Blake’s Jerusalem is outwardly a patriotic lyric, but it deconstructs itself with the powerful line, ‘dark satanic mills’.
It is the ambivalence that I too feel towards homelands and resting places, which are all too earthly.
We are ‘born to go’, rather than to stay put, and our ultimate homeland is in outer space.
Some lines from Blake’s poem can be heard through this.
that modulated chirping sound... great
: That's a guitar through the Kaoss pad - great little thing to have around
that guitar on the left is rather melodic here
: That's the black Epiphone Les Paul Studio
mills indeed, turning, turning
: Everything becomes circular up to a point ...
slow liquid, something between states
: nice moment there with flowing Epi Les Paul [with some Ernie Isley phasing] and the Epi TBird with some [Jack Bruce distortion] crossing sky paths
: now there's a nice thing to think on...
crazy universe
: I hope so -
This is somehow relaxing this morning.
: I have just been listening to some hardcore noise punk, and it relaxed me .... don't know how or why ....
: Sometimes the ugly and fast is cathartic. If I needed to focus on work and programming stuff, I'd put on Slayer for that effect!
: there must be a connection between sound and state of mind [if that's not stating the obvious]. I am rarely in the 'mood' [mind] to listen to hard core punk ... but ... And so we then have the ability of sounds to *create* a state mind - whether through Muzak or Hawkwind's sonic attack. And this is the fascistic aspect of sound. Sound can make you *obey* ... or *disobey*. And the latter would be the Anarchistic aspect of sound. Sound to create Chaos .. or Order .... these are the issues raised by this track ..
: There is, but it's not always as cut and dried. If I want to relax, Slayer works. So does GG Allin. It puts me in a place where I can just focus on that moment, whereas 'relaxing' spacey, thoughtful stuff...doesn't!
: How weird is that - I've been listening to GG Allin's Murder Junkies and Brutality and Bloodshed for All fairly repeatedly the last few days. He really set the bar for rock singers.
: When he was on, he was ON. I think that's as fitting a testimony as it gets.
: Watching footage of GG [particularly after he came out of prison after being in for three years] he makes Iggy look tame. He was totally the real deal and personified rock n roll. His philosophy was straight ahead Satanism in its most undiluted form. I think his spirit was in the air when you read the Crowley book, you invoked GG.
Heh, the least I can do is keep his spirit alive. The oddity is that I even like some of the acoustic outtakes - the "GG plastered at a house party" acoustic version of Zevon's "Carmelita" is the most accurate, succinct version of a song already dripping in junkie lore.
Yeah, the country albums he did were great too - he understood the life affirming tragedy of it all.
This is what industrial music should have been.
: Start with four overdubbed TBird basses! But there is something else there - one thinks of the Mills, and of Water's Power station ... all Industry .... are these sounds then a protest against themselves? Or, why do we prefer electric guitar to acoustic guitar? Beefheart might help here - your amp brings forth the devil ... and we are back to The Book of the Law ... this new aeon is not for faint hearts .... I recall seeing a 'band' using blow torches and power tools instead of guitars ... the room was thick with acrid smoke and enlivened by sparks ... the gig was stopped on health and safety grounds
Heh, it reminds me of a Finnish noise project I listen to sometimes - it's *all* bassists and synth stuff beyond percussion, and it goes to similar spaces. And blow torches and power tools, we end up in Einstürzende Neubauten land fast!
Literally 'collapsing buildings'? We're back to the Mills again!
: Gotta keep the progress of industry going!
And in hell, the corrosives are salutory and medicinal.
: This attempts to put Blake's Illuminated writing into sound: It's about right, I think he'd be appropriately concerned.
And I see that it was a day of mean across the pond as well, I ended yesterday with fuzz and mean and pain.
: Yeah, I learnt a few lessons about revenge which were painful but hopefully will set the future in better order. Revenge should be forbidden if you believe in Amor Fati, as I purport to do.
Posted 6 months ago6 months ago
: I've learned that the best revenge is letting people get caught up in the hells they have created.
: and getting out of those hells?
The mills have brought out the best moments of Roger Waters, for sure. From the "Animals" stuff to "Watching TV", Blake is everywhere. "They built the dark satanic mills. That manufacture hell on earth. They bought the front row seats on Calvary. They are irrelevant to me. "
: Thanks for making that connection between Waters and Blake, very enlightening. I remember him saying he often has to tell people that Another Brick in the Wall *isn't* an anti-education song. With Blake's Jerusalem, the version set to music by Parry is a patriotic anthem sung at the Proms alongside God Save the Queen. And yet Blake's lyric is very subversive and non-triumphant
: That was a standard patriotic song I was unfamiliar with, but...I do live in a cave on the other side of a pond! :)
: There's been a rumbling debate about replacing the national anthem [God Save the Queen] with something else - and Jerusalem is always near the top of the alternatives!
Ends on a lovely guitar flourish Bill
: Epiphone Les Paul pulled out to friend the Epi Tbird - both very mean and very dark machines .... a track like this is a testament to their entropic evil -
Super intensity here in those multiple shifting layers
s: it was getting to the point of no return on this track - I had to scrap the first master and do a remix and another master, but then there were four basses on there at least - very tricky getting four + basses together without total cacophany
Monstrously deep purring from that t-bird bass..and those voices give a supremely haunting dimension
: I've always thought theTBird was the most badass bass - when I saw the Epi one in all matt black with the non-PC Celtic Cross on it, I had to get one - but I wasn't prepared for how good this bass was going to be. I had an inclin when Lemmy was depicted with one but changed to a Rick because he found the scale on the TB too long! Well that's it - too badass even for Lem. He put TB pups on his Rick at first - and those pups are so powerful; but the tone acoustically - it sustains for ages - the design - everything ... I'm stunned. Yeah, I sampled some of those voices but twisted them to my own ends
dig that fuzz bass tone!
: I just got that Epiphone Thunderbird bass IV - it's a revelation, and is a great platform for fuzz and distortion tones
This is what I hear in nightmares, and then wake up and dont remember it. Since I dont remember, I cant be sure. But I think it is....?
: I think it is -keep a notebook by you and write them down as soon as you wake
lyrics
Jerusalem
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
by Wm Blake
credits
from News Ears for New Music,
released October 29, 2017
Bill Boethius, guitars, basses, synths.
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