World Class Fad

[nazareth]

In Besterberg Paul says that World Class Fad was thought to be about someone famous. Who is it?

[ABoyNamedPosh]

Short answer: Kurt Cobain.

[nazareth]

oh ok.......what is up between those two.....i've heard that they have never met, but i always hear paul getting asked about Kurt. I'm young so i wasn't really in on it at the time. Was there a feud? Is the song a diss?

[toml]

They met at least once (or saw each other) that I heard Paul talk about. Check out the CFMT DVD and see what Paul says about being in an elevator with him at a hotel once. Maybe the coolest line I ever heard Paul come up with: “He was dying to be dying and I was dying to be someplace else”

[Cotton]

evilrockposh said:

Short answer: Kurt Cobain.

I'm gonna need more than the short answer on this.
As in says who? or how do you know this?

[FirstAveFiend]

Here's the previous discussion from when Besterberg came out:

paulwesterberg.proboards23.com/index.cgi?board=generalpw&action=display&thread=1116372884

[Cotton]

velvetgefiltefish said:

I remember some interview where Paul was directly asked if "Fad" was about Cobain. His answer was: "No, I never respected him enough to write a song about him."

For me, things that don't point to Kurt Cobain:

1 meeting, in the elevator with nothing said between them.

Well you look fantastic in your gassed-up casket
At least the thing still runs

gives off a sense of familiarity...


This 9 to 5 bullshit don't let forget
Whose suicide you're on.

I've always thought of this as living the 9-5 life and killing yourself for/because of that life style.

Of course it could be, having to put up with the b.s. of corporate 9 to 5'ers.


I'm the one you trust... (more familiarity/closeness)(not sure how KC would fit here, plus, kind of rules out PW autobiographical)


I think it is about a female someone famous.


Just puttin' it out there. What say ye?

[nazareth]

hmm....ok.....i'm kind of cleared up now......but the casket.....the suicide......this song was written before cobain died......so if it is about him, it's very prophetic in a way.

[Cotton]

good point about the prophecy.

gassed-up casket that still runs/flies- I always thought of as an actual vehicle... but it could well be the physical body under the ravages of the life-style/ drugs etc.

[Placemat]

I've never thought Paul wrote the song about Kurt. Whether or not Cobain thought it was about him, I have no idea.

To my knowledge Cobain never once mentioned the Mats/PW.

I do remember reading an interview around the time the record came out where Paul hints it's kinda about Tommy. To my ears the song also sounds autobiographical.

Coarse this is all heresy, it's probably about a bathtub or something.

[FreeRider]

placemat said:

I've never thought Paul wrote the song about Kurt. Whether or not Cobain thought it was about him, I have no idea.

To my knowledge Cobain never once mentioned the Mats/PW.

I do remember reading an interview around the time the record came out where Paul hints it's kinda about Tommy. To my ears the song also sounds autobiographical.

Coarse this is all heresy, it's probably about a bathtub or something.

Just as an aside, I just find it hilarious that "Knockin' Em Back" was originally about a bathtub for 8 years until he decided to write new lyrics and re-record it!

But anyway, I thought Paul's liner notes was that somebody famous thought the song was about them, not that he wrote it about someone. And Paul never mentioned who that someone famous is/was.

I always kinda figured that Paul was really semi-autobiographical anyway in the song.

[allshookup]

placemat said:

To my knowledge Cobain never once mentioned the Mats/PW.

Could just be an urban myth but I have read that Nirvana called their record Nevermind after the Replacements song.

[SnowCover]

This would probably go better in that interview's thread, but I don't think he meant the song was literally about a bathtub.

[Nickel]

I always thought the song was autobiographical. I still hear it that way.

[scoOter]

the song is clearly about us; the fans.

*covers head*

[cford]

allshookup said:

placemat said:

To my knowledge Cobain never once mentioned the Mats/PW.

Could just be an urban myth but I have read that Nirvana called their record Nevermind after the Replacements song.

I've heard that, too.. that Cobain was a closet Mats fan, but didn't want to admit it..

CF

[nazareth]

If he was a closet 'mats fan, i like him even less. Anybody that is a "closet" 'mats fan needs to realize that they were better than all the bands they admit to liking. Kurt was a loser anyways.......who needs 'em

[scoOter]

nazareth said:

If he was a closet 'mats fan, i like him even less. Anybody that is a "closet" 'mats fan needs to realize that they were better than all the bands they admit to liking. Kurt was a loser anyways.......who needs 'em

while harsh, i agree with this sentiment.

[velvetgefiltefish]

There was an interview with Paul around the time Stereo came out in which he was asked if WCF was about Cobain. Paul's response was something like "Nah... I never respected the guy enough to write a song about him."

I don't think that's necessarily the final word on the subject, though, since Paul-as-interview-subject is notoriously unreliable and quite prone to self-contradiction.

There's an audio interview on some bootleg I've got where Paul's asked about what the song means. He gives absolutely no indication as to who the subject of the song might be. In fact, he pretty much just repeats the lyrics of the chorus. Stuff like: "What I meant was that you should remember where you started from. You should remember to leave a trail of crumbs." Not very helpful stuff... maybe that was his way of saying he felt the lyrics were self-explanatory, or that he just didn't feel like explicating them for anybody.

[FreeRider]

It might be that an artist like Paul, or Dylan, hate dissecting their own work and explaining it to people. I'm never sure about Dylan, who claims to not know what his songs are about, that the muses come thru him, he's just a vessel, blah blah blah. Is he pulling our leg and has been for the last 25 years due to his disdain for the press? Who knows?

Regardless, I think that some artists are of a mindset to NOT explain their work. RAther, they let the work speak for itself. I guess there is a school of thought that says, to explain it and go into al kinds of detail would diminish the work and its effect on the audience. maybe Paul is of this mindset where he'd rather not really reveal what the song was about.

If you believe that art is a reflection of society, and whatever artistic endeavor Paul holds up for us is a mirror, then perhaps the real artistic value is in each person's response to that work. Is there the shock of self recognition? Does it tell us something about the human condition? Does it show us ordinary things in a way we've never seen it before? Perhaps Paul would rather let us find meaning in it rather than for him to come right out and say hat "World Class Fad" means. Besides, it's fun for us to analyze and discuss his songs!