The Musical Quagmire

I was just listening to Bauhaus' “Who Killed Mr. Moonlight” and one line in that song made me laugh. I've heard this song thousands of times, but since it was Bauhaus, I never really paid attention to their lyrics. But, as I had my headphones on and usually I just can't avoid hearing the words in the music sometimes, I heard this line: “We can't paint any pictures/ As the moon had all our brushes”. The image conjured up by this just made me laugh. Ha ha ha. Funny.

So, the next song that my precious iPod played was “Peace Train” by the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. I love his songs, my favorite being “Father and Son”, an ode to Turgenev's work Otsy y diety (Fathers and Children), but this love for his music is overshadowed by his support of the Ayatollah when he (the Ayatollah) called for Salman Rushdie's head. Now that's an image that I particularly don't care for. I really have no love for Rushdie's work, and The Satanic Verses wasn't really all that great. It was a good piece of writing, but it did not deserve the attention it got. Circumstances is what really made The Satanic Verses so great. But, I have to admit that this book is way, way, way better than The Da Vinci Code. Yes, it's true, you can't argue with me on this one.

So, why music all of a sudden? Well, I made this menagerie of a conglomeration of a musical compilation for a co-worker of mine who told me she has bad taste in music. Well, I just couldn't let that go by, although for me “bad taste” is a relative thing, but you do have it if you listen to Depeche Mode and/or The Cure, or any of the slew of god-awful sounds that came out of the 80's. Not all 80's music was bad, mind you, but the majority was. Especially those glam rock depraved souls who tried to passed themselves off as Heavy Metal (Poison, Ratt, Def Leppard, et al).

I titled my compilation “Music for Psychosis” since most of what I listen to according to the majority of the people I know is just that, psychotic. And to add flavor to such a grandiose title, the first song on this compilation is “Schizophrenia” by Sonic Youth. Yeah! I can't think of any better way for the grandpappies of alternative music to have started off an album. The drum intro, then the discordant guitar coming in just a measure or two before the bass, is one of the best “composed” songs that I know. Sorry, most prog rock songs do better for me, but this is just one of those songs that entrances me from beginning to finish. And how does this relate to the beginning of this rant? Well, it has allusions to religion, that's why, so just sit tight and read (or just go to Hell, I don't care).

“She said Jesus had a twin who knew nothing about sin...” One might think, huh, what does that mean? And for the majority of people who don't really care about religion, or if you are Christian, won't know what this is referring to. But, I'm sure most of you do. The theory is that Jesus had a twin. Duh! How did these crazy aficionados of religion come to this conclusion? Here's the quick and dirty, non-scholarly, probably taken out of context, most likely erroneous, theory: The word “tomai” in Hebrew during Jesus' time meant “twin” and it wasn't a name, and when the Greek speaking, Hellenized Jews were writing the “New Testament”, they got confused. BTW, they were still Jews since there really were no “Christians” back then. So, in order to translate the word “tomai”, they decided to use the Greek equivalent of “tomai”, which is dydymous. And the final version in some modern translations of the “New Testament” have Thomas Dydymous as his name. Very confusing, right? Well, this was a really confusing thing for me to get a grasp on. You may ask, why didn't they already know what “tomai” and “dydymus” meant when they were writing about Jesus? Some say that language usage changes over time, and that the semantics of the language also changes with time. Like English, we never use “thou” anymore, and most of the time idiots use “thou” in a formal tone. Idiots I say.

OK. So further along the play list I have Genesis' “One for the Vine”. It's not exactly about religion per se, but it does have that anti-messiah type of message in it. Messiahs beget other messiahs opposed to the original messiahs is the feeling I get what the song is about. If I'm wrong, I want either Phil Collins, Michael Rutherford, or Tony Banks to tell me otherwise. I'm not sure how much Hackett was involved with that song, but his guitar playing is so subtly good and de-emphasized that I just can't stop admiring this guy's handiwork. No duh, you might say, that was obvious. Well, it is, and that's why I put it on there really close to the first song: They are related.

Going further along the list, I put a King Crimson song (more prog rock! You scream!), “Fallen Angel”. When I first read the title, and heard the song, I thought it was about the Devil. Then, I listened to the lyrics, and it seemed to be a song about some kid who becomes a thug, or joins a gang, but I guess it's the same thing. But, and this is a big but, this line affected me and made me think that it was a deeply obfuscated allusion to Jesus and Satan: “Tears of joy at the birth of a brother...”, then later on, “Stained with his blood it all went wrong/ Sick and tired blue wicked and wild...” I think that this line may be a reference to Jesus' crucifixion. OK, I may be stretching it this time. Nevertheless, I hold to my view. I'm no coward.

I really have no point in this post. I just wanted to write something about music, but in an intellectually ineffective manner. So many people argue what music is better than another, and I do admit that I get involved in these disputes, but in the end I respect everyone's opinions and each to eaches own, except if you're going to tell me that rock is dead, in which case I won't believe you because you're an idiot. And “Asturias” rules! I'd like to see a pop-rock guitarist play that heavenly piece. It does require six fingers, you know.