“What Happened to the Post-War Dream?”: Nostalgia, Trauma, and Affect in British Rock of the 1960S and 1970S by Kathryn B. C
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“What Happened to the Post-War Dream?”: Nostalgia, Trauma, and Affect in British Rock of the 1960s and 1970s by Kathryn B. Cox A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music Musicology: History) in the University of Michigan 2018 Doctoral Committee: Professor Charles Hiroshi Garrett, Chair Professor James M. Borders Professor Walter T. Everett Professor Jane Fair Fulcher Associate Professor Kali A. K. Israel Kathryn B. Cox [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6359-1835 © Kathryn B. Cox 2018 DEDICATION For Charles and Bené S. Cox, whose unwavering faith in me has always shone through, even in the hardest times. The world is a better place because you both are in it. And for Laura Ingram Ellis: as much as I wanted this dissertation to spring forth from my head fully formed, like Athena from Zeus’s forehead, it did not happen that way. It happened one sentence at a time, some more excruciatingly wrought than others, and you were there for every single sentence. So these sentences I have written especially for you, Laura, with my deepest and most profound gratitude. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although it sometimes felt like a solitary process, I wrote this dissertation with the help and support of several different people, all of whom I deeply appreciate. First and foremost on this list is Prof. Charles Hiroshi Garrett, whom I learned so much from and whose patience and wisdom helped shape this project. I am very grateful to committee members Prof. James Borders, Prof. Walter Everett, Prof. Jane Fulcher, and Prof. Kali Israel for their invaluable insight and thought-provoking questions throughout the development of this dissertation. Also important during this time was the unending well of moral support from family members Charles and Bené S. Cox, Robert and Sara Cox, David Cox, and Beth Brock, as well as from dear friends Laura, Matt, Emma, and Natalie Ellis; Caroline, Brett, and Luman Colasacco; Liz, Herman, and Noa Lui; Irene Wu; Molly, Bryant, Walter, and Natalie Chavez; Rebecca Fülöp; Christy Wall Kuhlman; and Janet Higgins. Thank you all for being in my life. I extend special thanks to Will Phillips for his assistance with editing musical excerpts and to Dr. Felicia Brabec for her suggestions on psychological resources regarding trauma. My time as a graduate student in the musicology department at the University of Michigan has been transformative, and I have my colleagues and professors to thank for that, including the entire musicology faculty, Prof. Paul Anderson, Prof. Stephen Rush, and Dean Jason Corey, as well as my fellow student cohort, in particular Elizabeth Batiuk, Dan Blim, Kristen Clough, Alison Desimone, Megan Hill, Sarah Gerk, Jessica Getman, Meredith Juergens, iii Andrew Kohler, Ho-chak Law, Michael Mauskapf, Sarah Suhadolnik, Evan Ware, and Aja Burrell Wood. Finally I would like to thank the following people, who at various points throughout this project provided a useful bit of information or inspirational conversation that helped inform the final document: Alice Brown, Kirsten Carey, Steve and Marion Coleman, Corey Griffiths, Billy Harrington, Atticus Hensley, Adam Keele, Kate Korroch, Gabriel Lubell, Chad McCullough, Ryan Milner, Kit O’Toole, Walter Podrazik, Allison Schmidt, Rajyashree Josyer Shrikanth, Loren Jan Wilson, and Ken Womack. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF EXAMPLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES ix ABSTRACT x INTRODUCTION 1 “Fought the War for Your Sort”: Growing Up in the Shadow of World War II 7 Postwar Memories: Nostalgia and Trauma in British Rock 17 CHAPTER I: “Hoping to Take You Away”: The Beatles and British Nostalgia in Magical Mystery Tour 31 A Beginning: World War II, the Postwar Dream, and the Beatles 40 “I Believe In Yesterday”: The Beatles and Musical Nostalgia Before Magical Mystery Tour 44 Nostalgic Visions in the Magical Mystery Tour Film 52 Musical Nostalgia and Class Identity: Mystery Trips 58 v Musical Nostalgia and National Identity: English Gardens 69 Musical Nostalgia and Collective Identity: Songs Your Mother Should Know 75 Conclusion: In the Shadow of World War II 81 II: The Kinks’ Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of British Postwar Nostalgia 85 Young and Innocent Days? The Kinks and Postwar Britain 99 Do You Remember, Arthur? Nostalgia and Affective Ambivalence in Arthur 116 Conclusion: “And Things Will Never Be the Same…” 132 III: “You Didn’t Hear It”: The Who and the Denial of Traumatic Narrative in Tommy 135 Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: The Postwar Roots of the Who 146 The Who’s Missing Trauma: Narrative Denial in Tommy 158 “Listening to You, I Get the Music”: Traumatic Narrative Development of Tommy on Film and Stage 174 Conclusion: Tommy Across the Decades 190 IV: “Feelings of an Almost Human Nature”: Pink Floyd and Traumatic Narrative 196 Building The Wall: Biographical and Historical Background 204 Retelling Trauma: Narrative Disruption in “Goodbye Blue Sky” 211 Disruptive Trauma: Musical Traumatic Flashbacks in The Wall 228 Witnessing (in) The Wall 246 Conclusion: “Outside the Wall” and Memorial History 258 EPILOGUE 263 BIBLIOGRAPHY 269 vi LIST OF EXAMPLES 1.1: Descending introductory motive by trumpets at 0:00-0:05, 0:39-0:44, 1:09-1:13. 