mash-down?

Music, Poetry 2 Comments

Here’s a short list of things I really enjoy:

  • T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
  • American people faking British accents
  • Portishead’s “Sour Times”

So why should this be so annoying?  Maybe it’s because it’s eight-and-a-half minutes of the loop from “Sour Times.”  Eight-and-a-half minutes!

Look, I applaud almost any mashup that incorporates good poems.  But, in a cruel and bizarre twist of fate, this one increased my appreciation of the Eliot for about 45 seconds, and then I became so annoyed at the loop that I actually started thinking, “Oh my God, if I never hear ‘Sour Times’ again, that will be OK by me.”  Is there such a thing as a mashdown?  You know, a mashup attempt that not only fails to do anything really new, but also makes you wonder why you ever liked the work it’s derived from in the first place?