Forum Home Forum Home > Progressive Music Lounges > Prog Music Lounge
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - Canterbury bands' fascination with John Wayne?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Canterbury bands' fascination with John Wayne?
 Post Reply Post Reply
Author
Message
  Topic Search Topic Search  Topic Options Topic Options
SuperMetro View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: April 17 2021
Location: Pennsylvania
Status: Offline
Points: 674 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SuperMetro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Canterbury bands' fascination with John Wayne?
    Posted: June 14 2022 at 20:43
It seems like multiple of these kinds of prog bands like to make songs about or referencing John Wayne. Ex: All the Way (With John Wayne's Single-Handed Liberation of Paris) - Caravan, (Big) John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw - Hatfield and the North, and also a lyric in Binoculars by National Health mentions John Wayne("Meanwhile John Wayne and Rip Torn are making us all yawn"). Why him and not Clint Eastwood, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, or who else I could think of. Well National Health technically is Hatfield and the North, except with a different bassist. Matching Mole is also sort of like Soft Machine, which they are aware of completely since it is a pun of Soft Machine. Soft = mol and machine is in the front. So Machin Mole is Soft Machine. 

Edited by SuperMetro - June 14 2022 at 20:51
Back to Top
Mirakaze View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Eclectic Prog & JR/F/Canterbury Teams

Joined: December 17 2019
Location: (redacted)
Status: Offline
Points: 3539 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mirakaze Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 15 2022 at 01:31
"(Big) John Wayne" and "Binoculars" were both written by Pip Pyle; he might have just been a big fan of Wayne and his movies, and any other John Wayne references in Canterbury songs could just be part of an inside joke stemming from that.
Freelance composer, accepting commissions | New album!
Back to Top
Sean Trane View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator

Prog Folk

Joined: April 29 2004
Location: Heart of Europe
Status: Offline
Points: 19597 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sean Trane Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 15 2022 at 04:05
Originally posted by SuperMetro SuperMetro wrote:

It seems like multiple of these kinds of prog bands like to make songs about or referencing John Wayne. Ex: All the Way (With John Wayne's Single-Handed Liberation of Paris) - Caravan, (Big) John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw - Hatfield and the North, and also a lyric in Binoculars by National Health mentions John Wayne("Meanwhile John Wayne and Rip Torn are making us all yawn"). Why him and not Clint Eastwood, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, or who else I could think of. Well National Health technically is Hatfield and the North, except with a different bassist. Matching Mole is also sort of like Soft Machine, which they are aware of completely since it is a pun of Soft Machine. Soft = mol and machine is in the front. So Machin Mole is Soft Machine. 

Wouldn't all those "winks" be more an  attack than a nod (fascination)? So I'd say it was an inside joke thing more than anything.
In the late 60's & 70's modern westerns were already very different than the the Wayne/Ford era of the 50's. I can easily see the hippie generation (even from Canterbury) "taking shots" at the establishment of the Hollywood pre-65 generation - when the "New Hollywood generation" started taking over.

in some ways in the 70's counter-culture, Wayne & Ford was probably seen as a dinosaur.... and were part of the crowd that lost control  of the studio and film-making, just as it happened when the Beatles kicked out the old geezers wearing white lab coats in the recording studios. 


.
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
Back to Top
Manuel View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: March 09 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 12352 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Manuel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 15 2022 at 05:52
Originally posted by Mirakaze Mirakaze wrote:

"(Big) John Wayne" and "Binoculars" were both written by Pip Pyle; he might have just been a big fan of Wayne and his movies, and any other John Wayne references in Canterbury songs could just be part of an inside joke stemming from that.
It might have been. Would be nice to find out.
Back to Top
Nogbad_The_Bad View Drop Down
Forum & Site Admin Group
Forum & Site Admin Group
Avatar
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl & Eclectic Team

Joined: March 16 2007
Location: Boston
Status: Online
Points: 20168 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Nogbad_The_Bad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 15 2022 at 07:44
John Wayne had a number of big movies in the 60's as was probably know as a pure Western actor versus Eastwood, Fonda, or Stewart. If you were to pick a quintessential American cowboy at that time it's probably Wayne. 
Ian

Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com

https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/
Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.488 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.