Music inspired by William Blake.

Woebot

Well-known member
Following up Melmoth's Blake thread I thought a bit about connections to Blake in music:

The Doors: The bands name is William Blake via Aldous Huxley innit.

David Axelrod: Songs of Innocence/Songs of Experience LPs are themed suites which use Blakes poetry

Harry Partch: The Rose. This is a great render of Blakes poem.

Jerusalem. Of course. STILL moves me after being hammered to death. rewch comments on the Blake thread about how in spite of being taken over by the NF, theirs is a reading which misses the point. I had this sung at my wedding in Scotland and the female priest objected vociferously. See also Mark Stewarts cover version.

Jah Wobble. Did a Blake-themed concept LP.

Benjamin Britten: Trio for Tenor and Horns. Just discovered this, its really fantastic, the strings are in the wrong place. Peter Pears sings a piece of Blakes poetry in one section of it.
 

MBM

Well-known member
Well, the KLF/JAMMs "It's Grim Up North" fades into Jerusalem. According to 24 Party People, you could see the whole of baggy as being some post-ecstacy Blake-fest. Certainly you find traces of him in the lyrics of Ian Brown and Shaun Ryder???
 

owen

Well-known member
The Fall covered/adapted Jerusalem on 'I am Kurious Oranj', MES quotes him in numerous places, esp 'Before the Moon Falls', and there's the later 'WB' which is a straight tribute (and as a bonus, is as apocalyptic and incomprehensible as the prophetic books)
in fact he could be accused of a 'Blake complex'- misunderstood irascible genius, visions, smiting of enemies etc
 

mms

sometimes
woebot:Harry Partch: The Rose. This is a great render of Blakes poem.

Jerusalem. Of course. STILL moves me after being hammered to death. rewch comments on the Blake thread about how in spite of being taken over by the NF, theirs is a reading which misses the point. I had this sung at my wedding in Scotland and the female priest objected vociferously. See also Mark Stewarts cover version.


yeah Jerusalem ties in with the beginnings of interest in ley lines, mary and michael and the christian belief in Albion, of which Blake was directly inspired by William Stuckeley.

Stuckeley was a christian vicar who's main idea was that all nations and religions derived from the druids and in his mystical perception of prehistory britain was the promised land which had the possibility of uniting all religions.
so it is sort of mystical nationalisim, ie a faith in a britain with the power to unite thru a rediscovery of it's past, a remapping.

stuckeley was both a priest and a chief druid, rather like the archbishop of canterbury today.

of course you could say almost all the industrial lot were inspired indirectly by Blake, through Stuckeley with Jerusalem being the kind of axis, especially people like coil, julian cope etc.

this guy has an mp3 of coils journey to avebury that perfectly illustrates it. unreleased and really fucking good
http://mysticalbeast.blogspot.com/
you get that whole vibe of music as something mystical that can tap into something prehistorical but connective running thru people like autechre and the black dog as well.
 

Loki

Well-known member
Coil used portions of <em>The Sick Rose</em> on Love's Secret Domain... and had a catchphrase: Why be bleak when you can be Blake? which should've rallied the pallid Industrial masses more than it did. And, of course, Jhonn Balance was the nearest we're gonna get to a Blakean figure...I'm sure he saw some Holy Guardian Angels in his time (he's probably with them now)
 

Manuel

Member
Ulver's "Themes From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"

Ex- black metal band invites fellow occult luminaries for word-for-word recitations of some of the book's text.
 

MBM

Well-known member
All this druid bollox is so off-putting.

I'd love to see Blake possessed by graffiti artists.

Scenes of mystical becoming sprayed on the Bakerloo line maybe?
 

heiku

Member
My first intro to Nick Drake was in the compilation, "Heaven In A Wild Flower", titled spirited from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence." Did Drake also use this in a lyric, or was this used simply in recognition of his passion for the poet?
 
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