Bridge Over Troubled Water
Quite a few years ago Iread a fascinating book called Media Sexploitation by someone named Wilson Bryan Key (1921 – 2008). The book was published in 1976 and the subject was the use of subliminal cues in various media to manipulate consumer behaviour. This was a time when farfetched ’scientific’ books like Chariots of the Gods and Seth Speaks were highly popular. However, Dr. Key’s book contains some startling information about subliminals. A subliminal is any signal, visual or aural that flashes by too quickly to conciously notice but is percieved by the subconscious. Subliminals can be used to subtly affect a viewer’s emotions. Subliminal messages can be used to create a strong visceral reaction, negative or positive. At the time the book was published use of subliminals in advertising was illegal in Europe and Canada but allowed in America and as far as I know it is still legal. I have frequently found subliminals in print media, including images of skulls embedded in an ad for life insurance. Subliminals have also been used widely in entertainment. One famous example, which Key uses and which is no secret, is William Friedkin’s classic horror movie The Exorcist. Friedkin intercut Satanic images into scenes of possessed child Linda Blair. He also used audio footage of swarming bees imperceptibly mixed into the soundtrack to create a hightened atmosphere of terror (human beings instinctively find this sound disturbing). More recently, Peter Jackson used shots of a demonic puppet to enhance a particularly startling scene in Fellowship of the Ring (watch The Appendices on the Extended Edition DVD). All this is genuinely fascinating and somewhat disturbing information. Unfortunately, the book fouders when Key attacks rock lyrics. Again, this being 1976 and there were still people alive who thought rock’n'roll was Satan’s music. Key believed that popular music contained encoded messages encouraging the nations youth to do very bad things like smoke weed and have sex at an early age. I have to hand it to him, Revolution 9 does contain the backwards spooling words “turn me on dead man” – I checked that one out for myself and it’s really there and clear as day. It’s also true that many rock songs did contain exhortations to experiment with drugs, although many of those messages were somewhat less than subliminal and more like a bunch of really high people eager to promote their favorite pasttime. However, the whole concept collapses into high hilarity when the author makes the argument that Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water is an ode to the joys of shooting heroin. For one thing, you couldn’t find two rock stars more square than Paul and Artie. Certainly neither one of them was shooting up and writing songs about it. The main basis for this theory is the line “sail on silver girl, sail on by… I’m sailing right behind” – evidently ’silver girl’ means needle and ’sailing’ is what you do when you’re high on heroin. The line “[when] pain is all around…I will ease your mind” refers to heroin’s intended purpose as a pain killer, obviously. “I will lay me down” – well, when one is high on heroin, one tends to pass out, nod off and otherwise lie down. And here was I thinking, naively, that the lyrics were about, oh I don’t know … friendship, maybe. Even the most innocent things can be misinterpreted in the most creative ways if you’re really dedicated to reinforcing your own beliefs.
When you’re weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them allI’m on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can’t be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me downWhen you’re down and out
When you’re on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort youI’ll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me downSail on Silver Girl,
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their waySee how they shine
If you need a friend
I’m sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Breed
What is it that makes me, someone who loathes pretty much every band that was big in the nineties, like Nirvana so much? A big part of the appeal is Kurt Cobain’s strong personal charisma. I mean, seriously, he was way hotter than Billy Corgan. Then there’s the dramatic appeal of the whole sordid, tragic, short story, compelling precisely because it was short. Cliched as it sounds, it really was the definitive cautionary tale of that era. The music may be nineties grunge to the max, but there’s a sense that underneath all that feedback and loudness there was some soul.
