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MEASURE_OF_MAN

                                                     August 2, 2007     
  By the time I took Anthro 101 at Stony Brook,                         
  the discipline of Anthropology was already                           
  undergoing a re-evaluation...

  One of the books for the class was an anthology
  of articles written by anthropologists about
  modern western culture.

  Whatever you may think of that-- and I'm not
  sure I think much of it-- there was one essay
  there that explained something about my own
  culture to me:

  It was a discussion of David Bowie,
  from the Ziggy Stardust era.

  To paraphrase-- someday I may find
  the actual quote-- 

  It made the point that the Ziggy Stardust
  material is arranged in order of increasing
  dissaffection and alienation until it
  reaches the finale, "Rock n' Roll Suicide".

  The essay explains-- which I never knew-- 
  that Bowie's live performances used the
  material in much the same order...

  And this song takes it to the limit,
  and then reaches for redemption:

  It begins with someone ready to give up,
  but midway through it shifts into the
  singer giving advice:

      "Chev brakes are snarling as you stumble across the road
      But the day breaks instead so you hurry home
      Don't let the sun blast your shadow
      Don't let the milk float ride your mind
      They're so unnatural-- religiously unkind"

  When I'd listened to these lines off
  of the album (and this track didn't
  particularly grab me) I'd somehow got
  the idea that the pronoun "you" was
  the second-person *singular*,
  addressed to some one character (ala
  the usual "I love you" song):

     "Oh no love! you're not alone
      You're watching yourself but you're too unfair
      You got your head all tangled up but if I could only make you care
      Oh no love! you're not alone"
                          
  It took an anthropologist
  to point out to me that         Similarly, with the Who lyric:
  this is the second person       "From *you*, I get the music!"
  *plural*.  The singer is      
  addressing the audience              It took the Tommy movie
  directly:                            to make it clear to me that
                                       this "you" is the audience.
      "Gimme your hands,     
       Cause you're wonderful!
       Oh, gimme your hands!"
  
  And on a typical night, the crowds surge forward
  to take his hand, to make physical contact with
  the point of focus --

  They go off into the night remembering
  the moment when they had become one
  with something larger; when they were
  not alone...


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