VLVL Berger: rock'n'roll

[jbor]

keef
> Little wonder that Pynchon makes reference to Zappa, who used rock and
> roll in the 60s to make fun of hippies, instead of the likes of
> Jefferson Airplane

Pynchon's nod to Zappa at the end of the _SL_ 'Intro' (23) does appear to be
an affectionate one, and I agree that there's an affinity, nowhere more so
perhaps than _Vineland_, which is probably the novel he was working on at
the time he wrote that passage.

But Pynchon does refer to Jefferson Airplane in _Vineland_ (and, though not
pertinent to the novel, that band's trajectory through Jefferson Starship to
the execrable Starship also illustrates the theme of the '60s generation
selling out). In the novel Pynchon's exemplars of "hippie" musicians who
achieved fame through self-parody are Tiny Tim and Wild Man Fischer. (Btw,
I'm not sure what to make of Berger's 'Let it Be'/'Let it Bleed' analogy,
which sounds really perceptive but in the context of the novel is probably a
spurious one.)

best

on 22/4/04 8:13 AM, jbor wrote:

The conversation between Zoyd and Mucho restates in a fairly straightforward
way the novel's central theme of how the 60's counterculture or "Movement"
was co-opted (from within and without) and ultimately failed.

    "They just let us forget. Give us too much to process, fill up every
    minute, keep us distracted, it's what the Tube is for, and though it
    kills me to say it, it's what rock and roll is becoming -- just another
    way to claim our attention [...]"
      "And they never forgave us." Mucho went to the stereo and put on The
    Best of Sam Cooke, volumes 1 and 2, and then they sat together and
    listened, both of them this time, to the sermon, one they knew and
    felt their hearts comforted by, though outside spread the lampless
    wastes, the unseen paybacks, the heartless power of the scabland
    garrison state the green free America of their childhoods even then
    was turning into. (314)

It's one of the more poignant moments in the text, and a key passage for
some critics who try to separate the "scabland garrison state" passage from
its context. NB that Mucho's post-mortem is echoed later by Isaiah (373).

Of course, Mucho himself, like the rest of the '60s crew depicted in the
novel, has already been conspicuously implicated in the degradation and
collapse of "the Movement". As a record producer (and drug distributor) he's
one of a swag of opportunistic entrepreneurs responsible for diverting the
"revolutionary" potential of '60s rock music and the youth culture
associated with it by promoting (and profiting handsomely from) novelty acts
and cheap parodies. For example:

ca. 1967

    The jukebox played the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane,
    Country Joe and the Fish. [...]
      "It's the Revolution, girl -- can't you feel it?" (117)
    
    "Feels right, DL. Like we're really going to change the world
    this time." [...] Revolution all around them, jukebox solidarity
                                                        (118)

ca. 1968-9

    Indolent Records had rapidly become known for its unusual choices
    of artists and repertoires. Mucho was one of the very first to
    audition, but not, he was later to add hastily, to call back,
    fledgling musician Charles Manson. He almost signed Wild Man
    Fischer, and Tiny Tim too, but others got to them first. (309)

That the label did sign up Zoyd's band in "the baroque, or ripe, phase of
L.A.'s relationship with rock and roll" when "critical abilities lapsed"
doesn't actually say much for their music either:

    For one demented season the town lost its ear, and talent was signed
    that in other times would have kept on wandering in the desert, and
    in what oases they found, played toilets. (283-4)