Boards
The Devil In the Music.
Quite recently I was thinking about the role of the Devil in music. Years ago there used to be plenty of myths, legends and rumours going about involving Lucifer making sure that rock’n’roll stayed His Music. Robert Johnson (or whatever old bluesman you care to name) was said to have met the Devil at the crossroads and exchanged his soul in return for untouchable guitar skills; The Rolling Stones were accused of being hedonistic Satan worshippers who had sex and drug orgies galore, and then they named an album Their Satanic Majesties Request, which fuelled the stories even more; Led Zeppelin were hiding pro-Devil messages in their albums thanks to backmasking; Marilyn Manson was the self-proclaimed Antichrist Superstar; a Scandinavian black metal band I can’t remember the name of once burned down a church in tribute to Beelzebub; and most recently Times New Viking thank Satan in the liner notes for Present the Paisley Reich.
Can we bring it all back? I’m down with it and it feels right, but Old Nick has been missing from modern music. Aside from the salute from TNV, the only other recent mention of the Devil is in the Young & Restless song ‘Satan’ which tells you to “Listen to Satan” and “Step up and shake hands with the Devil”. Gnarly.
So, talk about some of your favourite Devil-in-the-music stories, or even make up some rumours about bands who could be Devil-worshippers if you want.
Let’s all have a black mass and summon up the Dark Prince once more!