While it may be a long shot that BOC's "The Red and the Black" was intended as a reference to Bertiaux's gnostic vodun system, the possibility does exist. Both Pearlman and Bertiaux appear to have had ties to the New York occult scene by the early 1970s, both men had a keen interest in Lovecraft, and both men adopted an interest in vodun at some point as well. Indeed, Bertiaux's system may have had an enormous influence on the story line of the Imaginos , as shall be addressed in a future installment.
Tyranny and Mutation : The Rest of Side A
After Tyranny 's rip-roaring opener wraps up, the group lurches into the sleazy, vaguely bluesy " OD'd On Life Itself ." This track features more Pearlman lyrics, these far more esoteric than those in "The Red and the Black." The song seems to vaguely revolve around the process of initiation. This most evident in the second verse, which proclaims:
Writings appear on the wall The curtains part and landscape fall There, the writing's done, in blood Like a mummy's inscription and a bat-wing tongue
Well then the mouth of the cave will open up wide Wide as the world that's mine, it's mine, it's still mine
Caves are closely associated with initiation rituals the world over.
"As the archetype of the maternal womb, caverns feature in myths of origin, rebirth and initiation from many cultures. Under the heading 'cavern' are included 'cave' and 'grotto', although they are not precisely synonymous. It implies a place, roofed with rock or earth, at any depth in earth or mountainside, more or less dark, often lying at the end of a long passageway, and without direct daylight. Lairs of robbers or wild animals are excluded, since their significance is no more than a corruption of the symbol...
"At the start of many initiation rites, the candidate enters a cave or pit. This is 'the return to the womb', as defined by Mircea Eliade, in material form. This was especially true of the Eleusinian rites..., in which symbolic logic was strictly translated into action. Candidates were placed, bound, in the cave from which they had to escape to reach the light of day. Prior to this, in the religious ceremonies of Zoroaster, a cave represented the world..."
( Dictionary of Symbols , Jean Gheerbrant & Alain Gheerbrant, pg. 167)
A cave as a symbol of the world was clearly alluded to by Pearlman in the final couplet of the second verse. The prior stanzas allude to this initiation involving rituals, possibly to channel a nonhuman intelligence. The second half of the third verse ("This wedding by heaven was made up in hell/With the victim as bride and life, life itself") implies that this ritual may have involved some form of a sacred marriage . The candidate begins this ritual, struggles with a daemon or something along those lines and emerges from the proverbial cave with a fresh sense of invigoration (hinted at by words spoken behind the chorus that go: "OD'd on life itself/the power of powers/And once luminous spell" ).
From there things segue way into bassist Joe Bouchard 's " Hot Rails to Hell ." A fan favorite, this menacing number alludes to both night time rides of New York City's subway lines as well as the murder of early BOC booking agent Phil King ("Stoned out looks from the crowd, the king will not know/On the wall it was said/The flash of his cards was sprayed with red"), allegedly over gambling debts. While another strong track on Tyranny 's classic A side, this non-Pearlman number is not especially esoteric.
the single version of "Hot Rails to Hell" Side A's closer, " 7 Screaming Diz-Buster " more than makes up for this. This was another hard hitting track with multiple sections that can be described as proto- thrash . A fan favorite, the bizarre and sinister lyrics have long puzzled listeners. The band themselves have only offered a few tantalizing hints:
"Albert has revealed that 'diz' refers to the cleft of the penis, and the 'duster's dust' refers to sperm. But the concept of diz-buster is left ambiguous. The definition of of 'something that can make one ejaculate' most plausibly applies to a reading that these seven diz-busters are evil, paranormal sex sirens, women beings without a conscious, the number seven bringing in a biblical element to the lyric as well. But this track could also be one of Sandy's biker songs, diz-buster referring to the result of a long, vibrating Harley ride (and then, mamas and old ladies joke about the orgasmic qualities of a good ride). Indeed, many lines in the song could have one believe that the diz-buster is a bike (there is a mention of cast iron, the mirror's face, rigid arms, routes, all suggesting this interpretation), especially in light of the fact that females, female pronouns, or sexual ideas are never mentioned in the song."
( Agents of Fortune , Martin Popoff, pgs. 38-39)
It would be rather inaccurate to state that sexual ideas are not present in the song. And while the language does seem to deliberately employ biker images at times, this researcher believes this was done to cloud Pearlman's real meaning.
The great Julian Cope offered up a compelling interpretation of the track :
"... Side One closes with the Cult's classic '7 Screaming Dizbusters', whose soundtrack I've omitted here because it straddles that weird jazz that both Zappa and Todd had a habit of shoehorning into their songs, and which The Tubes and their ilk later appropriated however inappropriate. Despite its absence here, the song is indeed a real wonder, a 7-minute long leviathan and full-on rumbustuous tale of seven itinerant horse-borne paladins and their relationship with Lucifer, or Lugh, in his pre-Christian role as the horned God of the Hunt."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
carisma_sensei
no subject
Date: 2016-10-12 11:28 am (UTC)Tyranny and Mutation : The Rest of Side A
After Tyranny 's rip-roaring opener wraps up, the group lurches into the sleazy, vaguely bluesy " OD'd On Life Itself ." This track features more Pearlman lyrics, these far more esoteric than those in "The Red and the Black." The song seems to vaguely revolve around the process of initiation. This most evident in the second verse, which proclaims:
Writings appear on the wall
The curtains part and landscape fall
There, the writing's done, in blood
Like a mummy's inscription and a bat-wing tongue
Well then the mouth of the cave will open up wide
Wide as the world that's mine, it's mine, it's still mine
Caves are closely associated with initiation rituals the world over.
"As the archetype of the maternal womb, caverns feature in myths of origin, rebirth and initiation from many cultures. Under the heading 'cavern' are included 'cave' and 'grotto', although they are not precisely synonymous. It implies a place, roofed with rock or earth, at any depth in earth or mountainside, more or less dark, often lying at the end of a long passageway, and without direct daylight. Lairs of robbers or wild animals are excluded, since their significance is no more than a corruption of the symbol...
"At the start of many initiation rites, the candidate enters a cave or pit. This is 'the return to the womb', as defined by Mircea Eliade, in material form. This was especially true of the Eleusinian rites..., in which symbolic logic was strictly translated into action. Candidates were placed, bound, in the cave from which they had to escape to reach the light of day. Prior to this, in the religious ceremonies of Zoroaster, a cave represented the world..."
( Dictionary of Symbols , Jean Gheerbrant & Alain Gheerbrant, pg. 167)
A cave as a symbol of the world was clearly alluded to by Pearlman in the final couplet of the second verse. The prior stanzas allude to this initiation involving rituals, possibly to channel a nonhuman intelligence. The second half of the third verse ("This wedding by heaven was made up in hell/With the victim as bride and life, life itself") implies that this ritual may have involved some form of a sacred marriage . The candidate begins this ritual, struggles with a daemon or something along those lines and emerges from the proverbial cave with a fresh sense of invigoration (hinted at by words spoken behind the chorus that go: "OD'd on life itself/the power of powers/And once luminous spell" ).
From there things segue way into bassist Joe Bouchard 's " Hot Rails to Hell ." A fan favorite, this menacing number alludes to both night time rides of New York City's subway lines as well as the murder of early BOC booking agent Phil King ("Stoned out looks from the crowd, the king will not know/On the wall it was said/The flash of his cards was sprayed with red"), allegedly over gambling debts. While another strong track on Tyranny 's classic A side, this non-Pearlman number is not especially esoteric.
the single version of "Hot Rails to Hell"
Side A's closer, " 7 Screaming Diz-Buster " more than makes up for this. This was another hard hitting track with multiple sections that can be described as proto- thrash . A fan favorite, the bizarre and sinister lyrics have long puzzled listeners. The band themselves have only offered a few tantalizing hints:
"Albert has revealed that 'diz' refers to the cleft of the penis, and the 'duster's dust' refers to sperm. But the concept of diz-buster is left ambiguous. The definition of of 'something that can make one ejaculate' most plausibly applies to a reading that these seven diz-busters are evil, paranormal sex sirens, women beings without a conscious, the number seven bringing in a biblical element to the lyric as well. But this track could also be one of Sandy's biker songs, diz-buster referring to the result of a long, vibrating Harley ride (and then, mamas and old ladies joke about the orgasmic qualities of a good ride). Indeed, many lines in the song could have one believe that the diz-buster is a bike (there is a mention of cast iron, the mirror's face, rigid arms, routes, all suggesting this interpretation), especially in light of the fact that females, female pronouns, or sexual ideas are never mentioned in the song."
( Agents of Fortune , Martin Popoff, pgs. 38-39)
It would be rather inaccurate to state that sexual ideas are not present in the song. And while the language does seem to deliberately employ biker images at times, this researcher believes this was done to cloud Pearlman's real meaning.
The great Julian Cope offered up a compelling interpretation of the track :
"... Side One closes with the Cult's classic '7 Screaming Dizbusters', whose soundtrack I've omitted here because it straddles that weird jazz that both Zappa and Todd had a habit of shoehorning into their songs, and which The Tubes and their ilk later appropriated however inappropriate. Despite its absence here, the song is indeed a real wonder, a 7-minute long leviathan and full-on rumbustuous tale of seven itinerant horse-borne paladins and their relationship with Lucifer, or Lugh, in his pre-Christian role as the horned God of the Hunt."