheart, really mystified me
for a long time. When I first heard it in my early teens, I couldn't for
the life of me figure out what these twanged-out LA psychedelic folk-boys
(I didn't know who Parsons was yet) were doing playing a Louvins Xan
number like that. The only way I could understand it was as pretty bold
irony (for the time).
Now and in retrospect, to tell you the truth, I'm not sure how they
understood it. But I certainly don't feel it was full-bore irony the way
I did when I was 14 <g>. Now I can understand it as a gesture of respect
or perhaps a certain degree of reverence toward the tradition it
represents. Yet a certain ironic tinge clings to it nonetheless. I
mean, these are some pretty psychedelic cowboys, after all,<g>....
Something about the phrasing, the cutesy lead fills, etc.
So for me it hovers between respect and irony in an odd way. I've never
been able to resolve it. I've been in bands that wouldn't cover the song,
for this reason... Merely playing it was perceived as too ironic a
gesture for comfort.
Does that make sense?
--junior