Breathless
Who, in 1984, would have imagined that someday Nick Cave would be in a video with dancing cartoon bunnies? Most of the stars who burst forth in the 80s post-punk scene either burnt out fast or have wilted over the years, but Nick Cave, ever the anomaly, has only gotten better and better. Cave work with The Birthday Party and his early albums with The Bad Seeds were more loud than anything else, but in the following decades his lyricism has really blossomed. As a rule, rock stars tend to lose their muse around the time they kick their monkey. The man who once used his own bloody needle to jot down lyrics has only gotten more thoughtful and more poetic since getting clean. Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus is a double album released in 2004, and I think it’s some kind of masterpiece. It features some of his most crushingly dark songs, including the Holocaust-themed O Children. On the other hand, some of the lyrics are also his most spiritual and inspiring. As always Cave has something to say about the darkness inside people, the agonizing pains of love and the degradations of society, but for the first time there’s a touch of some religious feeling, a fervent spritual seeking. Breathless is on one level a love song. On another, it could be a hymn. We are all breathless without love or God or God’s love. And bunnies!
It’s up in the morning and on the downs
Little white clouds like gambolling lambs
And I am breathless over you
And the red-breasted robin beats his wings
His throat it trembles when he sings
For he is helpless before you
The happy hooded bluebells bow
And bend their heads all a-down
Heavied by the early morning dew
At the whispering stream, at the bubbling brook
The fishes leap up to take a look
For they are breathless over you
Still your hands
And still your heart
For still your face comes shining through
And all the morning glows anew
Still your mind
Still your soul
For still, the fare of love is true
And I am breathless without you
The wind circles among the trees
And it bangs about the new-made leaves
For it is breathless without you
The fox chases the rabbit round
The rabbit hides beneath the ground
For he is defenceless without you
The sky of daytime dies away
And all the earthly things they stop to play
For we are all breathless without you
I listen to my juddering bones
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
Still your hands
And still your heart
For still your face comes shining through
And all the morning glows anew
Still your soul
Still your mind
Still, the fire of love is true
And I am breathless without you
Breathe
It’s rusty old cliche, but there’s really no better music to trip balls to. Well, actually there is, but you can’t go wrong with anything Floyd. However, I could do without generic ‘trippy’ video montages and endless fractals. Not necessary. Why gild the lily? One hoary old stoner legend I’ve never tried to touch is the old Wizard of Oz sync-up. For one thing, I hear it only works with vinyl and VHS. The Wizard of Oz is psychedelic enough without bringing in reinforcements. And third, it’s just stupid. Stoners are stupid. Mashups are stupid. Stupid stoner mashups are really stupid. Thanks, I needed to vent.
Model of the Week: Naomi Campbell
For most models modeling is just a job; a chance to see the world, an escape from a hardscrabble life, an avenue to more fulfilling pursuits. The glamour ends when the lights go down. For Naomi Campbell modeling is a way of life. Naomi’s got a reputation as a bitch and a diva, and not for nothing. It seems that every few months she’s in the papers for attacking or insulting someone. When she was finally convicted of assault, she showed up to do her community service wearing stilletos. A few years ago I read that her fees have grown so extortionate that not even her friend Donatella Versace wants to book her. She may be a drama queen. She may be someone you don’t want as an enemy. But do models come any more fabulous? Remember what I was saying earlier about the cult of personality and the importance of image? Naomi knows very well what her image is, and she lives it to the hilt. She knows what the world expects and she plays up that persona. Her job is to be a glamorous, dangerous, beautiful diva 24/7. Who else lives her job like that?
(clockwise: Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Yasmeen Ghauri, Stephanie Seymour)
Animals Make Us Human
Animals Make Us Human is the latest book by Dr Temple Grandin, one of my heroes. I just spent an hour writing up a review. Unfortunately, somewhere between opening the draft and publishing it, it got lost. FUCK!
So I’ll give you someone else’s review. Anyway, I’m sure The New York Times review is way better than anything I wrote. Now I’m depressed and angry.
I’ll just say that any book by Temple Grandin is highly recommended, for anyone who cares about animal welfare or who’s interested in the mysteries of autism, or the science of perception, or animal (and human) nature.
