Buried deep in The Beatles (White Album) is a gem of a ballad.
The American west is such an integral component to the American imagination, that Americans are almost incapable of telling its story. We're too involved in the mythos to see it as an observer. We may live in a suburb, may drive gas-guzzling, completely impractical, non-4x4 SUV's, and drink our mochafrapecachino lattes, but there's still apart of us that longs for the limitless bounds of the Big Sky country in its heyday.
In my opinion, Europeans have given us the most beautiful images of the American west. Italian Sergio Leone's magnificent sand-operas, the sublime vision of Australian Andrew Dominik's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Each offers us a picture of our past that we ourselves cannot conjure.
To leave out Paul McCartney's ballad of the cowboy Rocky Racoon from this list would be a crime.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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