![]() ![]() Even now I struggle to hear any really dark sexual frisson beyond the saucy postcard tease of Do You Wanna Touch Me (although, thanks Gary, but I'll pass on that and no, I don't want to be in your gang). The famous Glitter beat is a staple part of music from bands as diverse as Marilyn Manson and Kasabian, yet we are being denied the original singles, many of which ironically cast Glitter in the role of shunned outsider (I Love You Love Me Love - "They tried to tell you I was not the boy for you"). My belief - and I'd really like your views on this - is that art should not be confused with the artist, and that pop fans of any generation should not be denied the genius of Rock'n'Roll Part 1 (one of the great pop records about pop - "Can you still recall in the jukebox hall when the music played/And the world span round to a brand new sound in those far off days?"). So why is Glitter so vilified? Because he's taken over Myra Hindley's old role as monster of choice for the News of the World? Roman Polanski admitted sex with a minor but people still watch his films. Goya made wonderfully disturbed etchings but you wouldn't want him round for lunch. Wagner's anti-semitism was an influence on Hitler but the composer's music is still performed around the world. Which is weird, because in other areas of culture, artists' work has not been so tainted by personal failings, however grave. This year, facing yet another Glitter-free Christmas, I've found myself downloading those old songs from iTunes and even in the process, somehow feeling seedy. Nowadays, because of What Gary Has Done, the same songs are pop's pariahs, songs you never hear on the radio, which have been airbrushed from pop history in the same way as Glitter - who had one of the longest chart runs of any singer in the 70s - has been excluded from rock biographies and more or less scrubbed out of pop history. If only Gary were - as the song put it - remembered this way. Much later there were the televised live Gang Shows and, of course, Another Rock'n'Roll Christmas. The following year round at Andy Wormald's house listening to Hello, Hello I'm Back Again. ![]() Christmas 1973 - I Love You Love Me Love, the first single I ever bought (Bell Records 7", shiny silver label). Even now, I tend to track my childhood festive seasons by Glitter singles.
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