Cindy Sherman, for sure, but only after the bridge. It's as if Billy had seen an exhibition of Sherman's photos just before re-watching David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet.
Think back on the film (if you dare) while reading the lyrics. Blue Velvet America: a punctured beauty, headlights revealing the dark underbelly of the town, nightmares, an ear waiting for worms to claim it, a corrupted clown on a sofa, a voyeur who dares not come near. Near the end, Bragg mentions another film about America stopping at nothing to present a spotless image — The Stepford Wives.
All in all, the song is more about the film and might easily have been titled David of a Thousand Lives. Then again, Sherman (who listed Lynch as an inspiration in a New York Times article) is perhaps even more interested than Lynch in how the truly ugly is easily masked and called wholesome and beautiful. She is also known for using blue velvet in her pictures. In the end, Bragg is asking America, when he asks Cindy: "Which one of them is you?"
Cindy Sherman, for sure, but only after the bridge. It's as if Billy had seen an exhibition of Sherman's photos just before re-watching David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet.
Think back on the film (if you dare) while reading the lyrics. Blue Velvet America: a punctured beauty, headlights revealing the dark underbelly of the town, nightmares, an ear waiting for worms to claim it, a corrupted clown on a sofa, a voyeur who dares not come near. Near the end, Bragg mentions another film about America stopping at nothing to present a spotless image — The Stepford Wives.
All in all, the song is more about the film and might easily have been titled David of a Thousand Lives. Then again, Sherman (who listed Lynch as an inspiration in a New York Times article) is perhaps even more interested than Lynch in how the truly ugly is easily masked and called wholesome and beautiful. She is also known for using blue velvet in her pictures. In the end, Bragg is asking America, when he asks Cindy: "Which one of them is you?"
[Edit: punctuation]