Anachronic music

A propos of nothing, I recently came to reflect that the last time Jacques Brel performed live was 47 years ago. And, since that was way too early for people like me to be there, for those who have to go by live recordings, the last one was in 1964. Fully 50 years ago.

Yet I cannot play the famous Olympia 64 without being immediately taken by a shiver -though I have played it many, many times. I immediately feel the presence. Where last year's pop star hit can already feel embarassingly outdated, this feeling seems to have eternity thrust upon it.

Music being the art that probably most directly touches us without bothering to go through the intellect, could the fact that much of the music I listen to dates back quite a bit be not only consequence, but even cause, of my frequent impressions of not being in synch with the times? Not that I don't listen to any contemporary artist (and, OK, Bob Dylan is still very active, but going on 73), although those I tend to enjoy would typically not be the main household names. But, typically, as I type, a 1963 Dylan recording of Moonshiner is playing. And it can still bring tears to my eyes after many hundred times.

Propaganda works

So, we are once again hearing calls for selling, well,everything public. And a French nominally (yes, already only nominally) socialist president is announcing a major turn rightwards –economically, that is- despite being at the helm of a country that has been performing markedly better than tenants of Aust(e)rian orthodoxy, such as the Netherlands or Finland.

(A side note: people will say “look at Germany”. Well, Germany is a country that locked in a balance of payments surplus by beggar-thy-neighbour policies, i.e. depressing wages and internal consumption during the years of European boom. Whether it was a success is highly debatable –poverty has shot up, for a start- but anyway that is moot: it is not an available option now, even leaving aside the fact that other EU countries specialise in other kinds of goods and have much different demographics, since it required other countries to have markedly faster inflation without going into deflation. And with Germany’s inflation below 1%, there simply is not enough room above 0 to open up a significant gap.

Besides, Germany’s public spending went up since the crisis. They did not apply Austerian economics to themselves –which is good for Europe, although far from enough- despite demanding it of others. So, to see the impact of current Austerian follies, look at the Netherlands or Finland. It’s not pretty)

And, you know what: he’s getting praise for it.