T.Rex
Light of Love
[Chronicles]
Rating: 0.3
Charles Schulz, creator of Peanuts, turned 75 recently. I read an
interview with him and was stunned because, loser as Charlie Brown may
be, you don't expect a cartoonist to be so morose. But Chuck's a sad
guy who realizes that he hasn't done art that will trascend the
generations like his hero Andrew Wyeth. There was an accompanying photo
of Schulz getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Standing
behind him were actors in oversized costumes of Charlie Brown, Linus,
and Lucy. The photo horrified me somewhat. Here was a man who wanted
to make great, lasting art who instead gave into a legacy of good grief.
I wanted to yell at the costumed characters "Get away from him! You're
suffocating his creativity!" But I also think about how Billy Joel and
Paul McCartney are turning their efforts to classical music and how you
wouldn't want Hershey's to start making crowned rack of lamb. Schulz's
contribution to pop culture is significant, and if he ever had the
chance to do fine art, the peak creativity needed long since passed him
by. We like him for Peanuts, and as they sang every week on the
Jeffersons, "Ain't nothing wrong with that."
Which brings me to this fecund T.Rex reissue. This has been hard to
find in America; why they trot it out now is anyone's guess. To the
untrained ear, this sounds like shit: Faux Detroit soul pop filtered
through Marc Bolan. To the trained ear that's heard a good T.Rex
album, this sounds like a tragedy.
-Jason Josephes