Pop was kind of a swear word at the time, and if someone bumped into an easy emotion or a too-obvious chorus, it was as if they’d brought a bad smell into the room. And with Brian Eno and Danny Lanois around nobody dared own up to the fart. “Oh my God, can you smell that? A pop song!” We abandoned “With or Without You.” The person who pulled it out of the trash was Gavin Friday, more indie than all of us and equal in sedition to the art insurrectionist that is Brian Eno. “What’s wrong with pop music?” he demanded. “Listen to the melody; it’s a classic. It’s like a Scott Walker.” The only
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