Letters editor;
With regards to Bill Wyman’s article [Hitsville] on March 11, I feel compelled to ask one simple question that seems to be haunting Bill of late: Why be so bad at saying nothing? Besides misspelling the name of Stephen Malkmus two different ways in a rather short article, he goes on to make another mistake concerning the meaning of some veiled (?) reference to Winona Ryder and Dave Pirner by attributing the lyrics to the wrong song. The actual song is “Elevate Me Later” not “Stop Breathin,” and I have no idea at all why it is a reference to the aforementioned people. Perhaps a serious writer like Bill has access to information that I am not privy to. Perhaps the whole article was some tongue in cheek humor that mirrors the cynical attitude that seems to permeate the music of Pavement. Perhaps sloppiness is the proper intellectual response to the prevailing cultural environment that Bill finds himself in lately. Or, maybe Bill is still smarting from that ass-whipping that Steve Albini mailed in last month. Whatever. Anyway, one question still dogs me: What was his article all about anyway? I think that Why-man tells us at the climactic end of the last paragraph: Screwin’ myself with my hand. Exactly.
Russel McClintock
N. Lincoln
Bill Wyman replies:
My apologies for misspelling his name and getting the song title wrong.