What a time capsule—and a reminder that pop spectacle has always teetered between sincerity and self-parody.
Sly’s wedding feels like a spiritual sequel to Tiny Tim’s—less whimsical, more dystopian. Both men turned intimacy into theater, but while Tiny floated on romantic delusion, Sly’s version seems soaked in post-‘Riot’ irony. The crowd, the glitter, the botched name—every detail reads like a metaphor for a man ambivalent about fame yet unable to resist its gravity.
I loved the way you pulled the thread between “Family Affair,” “Small Talk,” and the ceremony itself. Texture over flash. Constraint as a mood. Feels like a moment where the music had more emotional coherence than the man’s life did.
As a child, I read the Time magazine account of this ceremony. Sly was iconic. It takes me back to a separate ceremony where the Moonies (Unification Church) had a bananas marriage ceremony in 1982. Great recollection Bob!
What a time capsule—and a reminder that pop spectacle has always teetered between sincerity and self-parody.
Sly’s wedding feels like a spiritual sequel to Tiny Tim’s—less whimsical, more dystopian. Both men turned intimacy into theater, but while Tiny floated on romantic delusion, Sly’s version seems soaked in post-‘Riot’ irony. The crowd, the glitter, the botched name—every detail reads like a metaphor for a man ambivalent about fame yet unable to resist its gravity.
I loved the way you pulled the thread between “Family Affair,” “Small Talk,” and the ceremony itself. Texture over flash. Constraint as a mood. Feels like a moment where the music had more emotional coherence than the man’s life did.
As a child, I read the Time magazine account of this ceremony. Sly was iconic. It takes me back to a separate ceremony where the Moonies (Unification Church) had a bananas marriage ceremony in 1982. Great recollection Bob!