Where Joel tips over into mawkishness, R.E.M. give a more complex version of the experience of living towards the end of the cold war, i.e. the end of history.
On “NME Young Britannia Stars On… Politics”
It seems even this now disreputable music paper could not escape the appearance of a swelling torrent of political engagement in the zeitgeist.
It was a raucous but peaceful affair; a self-organized march to the entrance of the previously occupied library. Just before we reached it the police descended, filling the road with wagons and running through the crowd to block the entrance.
The Rebel Yell from the Licensed Pitch
Busking on the London Underground was once an illicit activity conducted through wit, guile, community and negotiation. For more than a decade however, the practice has become radically professionalized.