"It’s the longing, the unrequited longing for that perfect world."

Pop is funny. It’s a tease. It’s an important one, but it’s a tease, and therein resides its beauty and its joke.

Bruce Springsteen, on "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," the pop pinnacle of his new album, Magic.

I wanted one thing on the record that was the perfect pop universe. . . . You know, that day when it’s all right there; it’s the world that only exists in pop songs, and once in a while you stumble on it.

We all know what he means.  I'm trying to think what songs do that for me, transport me to an emotional soap bubble of a perfect place that doesn't exist.  I'll get back to you.

(Of course, his album has a political subtext, all about how George Bush's America isn't recognizable as America any more.  But please don't make me write about that, I'm feeling surfeited, bruised, and weary of politics for the moment.  Writing about politics is like S&M:  you keep coming back for more, but you need time to recover.)

In the same Arts & Leisure section of the Times, an interview with Annie Lennox in which she talks about how often a really bad time just precedes a creative breakthrough.  She says, "It's almost like the storm before the calm."

Comments

[Internet Ronin]

Writing about politics is like S&M: you keep coming back for more, but you need time to recover.

LOL! I really busted up when I read this. This was what I was indirectly referring to on another thread above - your first sparkling phrase of the day. Personally, I think you ought to find room for it on your sidebar or header.