NOTES FROM THE VANILLA UNDERGROUND.

—James Taylor: The Whitest Musician We Know.

From the C-of-C-C Newsletter’s occasional department devoted to reviews of reviews.

In the following contribution, our correspondent and meme curator Noah Paologese takes exception to an NPR article defending James Taylor against an accusation that Noah considers a compliment. What follows is an unsolicited defense of several other qualities for which no defense had been requested. The editors have left his argument undisturbed.

Contrary to the title of this linked article from NPR, James Taylor IS the Whitest artist we know despite any slight, wayward influences. As the author points out, his one blatant imitation of the blues, “Steamroller” is an obvious parody.

Taylor is known for his sweetness, his pretentiousness, and his narcissism. What could be whiter than this.

Despite the current climate of war between the sexes it is our contention that new life is conceived in sweetness, with very few exceptions. Physical attraction is based on this in the perception of the pairs.

🎶”I reckon I must be just an old softy, cause I still believe in love.
I think the best is yet to come
cause where I’m from
is also where I’m going.
And in the time that it takes to sing this song,
I hope you can see for yourself-
love must find you,
Love must find you a way.“🎶*. —James Taylor*

Pretentiousness is active imagination. Before the act of creation the idea must first be formed. This is the essence of pretending. Without pretentiousness nothing can come into being.

Narcissism is love of the self. It is often said that to love someone else you first must love yourself. We agree. There is nothing wrong with self love. It is good practice for a future healthy and wholesome relationship with another person.

Although the word narcissist is currently identified with a pathology, the cause of this is that perhaps there aren’t enough other people worthy of the narcissist’s love.
Greek statuary was an expression of their narcissism. Look at the cultural contribution this enabled. It would not have been possible without their inherent self-love as expressed in their marble imagery.

*“A little advice for shy gentlemen preparing their online dating profiles: Don’t hesitate to describe yourself as built like a Greek god. You have classical civilization on your side.”*

We suspect that there are many of the current generation who owe their incarnation to the romantic sound of the James Taylor music that their parents were listening to at the time. We owe a debt of gratitude to James Taylor and the pretentiousness and narcissism of his pleasant music. It once had a generative effect on young White people.

The current music scene hasn’t had this same positive outcome.

George Carlin’s analysis below supports our contention, although Taylor’s lyrics show his Anglo roots in New England rather than the Scots-Irish twang that Carlin used by way of this comedic example :

”The very appearance of a black man singing R&B music is full of expression, full of a physical revelation of his feelings—sexual and otherwise. The body is never held back. The freedom that a black expresses by merely walking down the street is even more evident when he sings onstage. By contrast, the white Protestant Southern country man singing onstage barely moves his body. If he’s playing the guitar, his fingers will move and his lips will move and one foot will tap—and that’s all. He is a tight asshole and that’s his hang-up. But the lyrics those two men will write are precisely the opposite. The black man sings in symbolic terms about jelly rolls and sugar pies, while the white man tells you exactly what’s on his mind. “Ohhh, a truck ran over my baaa-by in the ro-o-o-ad.” It’s a marvelous paradox that tells us so much about those two cultures.”

If Carlin meant this as a put-down, we see nothing wrong with honesty. The contrast shows the introversion of the European. In this introversion stews the idea from which flows the creative output. From this we have the intellectual and material achievement of the European. He doesn’t need to wiggle his ass.”

—Noah Paologese, C-of-C-C Newsletter Meme Curator