Skip nails it with this: ""Contemporanaiety" doesn't enter into the
same realm as real live individual expression -- which probably does much to
explain why certain people (Raymond Scott, Beefheart, Sun Ra) are
perpetually being rediscovered." The notion that new generations ain't
gonna get (insert critical touchstone here) is silly, a generational
hubris. I'm 30, so I came to "Revolver" and "Pet Sounds" and "Ascension"
and "Funhouse" long after they were recorded, and yeah, coming to
"Ascension" as a fan of Naked City and Borbetomagus was less shattering
than I'm sure it was for fans of "Giant Steps," or "A Love Supreme," but
what makes great records GREAT is withstanding the test of time on both a
large scale - seducing new generations of listeners - and a small one,
rewarding years of repeated listening. It's important to remember, too,
that most teenagers hearing "Revolver" for the first time are not the
children of record collectors, so they're coming out of a very restricted
commercial radio context & thus "Revolver" will still sound pretty alien.
Chris Selvig
