April 2022 Vinyl Spin Challenge - Intertextuality and You

ranbalam said:
I remember talking with a friend about the lyrics to Rocket Man a few years ago; for some reason I never took them literally and thought the song was a metaphor for breakup/divorce. He was like, no, it's about a guy working in space. Guess I over thought that one.
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I think if works on a metaphorically also. It’s basically a song about being away from the place and people you love and though it sucks and is lonely as fuck you persevere because you are a Rocket Man. For example this song works as a fantastic analogous for an immigrant traveling to a foreign country where they don’t speak the language and trying to earn some extra cash to send back home to their family.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
I chose this record mainly because of “Rocket Man” I think Bernie Taupin really strikes the same note on this track. It’s a man setting aside his humanity to embark on a mission in outer space. He sings about all the things he misses about home and his loneliness. “all the science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week”. Feels like something the Narrator would tell himself to cope with his detachment from human moments.
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Mars, in fact, really ain't the kind of place to raise a kid.

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April 2 – Don DeLillo, Human Moments in World War III
“It is not too early in the war to discern nostalgic references to earlier wars. All wars refer back. Ships, planes, entire operations are named after ancient battles, simpler weapons, what we perceive as conflicts of nobler intent. This recon-interceptor is called Tomahawk II. When I sit at the firing panel I look at a photograph of Vollmer’s granddad when he was a young man in sagging khakis and a shallow helmet, standing in a bare field, a rifle strapped to his shoulder. This is a human moment, and it reminds me that war, among other things, is a form of longing.”

The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time
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I first thought of these albums when I read this passage because of the nostalgic references to early eras of music in each song. The present moment in the song is dreary, old, and one of loss. It recalls earlier times, presumably happy times, which is what makes the present so tragic. And it is steeped through with longing. A very human set of albums in their fragility.
 
April 3 – Carmen Maria Machado, The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror
  • “Maxa’s vanity was cluttered with what she needed and more: bulbed bottles of scent with sleek lines, a small pair of scissors, mascaras and powders the color of chalk, lipstick and a metal tracer, kohl for her eyes, a hot curler, rouge, a fat brush tipped in pink dust, pencils, old scripts, a pair of bone-colored dice. It seemed like a place where spells were cast; that by scooping up a resident mouse and opening its throat into her wine glass, Maxa might be able to curse whomever she pleased. But there was no need for animal blood; powdered carmine arrived in small sacks – which Sabine told me was created by boiling insects – and I spent my waking hours mixing and reheating the concoction like a vampiress.”
First record that popped into my head...




King Tuff - Black Moon Spell

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April 3 – Carmen Maria Machado, The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror
  • “Maxa’s vanity was cluttered with what she needed and more: bulbed bottles of scent with sleek lines, a small pair of scissors, mascaras and powders the color of chalk, lipstick and a metal tracer, kohl for her eyes, a hot curler, rouge, a fat brush tipped in pink dust, pencils, old scripts, a pair of bone-colored dice. It seemed like a place where spells were cast; that by scooping up a resident mouse and opening its throat into her wine glass, Maxa might be able to curse whomever she pleased. But there was no need for animal blood; powdered carmine arrived in small sacks – which Sabine told me was created by boiling insects – and I spent my waking hours mixing and reheating the concoction like a vampiress.”
Santana "Abraxas" (1970 Columbia; 2020 reissue)
BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

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April 2 – Don DeLillo, Human Moments in World War III
“It is not too early in the war to discern nostalgic references to earlier wars. All wars refer back. Ships, planes, entire operations are named after ancient battles, simpler weapons, what we perceive as conflicts of nobler intent. This recon-interceptor is called Tomahawk II. When I sit at the firing panel I look at a photograph of Vollmer’s granddad when he was a young man in sagging khakis and a shallow helmet, standing in a bare field, a rifle strapped to his shoulder. This is a human moment, and it reminds me that war, among other things, is a form of longing.”

