Hello everyone, my name is Royston Vince
and here we are with another part of Talassa’s
column: Bremain. Every month I will recommend
a song by a British artist and will comment
with
a short video on a part or parts of the text
of the
chosen song, first in Italian and then in
English.
The song for this month is David Bowie’s
‘The Buddha of Suburbia.’
When describing the themes he used during
the making of the album Bowie also cited a
list of ‘residues from the 1970s’ as his
starting
points for the songs. This month, I thought
I
would look at three of these in the hope that
it
might prove interesting whilst one listens
to the
music. You can find the entire list in the
description of the video
Bromley. Bromley is a less-cosmopolitan
borough of London located 15 km south-east
of the centre. It is where both Kureishi and
Bowie
at different times went to school and it is
the
primary inspiration and setting of the novel
and subsequently the song.
The Casserole. Along with the rapid expansion
of uniform suburban housing estates came the
desire or perhaps need to differentiate between
those who ate the plain and simple British
‘stew’
and those who dined on the much more sophisticated
‘casserole’. They are, of course, the
same thing
but appearances account for a lot in suburbia.
The last detail has to do with loneliness.
I'm sure the same cultural dissonance
that pushed both Bowie and Kureishi out
of the suburbs will continue to exist for
each
succeeding generation. The reality of ‘the
Suburb’ is a lonely world if there is no
one else
to share your ideas
That’s all for today, thanks for watching.
I’ll be
coming up next month with a group called Broadcast
and a song called ‘Come on let’s go’.
Follow
the youtube channel or Talassa facebook page
so you won’t miss the upcoming bremain episodes
in the meantime, all the very best to you
e alla prossima
