'Adolescence, crimson red - Fireworks inside your head' – A worthy subject?

Okay, so the consensus on my 12 Years a Slave post, was that there were too many ideas that were not explored in enough depth.  At best a 'C+' then!  I'm inclined to agree, although rather than dwell on that I'd rather talk about another minor grumble that arose, in that I had suggested that Van Morrison's Astral Weeks was a piece of music borne out of 'adolescence'.  With its connotations of shallowness, poor judgement, and the fleetingness of intense emotions, the grumbler seemed to be suggesting that the theme of 'adolescence' was an unworthy label to pin on such an evocative work of art. Anyway, here's the brief conversation:   

"But listen to Cypress Avenue", I cried. "So young and bold … fourteen years old!", I kind of sung.  "I know the songs are about childhood … I know all this is happening when he is an adolescent, but …." And here the argument tailed off. It seemed that the grumbler had talked himself into a bit of a corner, and revealed a few peculiar prejudices. 

"On the Cypress Avenue ... with the childlike vision sweeping into view"

I thought about this a bit more, and I decided – with a bit of a prompt from Prefab Sprout's Paddy McAloon (more later on the Homer of modern pop) – that there was the inclination to avoid pinning the theme of adolescence onto a work of art.  And certainly a reluctance in suggesting that this was the driving force behind the work of art. (Incidentally, I once got really annoyed by a university lecturer telling me and a group of fellow undergraduates that "I don't want you talking about 'themes' … it's so bloody A Level!" Well, I like themes and I like thinking and talking about them!)

You do not have to delve too far into the canon to find an example of this.  If you asked one hundred people to name a famous play with love as its central theme, I'd vouch that the most popular answer would be Romeo and Juliet.  But look at that play closely – or actually not very closely at all – and it yells 'adolescence'!  When we first discover Romeo he’s pining over Rosaline.  In fact Romeo crashes the Capulet party with the goal of seeing Rosaline, though at the first sight of Juliet he soon forgets her.  Fickle boy!  And Juliet … how old is she?  Thirteen years old, reveals the Nurse!  In fact, a quick investigation into Shakespeare's primary sources for this play reveal a considerably older heroine.  Why would he do that?  Then there's the rebelling; turning of backs on families; the car crash Emo ending!  And suddenly it seems like I'm trashing the play.  When of course I'm not.  I love it.  I'm just trying to illustrate how disinclined we are to use that label or see things through that light. Although when the critics do pick up on this, they are inclined to see it as a major flaw, perhaps partially the reason that it does not take its seat at the table with Shakespeare's great tragedies.  Hilton Als in The New Yorker:

"Any production that delves deeply into 'Romeo and Juliet' is going to expose its gooey sentimentality and its relentlessly pop handling of sex, rebellion, and adolescent desire. (The script, which was the inspiration for Jerome Robbins's 'West Side Story', could just as easily be adapted into a 'Twilight' movie, so adroitly does it play on the teenage idea of love as a state of extreme ecstasy.)" 

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Romeo at the National Theatre

It's a sneering view. And any production that 'delves deeply' is going to become a cropper?  The reverse in fact.  I've seen it a few times on the stage - most notably the National Theatre's production in 2000 that had white Capulets and black Montagues, and as I've just revealed to myself through a Google reminder, had 12 Years a Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Romeo - and have always been gripped, but then I'm a sucker for depictions of adolescence. J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye - peerless in its depiction of a mixed up teen - is amongst my favourite novels; The Smiths, always way ahead of Morrissey's solo output, largely because he would still occasionally frequent an adolescent world of bus-stops, vegetarian pasties for lunch, and dog eared local library cards; and, once again, Proust (although he covers almost everything in his 3,200 pages) exploring it with no little irony, and the depth of feeling that this subject truly deserves.   

           

Paddy McAloon and Prefab Sprout certainly don't have a problem with any of this.  A standout track on their latest album Crimson / Red is 'Adolescence', a joyous, whirligig of a tune that I have played almost every day since first listening to it a few months ago.  And yep, Paddy wheels out Shakespeare's young lovers as Exhibit A.

Adolescence - what's it like? It's a psychedelic motorbike

Adolescence - why is it so?

Ask someone else, how should I know?

It's a song I sang and then forgot

Too long ago.

When I was a Romeo, in love forever

Unable to forget some Juliet,

Romeo, Romeo,

Inconstant never. 

It's knives flashing in fountains,

Poison, Capulets' letters that go astray,

Molehills bigger than mountains,

You're pre Sat-nav, learning to find your way.

Lyrics when written down rarely do justice to a song.  Listen it a few times instead and you'll appreciate it more. Actually, listen to a few other tracks off Crimson / Red.  They will wend their way into your head with the charm of an affable and charismatic jewel thief.  Anyway, 'Adolescence' is a worthy champion of this much maligned theme, dismissing the scoffers and comforting the afflicted.  And why not?  We move on from those crushes and those heartbreaks, those pursuits and failures, but most of us don't have the time, or more significantly, the genius, to channel them into glorious songs or dazzling moments of literature.  And even if we did, would we risk labelling them as hymns to the gloriously short-lived fire-burst – 'although at the time it was terrible' - that was adolescence.  We might not, but we should.        

Postscript: The final line of the lyric that I quote is eluding me.  I'm sure it's 'Sat-nav', keeping with the song's tendency to bathos, but I also have a sneaking suspicion that the Priest may have found his way into proceedings.  Any suggestions or corrections are most welcome.