The Well - Death and Consolation
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April 3 – Carmen Maria Machado, The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror
  • “Maxa’s vanity was cluttered with what she needed and more: bulbed bottles of scent with sleek lines, a small pair of scissors, mascaras and powders the color of chalk, lipstick and a metal tracer, kohl for her eyes, a hot curler, rouge, a fat brush tipped in pink dust, pencils, old scripts, a pair of bone-colored dice. It seemed like a place where spells were cast; that by scooping up a resident mouse and opening its throat into her wine glass, Maxa might be able to curse whomever she pleased. But there was no need for animal blood; powdered carmine arrived in small sacks – which Sabine told me was created by boiling insects – and I spent my waking hours mixing and reheating the concoction like a vampiress.”

Myrkur - Mareridt

Myrkur is Icelandic for "darkness." She looks like a High Priestess of the Temple Horror. Has "chalk" colored skin & makeup. Bone-chilling vocals on this record.

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April 3 – Carmen Maria Machado, The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror

Since I was playing this the other day it popped immediately in my head because of the cover, and the band/album names kinda fit with the witch idea too. And my wife's voice just came from the other room and asked, "did you seriously by a f*cking poison record?" Lol
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April 4 – William Gibson, Johnny Mnemonic
  • "Transition to idiot-savant mode is always less abrupt than I expect it to be. The pirate broadcaster's front was a failing travel agency in a pastel cube that boasted a desk, three chairs, and a faded poster of a Swiss orbital spa. A pair of toy birds with blown-glass bodies and tin legs were sipping monotonously from a Styrofoarm cup of water on the ledge beside Molly's shoulder. As I phased into mode, they accelerated gradually until their DayGlo-feathered crowns became solid arcs of color. The LEDs that told seconds on the plastic wall clock had become meaningless pulsing grids, and Molly and the Mao-faced boy grew hazy, their arms blurring occasionally in insect-quick ghosts of gesture. And then it all faded to cool gray static and an endless tone poem in the artificial language."
Mentally picturing this scene unfold, this is the first thing that popped into my head...




The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tepid Peppermint Wonderland Volume One

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April 4 – William Gibson, Johnny Mnemonic
  • "Transition to idiot-savant mode is always less abrupt than I expect it to be. The pirate broadcaster's front was a failing travel agency in a pastel cube that boasted a desk, three chairs, and a faded poster of a Swiss orbital spa. A pair of toy birds with blown-glass bodies and tin legs were sipping monotonously from a Styrofoarm cup of water on the ledge beside Molly's shoulder. As I phased into mode, they accelerated gradually until their DayGlo-feathered crowns became solid arcs of color. The LEDs that told seconds on the plastic wall clock had become meaningless pulsing grids, and Molly and the Mao-faced boy grew hazy, their arms blurring occasionally in insect-quick ghosts of gesture. And then it all faded to cool gray static and an endless tone poem in the artificial language."
Johnny Thunders "So Alone" (1978 Real Records; 2014 Drastic Plastic remaster)
You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory.

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April 1 – Samuel R. Delany, Aye, and Gomorrah…

“"Yes." She looked down. I glanced to see the expression she was hiding. It was a smile. "You have your glorious, soaring life—and you have us." Her face came up. She glowed. "You spin in the sky, the world spins under you, and you step from land to land, while we . . ." She turned her head right, left, and her black hair curled and uncurled on the shoulder of her coat. "We have our dull, circled lives, bound in gravity, worshiping you!" She looked back at me. "Perverted, yes? In love with a bunch of corpses in free fall!" Suddenly she hunched her shoulders. "I don't like having a free-fall-sexual-displacement complex."”

Excellent approach for this month!

Taking the italicized portion of the quote above for my inspiration. I don't know if I've mentioned it on previous posts, but I had a summer job in the late 80s reading fan mail for a few people. My mom was a teacher, and one of the parents of her students ran fan clubs and needed summer help going through a backlog of letters. So we'd get the mail and either send back a generic response (Thanks for the mail, I can't respond to everything, but join my fan club!), or for the ones that were a little more 'concerning' we'd send those letters to security / legal.

