Rock and Roll History
Jul. 9th, 2004 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vardathemessageLipstick Traces is the Brian Slade album on the shelf at Top Records, with the close up of of Brian in the silver/lavender lipstick. It's listed on the index that grown up Arthur consults later as being reviewed Apr 29, 1973 in NME.
chronologically:
"Lipstick traces on a cigarette,
Every memory lingers with me yet."
The song Lipstick Traces is a New Orleans R&B standard and was written by Naomi Neville. It was a hit for Benny Spellman in 1962, and it was released in England, so this is the version Brian would be familiar with.
However, there's the line,
"A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces..." from the 1936 standard, These Foolish Things (Remind me of You), by Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey and Harry Link. Brian Ferry did a cover version. (we'll pretend that Rod Stewart did not.)
And then there is the book, Lipstick Traces, A Secret History of the Twentieth Century by Greil Marcus, a whirlwind riff on how a rock & roll song might have possibly changed the world. (See "Quotes We Like" to the left of your view screen.)
The metaphorical point being that Lipstick Traces is a reminder of someone, perhaps the only evidence of a person's existence.
chronologically:
"Lipstick traces on a cigarette,
Every memory lingers with me yet."
The song Lipstick Traces is a New Orleans R&B standard and was written by Naomi Neville. It was a hit for Benny Spellman in 1962, and it was released in England, so this is the version Brian would be familiar with.
However, there's the line,
"A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces..." from the 1936 standard, These Foolish Things (Remind me of You), by Holt Marvell, Jack Strachey and Harry Link. Brian Ferry did a cover version. (we'll pretend that Rod Stewart did not.)
And then there is the book, Lipstick Traces, A Secret History of the Twentieth Century by Greil Marcus, a whirlwind riff on how a rock & roll song might have possibly changed the world. (See "Quotes We Like" to the left of your view screen.)
The metaphorical point being that Lipstick Traces is a reminder of someone, perhaps the only evidence of a person's existence.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-07-09 05:13 am (UTC)This is one of the funniest lines you've written. I laughed out loud.
To me there at least are two kinds of queer subtext in the idea of "Lipstick Traces".
One is the obvious cigarette == phallic symbol, reminding us of lipstick traces on something other than a cigarette, with cigarette as stand-in.
The other is a drag metaphor, emphasizing the performative nature of drag and glam, the way that the makeup, the clothes, and the accoutrements combine very purposefully to achieve a dazzling performance, both a mask and a revelation.
Thank you ladies and germs, I'll be here all week
Yes, sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar.
The other is a drag metaphor, emphasizing the performative nature of drag and glam, the way that the makeup, the clothes, and the accoutrements combine very purposefully to achieve a dazzling performance, both a mask and a revelation.
Well said!
Glad you posted!