Love is the drug

By John Robb

" Aflash of bulbs, a swaggering walk, a lifestyle beyond the law-pop culture couples have signposted our times since the war.

Each decade is reflected by it's own pop culture power couple. Thelate fifties saw the king of pop- the leonine Elvis marry the, frankly, fairlyyoung Priscilla. Elvis was the horny beast that terrified middle America withhis devilish hip swinging songs that were semi disguised orgasms set to theprimal backbeat of black music. After marriage Elvis clowned around in endless‘b' movies and started singing ballads- a lost soul whose mojo wouldmomentarily return on stage.

If Elvis and Priscilla were the first real pop couple then Johnand Yoko summed up the next decade.

Lennon drove the Beatles and the whole of his generation on anendless quest for something that no-one ever seemed to find but had a greatsoundtrack.

When he met Japanese artist Yoko Ono the pair of them swiftlymerged into one with the same hair, wardrobe, and determination to make art ofthe media in the ballad of John and Yoko.

The Stones also housed a key pop culture couple with KeithRichards and Anita Pallenberg whose bohemian drug waltz saw them morph intoone- a blur of leopardskin, impenetrable shades, bird's nest hair and awkwardteeth framed by pale faces and a vampiric demeanor that looked far tooseductive and attractive for their lifestyle.

Smack had never looked so sexy.

The seventies saw the Sex Pistols whose bass player Sid Vicioustook the rock n roll trip to its furthest excess.

The befuddled Sid was just about getting way with it until he fellin with Nancy Spungen- a lower league rock ‘n' roll groupie. Nancy, in her madand loose way, gave Sid a brief shelter in 

those fast ticking down last years of his life. She also gave hima raging smack habit and lots of bad ideas on how to conduct himself. ThePistols fell apart and so did Sid who was lost in a sea of drug clichés.

Kurt and Courtney shared the same messy tale of drugs and love.Kurt's sensitive soul was not built for the shallow empty sewer of success andhis tragic suicide ended this very modern love story.

The 21st century has been blighted by celeb culture- couples whoare as boring as they are talentless. The only highpoint has been the chemicalswagger of Pete Doherty, the helter skelter Libertine, who met Kate Moss andsuddenly found his itinerant, chemical lifestyle was now under the mediaspotlight and he could no longer get away with sex, drugs and rock n roll.

But it didn't stop him and even if the love affair that dominatedthe tabloids fell apart Doherty still creates confounding the media.

It's a very modern fable and proof that the potency of the couplesmyth and the power of love over everything else is still strong. "