67 1.2.1: Repeated punctuating remark by trumpets at 0:52-1:03 67 1.2.2: Punctuating remark by trumpets at 1:24-1:26 67 1.2.3: Repeated punctuating remark by trumpets at 1:42-1:56 67 1.3: Arpeggiating motive by trumpets 1:55-2:04 and again at 2:08-2:16 67 1.4: Terrace of eighth notes followed by double-tongued sixteenth notes by trumpets at 0:32-0:38 and 1:04-1:09 68 1.5: Trumpets during melodic, organ-like instrumental break at 1:15-1:23 68 1.6: “I Am the Walrus,” 2:00-2:18 psychedelic break and the return to stability 72 2.1: Second verse of “Some Mother’s Son,” 0:49-1:25 126 3.1: Excerpt from “1921,” 0:57-1:04 on Tommy (1969) album 165 3.2: Excerpt from “1951,” 16:56-17:10 on Tommy (1975) film 181 3.3: Excerpt from Broadway musical The Who’s Tommy, “Twenty-One” 2:38-3:12, depicting the lover’s death and following elegiac moment. 187 4.1: Guitar Pattern 1 225 4.2: Guitar Pattern 2 226 4.3: Guitar Pattern 3 226 4.4.: First iteration of “Brick in the Wall” theme in “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1)” 236 vii LIST OF FIGURES 3.1: RAF Roundel (left) and the Who logo (right) 150 3.2: Opening section of lyrics inset from Tommy album (1969) 160 viii LIST OF TABLES 3.1: Album Tracks and the Corresponding Moments of Trauma 162 4.1: Lyrical Meter in “Goodbye Blue Sky” 223 4.2: “Goodbye Blue Sky” sections 227 4.3: Track Listing for The Wall (1979) 237 ix ABSTRACT The widespread popularity of British rock musicians in the early 1960s presented the world with a postwar-dream version of Britain as a modern, thriving cultural force in the global economy. Over the course of the decade, however, many of these musicians increasingly turned toward the nation’s war-torn past as a source for musical inspiration. No longer were they only popular culture ambassadors for a modern Britain, but they also came to serve as representatives of a generation scorched by their nation’s history, particularly by the aftershocks of World War II. Although members of pioneering groups such as the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who, and Pink Floyd were all born in the early 1940s—much too late to have had experience on the frontline— memories of World War II haunted them. The rubble left from buildings decimated during the German Blitz attacks, family war stories, and national rationing into the late 1950s were among the constant reminders of near defeat during the war and the struggle to survive afterward amidst a crumbling empire. This dissertation explores how British rock musicians sought to engage with their identities as members of the postwar generation and to challenge their inherited national history. By applying theories addressing identity, memory, and nostalgia from Svetlana Boym, Pierre Nora, and Janelle Wilson, chapter 1 demonstrates how the Beatles in the film and soundtrack Magical Mystery Tour (1967) constructed a world deeply rooted in postwar nostalgia. Drawing on the works of Clay Routledge and Lawrence Kramer, chapter 2 illustrates how the Kinks employed the affective ambiguity of nostalgia as a tool for cultural criticism in their x concept album Arthur: Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969). Theories on trauma and denial by Julie P. Sutton and Judith Herman inform chapter 3, which examines how the Who’s rock opera Tommy (1969) reflects a culture of postwar traumatic denial. Concluding the dissertation, chapter 4 incorporates trauma theory from works by Shoshana Felman, Cathy Caruth, and Maria Cizmic, to show how Pink Floyd’s rock opera The Wall (1979) functions as a traumatic narrative through musical disruption, creates a soundscape built from traumatic events, and emphasizes the role of the listener as witness. xi INTRODUCTION The intellectual seeds for this project were planted quite a while ago, coming from a personal history that parallels one of the overarching themes in this dissertation: how one’s inherited cultural history impacts one’s contemporary world, or, in other words, the continuing impact and ever-presence of the past. My interest in British rock began when I was in middle school. The new consumer technology at the time was compact discs, and for adolescents of my generation, not only were the top 40 pop hit albums easily available, but we also had easy access to albums from thirty and forty years ago thanks to record companies re-releasing popular albums as CDs for the Baby Boomer generation.