Getting Marilyn

The religious world has always had a hard time accommodating what some call "secular" art. 

The division between the two runs deep  through the years and carries itself into all genres of the art world, but none so much as with popular music.  The truth is that the churchies had a problem with Rock-N-Roll from the beginning....  They called it devil music.  But before Rock-N-Roll.... the devils music was the Blues.
   
The problem with the Churchie world-view on art is it's tendency toward oversimplification.  It's a shallow view because it can only be seen at face value.  Good and Evil....  Black and white.

(not talking about shades of relativity....  That's different)....  

But for artists....  it's more complicated than that.  Artists tend to use the raw things of life to reach for bigger things.  Their could be a face-value.... chip on the shoulder... of motivation.....

say someone like Marilyn Manson..... abused and mistreated by churchies as a young man.... might take on a devil persona in his art just to piss-off the churchies of his world....

But the music could be saying something else entirely...... Something on a deeper level.... Maybe even something that's true. 

I was thinking about that while I was laying on the table trying to get my tattoo done and my Tattoo artist... Mel D.... was playing some hard core scream metal music... But as the music was playing and we were talking.. I  was thinking about Robert Johnson. 

There's a mythology of sorts (Faustian) in the old blues world that says that Robert Johnson (real blues man)... Once took his guitar down to a crossroads at midnight and there.... sold his soul to the devil for the ability to play the guitar like no other man...

No one knows for sure exactly where the legend started but it was always confirmed by his living peers that on a trip to Arkansas once.... when he left... he was little more than a novice... And after he returned.... he was playing guitar like he was the king of the blues.

Now as interesting as the story is... I suspect (higher criticism.... no evidence...) that the legend perhaps might have been built around the mystery of his life....

(2 recording sessions ever.... 28 songs.... 2 survivable photos..... allegedly killed.... poisoned... at the age of 27)...

Or perhaps, it could have been built around the themes of his songs as well....

Hell Hound Blues
Preachin Blues (Up jumped the devil).
Me and the Devil Blues
Crossroad Blues.  etc...

But the themes of his blues music... aren't anthems to his new found satanic faith... Rather... they're sad, real and raw..... sometimes startling images of what it's really like when someone lives on the dark side...  Some of his songs are dark expressions of the blues..... a suggested spiritual source... And a (terribly ugly) physical manifestation.

ex. Lyric:
Me and the devil... was walkin side by side...
And I'm gonna beat my woman.. til I get satisfied.

They're part of the wandering blues character that he created (artists often create characters.... ie..Alice Cooper.... David Bowie.... etc..)... that had once been free of the sordid things of life.  Now explaining why evil comes as it does.....

ex. lyrics....
Early this mornin... When you knocked upon my door... I said hello Satan... I believe it's time to go...


It sounds a lot to me like the words of a famous saint who once said....  the good that I want...... I don't do............. but I practice the very evil I don't want........ who will rescue me from this body of death???

(Or 1980's... INXS....  ........every single one of us.... the devil inside"... Ha!!)


In fact..... if you think about it... if it weren't for the very physical nature of us... (people).... the very spiritual nature of him (the devil).... would never make an appearance in this world at all.... 

(Could that be true???)

My train of thought came back with the piercing sound of a needle digging into soft, sensitive, supple, fatty flesh..... 

My Arm!!! 

I think they're missing the point. 

Mel D.  my tattoo artist was talking.  Marilyn Manson is not the devil... people.  Get over it. 
He's a character.  He's the outrageous thing that people fear. 
(mainly ourselves)...


The controversy's all because people need someone else to point the finger at.... so they don't have to point it at themselves

He's not the devil anymore than you or I am the devil..

(could that be true???)


That's ultimately the point of Marylin Manson...  all be it from a jaded- angry- "all the churchies suck"..... kind of perspective...  But I suspect that that was something of the point of Robert Johnson as well.  That sometimes it's us.... me and you.

Sometimes we're the devil....

That couldn't really be true.... could it????

The Angry Christmas Blues: A Festivus for the Rest of Us

I've been thinking about not celebrating Christmas this year.  Not because of the commercialism and the disconnected traditions.  And not because I don't like Jesus.  (because I do... I believe all the "big things" about Jesus....  Incarnation... Son of God....  Resurrection.... 2nd coming etc.).  But Im thinking about boycotting the holiday primarily because the churchies are screwing it up for me. Last week one of our Senators decided he would no longer participate in the Christmas parade because they had taken Christ out of the name. On first glance, it looks like if you love Jesus it's the only right thing to do.  But the problem from my perspective is that it's not the type of thing Jesus did.  Rather Jesus seemed to be humble and other-person-focussed.  He never would have demanded his own holiday. However, he did participate in the religious holidays of his time (jewish). Our Senator believes evidently that Christ would never participate in a "parade of lights" celebration.  And as a representative of Jesus on this earth he's decided to hold the world hostage by denying us his presence until Christendom is fully restored to it's rightful place as King conquering religion of the world.  And evidently, short of following Jesus' humble example and his command to Love, he has decided to use any means necessary to make it happen.  Manipulate.  Coerce.  Isolate....  Pout.....  Just like Jesus would do.  (sarcasm). I'm always amazed at the difference I see in how Jesus did things compared to how many of his followers do them.  The kingdom doesn't come by force or manipulation.  According to Jesus, the kingdom comes by Love. Jesus said his Kingdom begins in the heart, and works inside-out.  Many of his followers seem to think it works outside/in with pressure and political power garnering loyalty and support as the primary "way" of doing things.  (Loyalty is not always the best of all values; remember gangsters are loyal). It's the old, rah rah, "let's win America back for God", mindset that has everything to do with steam-rolling the "competition" rather than loving "the people",  (at a sacrificial cost if necessary) which is what Jesus did.       I've been looking at Festivus recently as  a substitute holiday.  I like the real, raw dorm-room quality of it.  Airing of grievances?  Feats of Strength?  The efficiency of substituting a tree (old pagan trickle-down tradition) for a beautiful, solid, high strength-to-weight ratio aluminum pole.  Besides, it seems less militant and somewhat flexible enough that one might incorporate Jesus in the celebration should one so choose. And ultimately that's the point isn't it?  That instead of being manipulated or coerced into the tradition, that one might freely choose?  Isn't that how Jesus did it?