Even blasphemy isn't safe from the clutches of estrogentrification, it seems. The spirit in me is definitely pained by the refrain of "Barrett's Privateers," but at least I can listen to it. The lyrics hurt, but the song is great:
Painful, but sung by a man, in a manly way. Contrasted with this, which is completely unlistenable:
At least there's a rainbow behind them on the railroad tracks. God's mercy on display. I find it interesting, because the artist in me winces alongside the indwelling Holy Spirit in this watered-down, stylized exercise in blasphemy, while in the Stan Rogers example, I soldier through it because the art is great. The singing, the lyrics, everything, great. I can't listen to it often, because it hurts, but I can listen to it. I can't get 30 seconds into the Dead South song. The blasphemy isn't only spiritual, it also extends to the derivative nature of the material and the unbearable manner in which it is performed.
The watered-down blasphemy of The Dead South is everything that sends the truly wild Irish-Mexican outlaw in all of us straight to heaven to get away from. It's like a weird, uptight church full of feminine men who want to go to hell. It's like hell is blaspheming against itself, showing its true, infernal colors in the defeated nature of this unlistenable beast. I thought the devil had all the best tunes? This video resembles a jeans commercial for women. And I hate to break it to you, Dead South, but your solitude will be complete, in the eternal flames of your regret.
God help us all.
Is nothing unsacred anymore?
* * *
Postscript: I would like to add 2 more videos that show the contrast between outlaw wilderness as it exists on video today, and how it appeared on film in the past. The music video for Chris Rea's "Road To Hell" lacks a certain irreverent madness that exists in the 1966 film The Wild Angels. Even the Hollywood royalty factor of Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra can't take away from the lunacy inherent in the film. Chris Rea's "Road To Hell," in contrast, looks like a commercial for a hipster barber shop. There is reverence in their rebellion. Nothing like the unwashed, unhinged hellhounds of decades prior.
If "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft," I'm not saying it's a virtue. I'm not a pack animal and wouldn't get along with either group for any length of time. The point is simply:
Look at how much more free the world used to be.
I'm not saying we should go back.
Regardless of any of it,
the world will burn eventually.
Wild movies vs. stylish music videos is a topic of mild amusement at most.
It's all going to hell
like it apparently wants to,
and looking back
doesn't mean I want to go back,
but I don't want to forget about it either.
The attitudes of the 1960's were not a virtue, but they were a lot more free.
Freedom was taken for granted, even pushed to the extreme.
Today, evil hasn't been tamed, it has become tame. There is a difference. I think the latter is much more dangerous.
It's the kind of evil that masquerades as virtue. The kind of evil you find in Communist pamphlets,
or at church.
It's a point that bears remembering.
Thank you.
