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Symmetries

I just realized (don’t know how I’ve missed this for so long) that Pavement’s “Silent Kit” is really close to Buddy Holly’s “Everyday.”

Check it out:

I know Malkmus liked Buddy Holly, but the relation of “Silence Kit” to “Everyday” feels tricky to me.  It’s not an adaptation and I don’t think it’s a rip-off either and it’s not a sample, but it’s more than just an influence…

I’m reminded of how I felt when I read The Crying of Lot 49 and White Noise and Amusing Ourselves to Death all in a row.  Everything felt really interconnected. 

More relations like this?  Back me up here.

2 thoughts on “Symmetries

  1. It’s a borrowed melody. I think Malkmus was always upfront about it. They do something similar on “5*4 Unity,” which snips from Dave Brubeck’s classic “Take Five”:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCSZgVxMdJA&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

    The whole album is reference-heavy. “Heaven Is a Truck” is about Royal Trux (supposedly). And of course we all remember the notorious shout-outs on “Range Life”…

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VVj1zqbWpU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

    Those nature kids, I hear they have no function. The Stone Temple Pilots, on the other hand, are supposedly elegant bachelors.

    …Jac, are you going to see Pavement at Pitchfork this summer? They’re foxy to me; are they foxy to you? I’ve been putting off buying my ticket because I’m a lazy, apathetic Gen X’er.

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