Gay Christmas Mr Lawrence

[imomus]

"Ax Mr. L" on the Alva Noto / Ryuichi Sakamoto EP Revep (2006) is a track which hums and crackles with the chords from the lovely theme tune to Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, which many consider Sakamoto's most accomplished composition. It appeared, with vocals by David Sylvian, as the single and video "Forbidden Colours" in 1983, taking the title of Mishima's most homosexual novel -- not to mention the Oshima film's strongly homosexual undercurrents -- into the British Top 20.

I've always thought that David Bowie's absence from the video has to be more than co-incidence; images of Bowie were almost certainly, themselves, "forbidden" by his management company. That ban was probably connected to the gay theme; this was, after all, the year Rolling Stone published a cover story on Bowie entitled "David Bowie Straight", and the somewhat macho Bowie almost certainly felt that Sylvian's cloying hymn to him was embarrassingly effete.

For those of us less concerned to, ahem, re-butt gay themes, though, this is a beautiful and haunting piece of music. When I listen to Carsten Nicolai and Ryuichi Sakamoto's spinning-top post glitch version, though, I keep wanting to hear the original burst out, with its lovely chords, piano top-line, and lugubrious, yearning mid-section. So, today, as my slightly-homosexual Christmas present to you, the readers of Click Opera, I've made my own remix, a mash-up of the Noto-Sakamoto hum with fragments of the original song and layers of my own plinky-plonky piano playing.

Re-me-X Mr Lawrence (4.6 MB stereo mp3 file, 5 mins)

I hope this homage to a homage to a homage makes your Christmas day just that little bit more gay. Isn't it funny that, although Sylvian, Sakamoto, Nicolai, Bowie and I are all straight men, something so deeply, satisfyingly homosexual emerges when you put us all together?

Comments

[mini-snape.livejournal.com]

Ooh! That's very sad. I'm sure he still loves you, really. He must!

Me, I like prodding him so I don't mind. I still want to go to one of his solo gigs and ask him to sign my copy of Obscure Alternatives, just to annoy him. But I'm scared he might actually rip my arm off.

Actually I've forgotten what he's doing now, again. There's some info on the LJ communities about it, if you search interests for david sylvian. I did read an interview which was very quotable but he seemed very Aristotlean in his ideas. "Dress down for the stage, dress up for life," he said, which is sound advice. He's touring, too, but I think I might be too scared to go see him, because he'll probably hate me for being young and shallow. Well, he and his fans would be a lot happier if he realised how beautiful his own mistakes are. But a lot of artists don't seem to know this. That's why I like Momus, because he at least appreciates his past self.

[barkis.livejournal.com]

hello!

may I play this on my podcast?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes!