Off: Music help

[Carl E. Anderson]

On tor 4 dec 1997 02.21 +0100 "Daniel Wikdahl" <mpj95wid at MC.HIK.SE> wrote:

> I know I said something like "listening but not _understanding_"
> in my mail.

     Yes, and I guess I understand that point.

> But I've got to admit that I don't understand the logic in what Lemmy
was.
> doing  You got to help me there Carl. I've never thought Lemmy was a
nazi -
> that's why I felt it's hard to udnerstand the use of swastikas.

     Motorhead lyrics often discuss the horrors we associate with Nazism
(and in a distinctly negative way).  Then add the sprinkle of Nazi
symbolism, and it becomes an ironic message.

     I think this has become more obvious in the recent songs (as Lemmy
gets older and more cynical--though without Brock's apparent despair!).

from "On You Feet or on Your Knees":
"Human beings ain't got no brains/Think you're better but you're all the
same/Think you're clever but you're all to blame/Here we are again in the
same old frame [...] You humans don't be so proud/You humans don't talk
too loud/You human's just ain't too smart/It's enough to break my human
heart"

from "Burner":
"Riots in the burning street/Crystal night outside/Brutal music in the
night, enough to make you cry/Nobody knows how it is to sleep and drown
the world [...] Outside in the distance, the city is on fire/See the
houses burning down mile after mile/I don't think you know about your
future yet/I don't think you're gonna like the one you're gonna get

from "Sacrifice":
"The women stitch the shrouds/The children murder all the world/If only
you believe/Then only you will die/How can you not/See the stars/In your
eyes?"

     The "Sacrifice" video, of course, was a wild collage of images of
Naziism and soft-core pornography!  Sort of stuff Hitler would go for, I
reckon ;)  But combined with the lyrics, it becomes an ironic comment on
human attitudes and human history.
     I suppose the problem comes when, as you suggest, people only
understand half (the _wrong_ half) of the message!

     We need not restrict ourselves to Lemmy's Motorhead output.  "The
Watcher" was a pretty damning comment on the human race, set as it was
into the context of Hawkwind's SF/space themes.

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/