Minilo je dvajset let, odkar je bil prvič predvajan. Susanna Hoffs, ki sem jo kot dvanajstletnik ljubil iz vsega srca, je v začetnem osvetljena kot Brando v Apokalipsi, posnet na 24 sličic. Podčrtano oko zrcali v mehkem fokusu iz Barryja Lyndona. A odsev v zrklu je varljiv: tam je le zaradi lepšega. Penumber, ki ji božajo obraz, ne ustvarjajo zublji samotnega ognja na plaži, ampak neko neznano svetilo, še bolj drgetajoče od neona, a toplejše od plamena. High-speed kamera potrebuje preveč svetlobe. Ali filmski trak posebno emulzijo.

Fotografski prelivi naznanjajo spremljajoče vokale in večglasnost, valovi oceana grmijo kot pavke in nikoli zaključeni crescendi eksplozij raket se ne iztečejo v zoro rožnate barve. Raje se jo uporabi nekje v sredini, morda celo za začetek, saj je tam popolnoma enaka zahodu, ravno tako rožnate barve. Konča se z dekliško igro/plesom ponoči. V mehki mivki Mesta angelov, ki nikoli ni bilo bolj ženstveno in nežno.

Eden iz osemdesetih, ki jih presega v vsem: The Bangles – Eternal Flame.

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Twenty years have passed since it was broadcasted for the very first time. In the opening shot Susanna Hoffs – which as a 12-year old I have loved from the bottom of my heart – is lighted like Brando in Apocalypse, filmed at 24 frames. An underlined eye is mirroring in soft focus straight out of Barry Lyndon. Nevertheless, the reflection in the eyeball is deceptive: it is there just for the beauty of it. Penumbrae that are caressing her face are not created by the tongues of secluded bonfire on the beach, but by an unknown illuminant, more quivering than neon, warmer than flame. High-speed camera needs more light. Film needs a special emulsion.

Photo dissolves announce the backing vocalists and multi-voice singing, the ocean waves are thundering like timpani and never-ending crescendos of rocket explosions do not turn into a pink-coloured dawn. The latter is better used somewhere in the middle, maybe even in the beginning, because there it is exactly the same as sunset, of the same rosy shade. It ends with a nocturnal maiden play/dance. On soft sands of City of Angels that has never been more feminine and tender.

One from the eighties that surpasses them all: The Bangles – Eternal Flame.

Coverji, kot jih je uganjal Johnny Cash, so menda tako znameniti ravno zaradi prevrnitve razmerja original – kopija. Tisti najbolj uspeli pravijo: “Mar ne vidite, da so vsi ti mulci pognali iz moje korenine?” Cashevski songi, ki so bili z naknadno obdelavo uradno posvečeni v Cashove.

Tukaj je case study (mimo najrazvpitejšega): The Mercy Seat, pod katerega so bili originalno podpisani Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

Johnny Cash – The Mercy Seat

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Mercy Seat

Cave je (tako rekoč latinskoameriško) obseden z dialektiko pekla&nebes. Vsekakor žanr, ki sta mu privržena le dva tipa umetnikov: bebci – in klasiki. (V vmesnem času se skušajte spomniti tretjega.) Da Mercy Seat vendarle pade v slednjo kategorijo, med drugim kaže pripisati kaznjenčevemu/naratorjevemu stopnjevanju v zaključnih vrsticah, ko je z vsakim nadaljnjim zanikanjem krivde bliže priznanju. Kako cashevsko.

Po Cashovi prilastitvi, ki se zgodi na albumu Solitary Man, Cave morebiti začuti, da si dolguje vsaj zarezo. Udejanji jo v živo, koncertno: verz “And God is never far away”, ki ga je Cash moral posvojiti s posebno naslado, premenja v “And God is very far away”.

To je Caveov “crown of shit”, s čimer postane le še toliko večji junior. Zgolj skušnjavec.

Cash je Skušnjavec. Na način, ki ga gre opredeliti z besedami:
“To lead into temptation called faith”.

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The acclaim of Johnny Cash covers has probably something to do with the reversal of relation between an original and a copy. The most accomplished ones are saying: “Don’t you see that all these kids have grown out of my root?” They are all Cash-like songs that have been – after subsequent handling – officially consecrated into Cave songs.

Here’s a case study (skipping the most obvious one): The Mercy Seat, under which originally Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds were signed.

Cave is obsessed (in an almost Latin-American way) with dialectics of heaven&hell. Definitely a genre, which has devotees in only two types of artists: the idiots – and the classics. (Try to think of the third type in the meantime.) That, after all, The Mercy Seat belongs to the latter category should be attributed to the gradation of convict’s narration in the concluding verses; with every further denial of guilt he is closer to confession. How very Cash-like.

After the Cash’s appropriation that takes place on the Solitary Man album, Cave perhaps feels that he owns himself some kind of a scar. He attains it live: the verse “And God is never far away” – which has most probably been zealously adopted by Cash – is transformed into “And God is very far away”.

This is Cave’s “crown of shit” that makes him even more junior. A mere tempter.

Cash is the Tempter. In a way that could be expressed by saying:
“To lead into temptation called faith.”