Breakout
Breakout, Black Uhuru, Iron Storm, 1991
Awkwardly, I really don’t have anything to say about Black Uhuru except to reiterate that I really like them. I do listen to reggae a lot, and strongly feel that Black Uhuru makes the best reggae on the market. But…Being hopelessly beholden to the cult of personality, well, my range of interest is limited. Black Uhuru has changed lineups multiple times over the years, without any drastic change to their sound, and nobody has emerged as a powerful star or driving force. That leaves me repeatedly featuring a band I know nothing about. I could do some research beyond the minimal effort of Wikipedia requires. But this isn’t a band about whom whole libraries are written, and there’s not much information easily available. The problem remains that I base my interest in rock stars on how good their hair looks in pictures. (Although the members of Black Uhuru do all have awesome hair.) I wonder if that’s a faulty basis for a career as a wanna-be critic. I’ve always argued that image is a vital part of performance and anyone neglecting their image is a lazy flop. On the critical end of things, is it unfair to judge an act by its image? I’m going to say no to that question. I’m also going to say that it is no way shallow or unfair if I renounce certain performers for being too ugly to be a fan of. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone with less musical aptitude than me, so music is very mysterious to me. Not having a clue, I’m basing my judgements on totally intangible things, like my own feelings stirred. And I have these moments of wondering what the hell I’m writing about and why, and I justify myself. I’ve already established that I’m not qualified to provide real criticism, nor do I feel up to unearthing any useful factual information. The alternative is to skew more strongly towards the personal. What I’d like to achieve is an impressionistic approach of listening to music – or does that sound a SOUPÇON pretentious? It help to view this whole blog as just a writing exercise, until the moment when I have the inspiration to really write something. I’m wondering many other bloggers view their page as a vehicle for polishing their prose. It’s a weird platform, this blogging – so anonymous and so public. I have to say, I really really love the internet, and I love this damaged culture that’s evolved with it. (BTW have you read the latest issue of Vanity Fair, which bemoans the horrific impact of reality tv and exposes the dark side of ‘Teh Qte’?) Because it gives me the freedom to go off on a stupid tangent like this one and put it out to world, as opposed to just thinking it or possibly soliloquizing to a captive audience of one at some party or bar, and feel like I’m doing something creative in this life, ass all the while safely planted in my favorite chair.
Breaking Glass
”You’re such a wonderful person/but you’ve got problems”
You know, this song doesn’t really make sense to me. If she’s got problems, why is he breaking glass in her room again? Sounds like they both have problems. And of all the possible live performances, I chose Serious Moonlight, Vancouver 1983 – the year I was born! Sweet Jeebus- so hot with the super 80s suit and anti-gravity hair.
Breakfast In Bed
Breakfast In Bed is an old R’n'B song by Eddie Hinton and Donnie Fritts that was popularized by Dusty Springfield in 1969. The British Reggae band UB40 covered it on their 1988 album, the creatively titled UB40. The female vocal is Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde in soft mode, one of several collaborations. The video? I don’t know…It looks like part of some movie or it could be that it’s supposed to have random snippets of conversation and no sync with the music. I’ve been listening to UB40 for years, and until now I didn’t even know which one of them was the singer. It had to be the dweeby one, dinnit.
Breakdown (Long Way From Home)
From The Silver Tongued Devil & I, Kristofferson’s second album and big breakthrough and still his most awesomely rad record ever (note grammatically correct title – he didn’t go to Oxford for nothing). Images in the video are from Cisco Pike, Kristofferson’s first big movie role (1972) – I believe this song was on the soundtrack, along with lots of other Kristofferson tunes.
The clubs are all closed and the ladies are leaving
There’s nobody nobody knows on the street
A few stranded souls standing cold at the station
And nowhere to go but to bed and to sleep
Lord would you look at you now that you’re here ain’t you
Proud of your peers and the long way you’ve come
All alone all the way on your own who’s to say
That you’ve thrown it away for a song boy you’ve sure come a long way from homeSo it’s so long so many so far behind you
Fairweather friends that you no longer know
You still got the same lonely songs to remind you
Of someone you seemed to be so long ago
Lord would you look at you…