One of those artists I read fan mail for was Michael Jackson. Needless to say, he got some interesting mail. Lots of Billie Jeans, lots of general fan mail, but also a fair amount of people obsessed with him. I recall one person who would send 7-8 of the same letter every day, same words on each line, but written in different color ink so you knew they hand wrote and mailed it multiple times. The italicized text above reminds me of them, putting someone they don't know on such an unattainable pedestal and not being able to separate the artist from the art. I can only hope that this person was able to move past this and live life for themselves, and not through someone else.

Michael Jackson ~ Off The Wall

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April 2 – Don DeLillo, Human Moments in World War III
  • “It is not too early in the war to discern nostalgic references to earlier wars. All wars refer back. Ships, planes, entire operations are named after ancient battles, simpler weapons, what we perceive as conflicts of nobler intent. This recon-interceptor is called Tomahawk II. When I sit at the firing panel I look at a photograph of Vollmer’s granddad when he was a young man in sagging khakis and a shallow helmet, standing in a bare field, a rifle strapped to his shoulder. This is a human moment, and it reminds me that war, among other things, is a form of longing.”
Pulling on the last part of the quote here. The human moment. Makes me think of the song "The Sands of Iwo Jima" that Patterson Hood wrote about his Great-Uncle George A. As Patterson wrote on the album commentary about the track:

"THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA
As a kid, I spent every weekend at my Great-Uncle's farm (my family's old homestead) where I rode go-carts and acted out my favorite movie scenes in the woods. George A. is an amazing man (still kicking hard at 84) and I have long tried to capture a glimpse of those times in a song.

During World War II he was drafted and ended up on the island Iwo Jima in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. As a curious child, I'd often innocently ask him about all that. One night while watching the old John Wayne movie (The Sands Of Iwo Jima) on TV, he simply said that he "never saw John Wayne over there".

So many of the folks I've written about in this album feel forced into doing terrible things. George A. was no doubt, changed by his experience, but I know him to be easily one of the greatest men I have ever met, thus, making it a much trickier subject to write about."


Drive~By Truckers ~ The Dirty South

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April 3 – Carmen Maria Machado, The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror
  • “Maxa’s vanity was cluttered with what she needed and more: bulbed bottles of scent with sleek lines, a small pair of scissors, mascaras and powders the color of chalk, lipstick and a metal tracer, kohl for her eyes, a hot curler, rouge, a fat brush tipped in pink dust, pencils, old scripts, a pair of bone-colored dice. It seemed like a place where spells were cast; that by scooping up a resident mouse and opening its throat into her wine glass, Maxa might be able to curse whomever she pleased. But there was no need for animal blood; powdered carmine arrived in small sacks – which Sabine told me was created by boiling insects – and I spent my waking hours mixing and reheating the concoction like a vampiress.”
I read through this a few times, and realized I was hearing it my head like Tom Waits was reciting it. Now its in your head too.

Tom Waits ~ Mule Variations

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April 4 – William Gibson, Johnny Mnemonic
  • "Transition to idiot-savant mode is always less abrupt than I expect it to be. The pirate broadcaster's front was a failing travel agency in a pastel cube that boasted a desk, three chairs, and a faded poster of a Swiss orbital spa. A pair of toy birds with blown-glass bodies and tin legs were sipping monotonously from a Styrofoarm cup of water on the ledge beside Molly's shoulder. As I phased into mode, they accelerated gradually until their DayGlo-feathered crowns became solid arcs of color. The LEDs that told seconds on the plastic wall clock had become meaningless pulsing grids, and Molly and the Mao-faced boy grew hazy, their arms blurring occasionally in insect-quick ghosts of gesture. And then it all faded to cool gray static and an endless tone poem in the artificial language."

I think I'm leaning toward a 'free association' approach for this month. This made me think of the line "I saw a perfect echo die into an anonymous wall of digital sound" from Natural Beauty (on Harvest Moon), but I don't have that album. So I'm going to go with the next best thing that has a similar concept of that intersection of humanity and technology.

Neil Young ~ Trans

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