"The sound of the Stones and The Animals—hard rock—gave signals about the apparent social commitments of the people who made the music, put them on the hard left socially no matter what they may have felt as individuals. If The Monkees had sounded like the Stones or The Animals no one would have given a thought to whether or not they wrote and played on their own songs."
I'm confused about the phrase "hard left." It's probably obvious, and I'm just not getting it, but do you mean "left" as in "left of the dial" (i.e., social outcasts)? You do say "socially," but I guess I'm saying I'm not really sure what social left is exactly. Or maybe it's just that I keep bumping up against this word choice as carrying a political context (in which case "hard left" definitely seems problematic... but I don't think this is what you're saying).
This is getting away from the "class" point entirely, but wasn't the TV context of the Monkees just as big a deal--if not a bigger deal--than the songwriting issue? Or wasn't it the two issues combined (plus other things I'm not considering) that cast a pall over the Monkees (among Stones fans, etc.) as being not real? Further to your point about the songwriting thing being a red herring, I find it hard to imagine that as early as '66 or '67 the songwriting issue was that entrenched as a big deal (it had only BEEN two or three years by that point that bands were writing their own songs, and some still weren't; also, I assume it was well known that most of the soul greats of the period didn't write their own songs). I guess I just think the TV thing *was* probably a big deal, and not a total red herring (and maybe it even has something to do with "class," or anyway, "access" or privilege, but now I'm just stabbing at words in the dark).
no subject
I'm confused about the phrase "hard left." It's probably obvious, and I'm just not getting it, but do you mean "left" as in "left of the dial" (i.e., social outcasts)? You do say "socially," but I guess I'm saying I'm not really sure what social left is exactly. Or maybe it's just that I keep bumping up against this word choice as carrying a political context (in which case "hard left" definitely seems problematic... but I don't think this is what you're saying).
This is getting away from the "class" point entirely, but wasn't the TV context of the Monkees just as big a deal--if not a bigger deal--than the songwriting issue? Or wasn't it the two issues combined (plus other things I'm not considering) that cast a pall over the Monkees (among Stones fans, etc.) as being not real? Further to your point about the songwriting thing being a red herring, I find it hard to imagine that as early as '66 or '67 the songwriting issue was that entrenched as a big deal (it had only BEEN two or three years by that point that bands were writing their own songs, and some still weren't; also, I assume it was well known that most of the soul greats of the period didn't write their own songs). I guess I just think the TV thing *was* probably a big deal, and not a total red herring (and maybe it even has something to do with "class," or anyway, "access" or privilege, but now I'm just stabbing at words in the dark).
scott