Being Massive Asshole Apparently Prerequisite for "Voice of a Generation" Designation
It turns out that Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" is the voice of my generation. It narrates the 20th century's transition from optimism to disillusion, beginning with some dude's poetic idealization of his girlfriend, and dissolving amidst the sound and fury of encroaching insignificance. It's like taking your date to the malt shop and winding up in a tomb.
That's how this Curt Cloninger disquisition for ABC News starts. It goes on to get the lyrics wrong, engage in tongue-in-cheek clich , beat an analogy to death, and then, well, this:
It's one thing to write an essay bemoaning the decentering of contemporary man in postmodern society. It's another thing entirely to play a wailing guitar solo that viscerally embodies that decentering. Slash's solo is our voice — 2,000 years after a resurrection we never witnessed, facing a future that seems insoluble.
There's video on the site of Cloninger doing a great NPR-voice version, but it's somehow much more magical in print. All we have to say is, Chuck Klosterman, don't look back: This guy is gaining on you.
