Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Tuesdays with Blaster at Tree & The Seed: TMWAJ - Tracks 7, 8, and 9


Today's installment is over Tracks 7, 8, and 9 of Blaster the Rocket Man's 1999 release, The Monster Who Ate Jesus.

Go here for initial comments on album and the linear notes.
Go here for comments on Tracks 1, 2, and 3.
Go here for comments on Tracks 4, 5, and 6.


Track 7 - Ransom vs. the Unman

Straight forward Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat drumming, well placed palm-muted guitars, punk-rock guitar pick slides denoting the transition into the Chorus.  Track 7 and 8 lyrically draw from Lewis' Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. Growing up with Blaster was a blessing. I was a kid raised on a farm in mid-central Indiana, smack in the middle of corn fields, and Blaster was a musical and literary gateway to things outside the normal planetary rotation of rural Hoosier life.
Into the nightmare monster's embrace
The teeth and the claws and the jaws of the face
The ripping of skin and the reeking of breath
The real life enacting of myth
(For he loved not his life unto death) 
[Chorus]
Ransom! vs. The Unman!
Ransom! The Unman!
Ransom The Unman!
Ransom The Unman! (4x) 
He flung himself on the death that was living
"His hands taught him terrible things . . .
He felt its ribs break . . . heard its jaw-bone
crack."
As they pummeled and scraped and attacked
(But he's not of those who shrink back)
repeat Chorus
"In the sphere of Venus I learned war.
In this age Saturn will descend.
I am the Pendragon" (C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength). 
Track 8 - March of the Macrobes

As mentioned above, lyrics for this song are drawn from Lewis' That Hideous Strength.
Macrobes! Macrobes!
Here come the Heads!
The Chosen Heads of the Bodiless Men
Macrobes! Macrobes!
Here come the Heads!
Here come the Chosen Heads
of the Bodiless (Men)
From ape to man to god
by rape we plant the pod
to propagate the fraud
From ape to man to god
by rape we plant the pod
to liquidate the body
You could be a vessel for
that hideous . . . strength
You could be the gateway
The time is here
They're drawing near
Can you feel the tension
from another dimension?
Leave flesh behind.
There's only mind.
Or set the brain apart
to elevate the heart
Whatever happened to the individual? (N.I.C.E.)
Where is his soul? (R.A.P.E)
(As you walk along the brightly lit corridors
you hear a soothing, androgynous voice
overhead.)
"Welcome to the National Institute for
Coordinated Experiments where we offer
Rationalized Alternatives to Plausible
Evidence," etc.
There's no unity
in your dichotomy
Section by section
dissection
Vivid vivisection
at the point of integration
with no relation
to the whole
You've no choice left you
but to make
an irrational leap of faith
For the Macrobes are marching over you!
Marching Macrobes
Marching
Macrobes on the march (cha! cha! cha!)
Track 9 - Cop City

This is an instrumental "surf-rock" sounding song with Spanish counting thrown in for good measure, "Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro!" Conventional guitar riff opener eventually transitioning into a reverberated guitar phrasing, and "Cinco, Seis, Siete, Ocho!"

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