YouTube - Marilyn Manson - Running To The Edge Of The World

YouTube - Marilyn Manson - Running To The Edge Of The World

Well, I used to not hate Marilyn Manson all that much. I really like his the beautiful people song. I had this ex-boyfriend that would wear the make up and the whole bit, and I thought it was kind of dumb but whatever people want to do to express themselves is usually fine with me. However, after seeing this video it kind of makes me hate Marilyn Manson. He is probably like 40 now, and exploiting kids with this garbage. The video is him beating up a girl that looks a lot like his ex. At some point she loses her clothes and she is rubbing the blood that is dripping down her face onto her chest. At any rate he is really sexualizing him beating her up which if your music is decent you don't need to glorify domestic violence to get hype.

http://www.dose.ca/celebrity/2193252/story.html

You Think You Know Somebody

This is a sad song about someone whose friend was abused and then they ended up killing thier own kid years later. I think this song is very pertinent. I knew this guy a while ago, and I heard through his girlfriend that he was abused by his family and then years later he did end up shooting someone. He wasn't a bad guy, from what I knew of him, but what I heard that was done to him was very bad. So, I think that songs like this are true. This artist is very good, I think but what does it all really mean, this idea of violence and music, I think it is more than this, it is more than singing about a violent society. It is more than songs that talk about violence creating violence, and more than a violent image combined with violent lyrics that create these circumstances.
Perhaps there is such a thing as a violent song, or maybe not so much a song but a sound within a song. There is something to music that makes it powerful. Why is it the people that have alzheimers can't remember thier daughter's name but can sing a long to you are my sunshine? There is something in music that it stays with you long after other things are gone.
But where is guitar's role in this? I think the guitar is such a popular instrument for rock bands, the whole, lighting it on fire and smashing it on stage, that it is the usual suspect by default. Those kids and thier rock & roll, and really, it is probably the #1 instrument associated with drugs as well, from the stoner, hippy who is hanging out playing acoustic to all of the super great artists that were addicted to heroine, and drugs are very much realted to violence.

YouTube - Todd Snider - You Think You Know Somebody

Seek & Destroy Barney & Metallica Take on the War

Who knew that a purple dinosaur was just as tough as Metallica. Rumour has it that the US Government has new ways to make people talk. They are exposing Iraqi prisoners to many hours of Barney and Metallica music. I have posted some excerpts from the attached article below.

In training, they forced me to listen to the Barney "I Love You" song for 45 minutes. I never want to go through that again," one US operative told the magazine.

"They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is broken. That's when we come in and talk to them."

The US's Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) said the aim was to break a prisoner's resistance through sleep deprivation and playing music that was culturally offensive to them.

However, human rights organisation, Amnesty International, said such tactics may constitute torture - and coalition forces could be in breach of the Geneva Convention.
This idea of musical torture is a familiar one. The government has tried these tactics for years. I would guess that it must work or they would have given it up long ago. What about this scenario makes it torture, is it the sleep deprivation, the music, or the fact that I would guess, it must be played very loudly. The idea of Barney or for that matter the music of Metallica being torturous, is something I am sure many parents could relate to. Torture is a violent act, is it the intent behind our actions that becomes the weapon or is it the perception of the listener?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3042907.stm

Banks of the Ohio

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I think this is a version of the knoxville girl, The Banks of the Ohio by Joan Baez. He asks his love to go walk with him, she doesn't want to die, but he kills her anyway. Joan Baez has an awesome voice though.

Polly

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Polly is a song about a 14 year old girl that was raped and tortured by a man named Gerald Friend. As the girl was a juvenile her name was never released and Nirvana had made up the name Polly. Later on two guys raped another girl while playing this song. I tried to fine corroberating evidence about the 2nd girl but I wasn't able to find anything. I only found the following quotes that are said to be in the liner notes to Incesticide: "Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly.' I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience." I don't know where I was in the 90's but I don't remember hearing this about the song. I do remember it was the only song I didn't like on the album. I have attached the link to the video and then to a link about the song. I found some other disturbing things but I think there is enough of that out there already. I think that it shows how screwed up people are. I guess Nirvana did benefits to help rape victims, so I am sure the intent was not to be a catalyst for anything. It is hard because many people heard this song and that was that. I am not a big believer in blaming the music, obviously Gerald Friend didn't need a song for inspiration. The whole thing is kind of depressing.





http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2715

Knoxville Girl

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The Knoxville Girl song has been redone many times (per Wikipedia) under several different names. Based on multiple google searches that seems to be true. The Knoxvile girl was said to be based on a Elizabethan poem called the Cruel Miller. A poem about a man killing the girl he loves because she is pregnant and he doesn't want to get married. In the end he is hanged. I guess that would be called poetic justice. But the youtube version I have attached is worth watching because it is sort of a cheerful song. I think it is interesting, because it shows that violent songs are in no way a new phenomenon.



http://www.tadpoletunes.com/songs/cruelmil.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Knoxville_Girl