from the 7” single, Radar Records, 1978First week back in session here, so lots of students to entertain and, with some hard work and a little luck, perhaps even edu-ma-cate on the broad discipline of sociology; I can’t be all cool though, as I have to admit, every start of the semester makes me realize how much I love my job. The first few days are always fascinating to any alert observer, people preening and trying hard to make their best (or purposefully worst) impressions: the obvious stuff like clothing, shoes, hair, jewelry, but also things like attitude, posture, preparedness for the class (i.e. textbook(s) out & notebook open for note-taking vs. pencil wrapping on the table to the beats blaring out of the headphones still being worn). Though his Egyptians have always left me feeling lukewarm, Robyn Hitchcock’s earlier psychedelic post-punk troupe, the Soft Boys, never disappoint, witty & attentive slabs of seething intelligence which never pandered to any prevailing trend or, indeed, anyone. Mixing post-modern, gender-based existentialism with a sneering sense of aversion to fads, Hitchcock’s lyrics ring no less true today than they did in the late ‘70s, “…man, you’re gonna be a woman someday, yeah…girl, you wanna be a man and you will, yeah…butcher, it’s meaty when you chip off your roots, yeah…”, concluding that, “…us, we want to be some anglepoise lamps, then…” It never gets boring with everyone’s identity management running at full volume, and in all honesty, I kinda dig all the wild haircuts the kiddies are rocking these days, particularly the Latino & Latina hipsters working that Japanese anime look---a la vanguardia y super badass!
