![]() ![]() And neither of the songs were particularly distinguished in terms of their lyric content: “Ballad Of A Teenage Queenâ€� (not very distinguished musically for that matter: this was a cheesy reworking of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Starâ€�) and “Keep A Knockin’â€� (an end-of-contract release that Art Rupe or Bumps Blackwell pasted together from some scraps of a session Richard did before he found Jesus and went into the ministry. The terror that his screams inspired was delicious. The second was like the first big drop on a roller coaster. ![]() My reaction to the first was of a pure, warm delight, like discovering the flavor of potato chips or of chocolate for the first time. ![]() I remember the first time I heard Johnny Cash’s voice, and around the same time Little Richard’s. I listened to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony this morning, and found the third movement indescribably moving, and the fourth movement, even though my German couldn’t even be considered rudimentary, always blows me away). This acts in a visceral, instinctive manner, apart from any lyric content in a song (e.g. I think that music functions with people much like the Kundalini: it energizes centers in our psyche and poises them to move on their various impulses to action. who fills that role today, transmitting mythic images in their music?įor some people it might be Britney Spears, but. But i'll admit i'm more than a little out of touch with the contemporary youth market. Lots of mythic - and mystic - images buried in Dead tunes, as Gennessee Ted points out in a recent post - and in other music as well. ![]() Years of Dead shows, hearing the songs performed, listening to the words, feeling the images play through my soul, left me receptive to Joseph Campbell's message when i finally stumbled across him (someone reading Hero With A Thousand Faces while camped out in line at a concert, wouldn't you know). No surprise, then, to learn of the relationship between Campbell and the Grateful Dead, a band immersed in image and myth. Just couldn't get Jerry's reedy voice singing "Ripple" out of my head. One might also consider the solitary plunge into the thickest part of the dark wood at the beginninng of the grail quest in connection with this verse:Ī full treatment of this song can be found at:Įxactly the thought that occurred to me when first i heard Joseph Campbell's explanation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra - how we identify with the ripples and waves coming and going on the surface of the water, and how yoga helps one still the waters. But on the other hand, it is possible, also, to return to this world of continually breaking forms, open the eyes, let the winds again blow, and enjoy the kaleidoscopic changes in knowledge that all these dancing forms are revelations of that one Form of forms of which each of us, in his own way is an incarnation." The body, as they say, "drops off" or as others might say, those yogis die. "And there are those who, once united, become so established in this knowledge of identity that the rippling field of secondary forms falls away. It is the Ultimate-the Form of Forms-of which the phenomena of this world are but imperfectly seen, ephemeral distortions: the God-form, the Buddha-form, which is truly our own Knowledge-form, and with which it is the goal of yoga to unite us. And this single image can be likened to that of the Self realized in yoga. Then alone will that single image be known of which the wave-borne reflections are but fragments and distortions. Not until the waters have been stilled, cleansed of stirred-up sediments and made mirror-bright will the one reflected image appear that on the rippling waves had been broken: that of the clouds and pure sky above, the trees along the shore, and down deep in the still pure water itself, the sandy bottom and the fish. For when the wind blows and the waters stir, the waves break and distort both the light and its reflections, so that all that can be seen are colliding broken forms. "The idea of yoga is to let the wind subside and let the waters return to rest. Only then did God say, "Let there be light." And there was light fluctuating on the waters. "The wind (spiritus, pneuma, rauch) ruffled the waters, and that was the first act of creation. At the opening of the book of Genesis we read that "the Wind of God moved upon the face of the waters. "The mind is likened, in reply, to the surface of a pond rippled by the wind. "It may be asked, why should anyone wish to bring about such a state? There's a lovely discussion of this passage in Joseph Campbell's The Mythic Image: "Yoga consists in the intentional stopping of the spontaneous activity of the mind-stuff." One might consider this lyric in connection with a passage from The Yoga Sutras: ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |