{"id":4585,"date":"2010-12-06T11:41:04","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=4585"},"modified":"2010-12-06T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T15:41:04","slug":"kokomotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/kokomotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Kokomotion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Do the Kokomotion!<\/p><\/div>\n

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This RTH Glossary entry was developed by Townsman alexmagic<\/strong>, who did the heavy lifting, as he often does, in a comment on an earlier thread<\/a>. As a side benefit of this entry, the term may satisfy the rock world’s need to claim its own version “jump the shark.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Kokomotion<\/em>:<\/strong> The inevitable late phase of an artist\u2019s career trajectory, in which they nakedly attempt to recapture the sound that made them initially famous.<\/p>\n

The “Magic Man” illustrated this phase by comparing Paul McCartney’s “Silly Love Songs” with The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo”<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Taste and quality issues aside, I think there is a key difference between \u201cSilly Love Songs\u201d and \u201cKokomo.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Silly Love Songs” was written by a guy who was still in the middle of being an active, successful artist. It\u2019s positioned as a statement of \u201cyou can bag on my songs all you want, but look at how rich they keep making me!\u201d Some hubris, there.<\/p>\n

“Kokomo” was written by a band long past its prime making a last-ditch effort to get any kind of traction. That it somehow worked is a testament to the commanding presence imparted by the authority of a captain\u2019s hat.<\/p>\n

McCartney\u2019s Kokomotive<\/em> moment, then probably would have been the\u00a0Give My Regards to Broad Street<\/em> album, where he was redoing actual Beatles songs. I guess a case could be made for the \u201cTripping The Live Fantastic\u201d tour, where he started to re-embrace his arena rock status, only with his Beatles’ numbers more heavily in play.<\/p>\n

I prefer to think of Broad Street<\/em> being his “Kokomo,” though, because that would mean that Bryan \u201cFX\u201d Brown would have the distinction of being in both Broad Street<\/em> and\u00a0Cocktail<\/em>, where “Kokomo” itself found its place.<\/p>\n

Bryan Brown: Rock\u2019s True Zelig<\/a>?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the record, can you identify the Kokomotive moments in other artists’ careers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This RTH Glossary entry was developed by Townsman alexmagic, who did the heavy lifting, as he often does, in a comment on an earlier thread. As a side benefit of this entry, the term may satisfy the rock world’s need to claim its own version “jump the shark.” Kokomotion: The inevitable late phase of an […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342,17],"tags":[120,22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}