THE CONDITION is the accumulation of all of the results of civilization, an artist is the only one to remedy the effects of it by shining the light on it with the truth.
Musicians, film makers, painters, poets, writers, you name it; the Artist will always deliver the truth in ways you’ll never receive from anywhere else. This is why I chose to collect all of my favorite notable works from artists I’ve grown to admire through out my life and share them with you as some type of shortcut to the truth in a world where the truth is buried, and I’d be happy to get some recommendations from you, so feel free to share and leave a comment.
| DAVID BOWIE | MARILYN MANSON | JOHN LENNON | KURT COBAIN |
| PINK FLOYD | MARC ALMOND | BOB DYLAN | KEVIN BARNES |
| IGGY POP | LOU REED | PATTI SMITH | BRIAN WILSON |
| OZZY | YOKO ONO | GARY NUMAN | BILLY CORGAN |
| ANTON NEWCOMB | MARC BOLAN | FREDDY MERCURY | SYD BARRETT |
| EMINEM | KENDRIC LAMAR | LIL’ WAYNE | WU-TANG CLAN |
| NORMAN ROCKWELL | DALI | WARHOL | SHAKESPEARE |
| BURROUGHS | KEROUACK |
David Bowie
“It’s safe in the city, to love in a door way.”
Sweet Thing by David Bowie
Bowie is one of the most remarkable musicians because of his ability to put out all kinds of music through out his long career and provide substantial lyrics to all of his songs. Up until his last album Black Star, which unlike anyone before him that I know has written an album about his death, each of his albums provided some profound insight into the human condition, even Black Tie White Noise, my least favorite.
“It’s the theater of financiers
Count them, fifty ’round a table
White and dressed to kill”
— We Are The Dead by David Bowie
Track 8. We Are The Dead – Diamond Dogs
All of the songs on Diamond Dogs unpack Bowie’s vision of a world ran by loveless, war mongering bureaucrats and leaves you with enough beauty to feel hopeful and yet, hopeless. However the content in ‘We Are The Dead’ personifies for me the story of a man coping with the truth, which is: we know what’s right, but ignore it.
Track 8. All The Young Dudes (Live) – A Reality Tour
Oh yes, we can love
And my brother’s back at home with his Beatles and his Stones
We never got it off on that revolution stuff
What a drag, too many snags.
All The Young Dudes by David Bowie
I don’t think there’s a studio release of this song, but when I first heard ‘All The Young Dudes’ I had it on repeat, especially when I turned 25.
The reason I enjoy this song so much is that it really calls on the youth to remind them how they/we create culture.
Bowie was subtle about the revolution and never really came out and said go into the streets, just to dance in them. I like that approach more.
Before I move on, it’s important to note that there are so many Bowie songs that I could’ve highlighted above, but for the sake of making a point those two sufficed. However here are some more links to a few of my favorite songs by David Bowie:
Marilyn Manson
The reason Marilyn Manson is in this self proclaimed Database of Truth is because of how much he can teach us about thinking for ourselves. Manson is one of the most notable artists of our time because of how much he affected culture, to the point where he was inappropriately and falsely accused by everyone in the media for kids shooting up their school, which never should have happened and their should’ve been formal apologies, but his response in ‘Bowling for Columbine’ was perfect.
“To kill the man behind the crowd
Would be viewed as amateur
Because the king’s invisible
And death is a profession”
— Paint You With My Love by Marilyn Manson
Track 4. Paint You With My Love – We Are Chaos
Manson is my favorite lyricist of all time, that’s why I’m quoting his most recent work first. He can put it so plainly what he’s trying to articulate and dress it up in a beautiful poem with mental visuals; for instance, the beginning of this song Paint You With My Love from his latest We Are Chaos album that I quoted above, he begins it with this visualization:
“Honky-tonk devils glitterin’
Like royal rats in kitten skin”
It’s as if he’s painting a picture for us in each of his songs to better articulate his point.
FYI: I don’t mean to bombard you with my flattery over these artists by the way. The reason I’m pointing out these distinct characteristics is to show you how you can adapt their style to your own work or to simply describe what makes them unique.
Track 13. 1996 – Antichrist Superstar
I can’t believe in the things
That don’t believe in me
1996 by Marilyn Manson
In the song 1996 from his early album Antichrist Superstar, Manson gives some resemblance to the wider consciousness of the modern world. This is what I seem to mean:
In all facets of society no matter where you look there is hate toward of a group of people whose beliefs are unlike their religious, political or ideological beliefs (there are exceptions of course). It’s this paradigm that inhibits progress in society inherently that he chose to reveal with the lyrics in the chorus:
“Anti-people now you’ve gone too far
Here’s your Antichrist Superstar“
I appreciate the work Manson has done to take the hate we feel and translate it into something we can reason with. He’s done this consistently with my 3 favorite albums Portrait of an American Family, Antichrist Superstar, and Mechanical Animals.
Here is a list of songs by Marilyn Manson that I think you need to hear to get a better glimpse at what he has given us as an artist. I encourage you to hear them all out especially Fundamentally Loathsome from Mechanical Animals.
ORGAN GRINDER | WRAPPED IN PLASTIC | IRRESONSIBLE HATE ANTHEM | THE REFLECTING GOD | GREAT BIG WHITE WORLD | DISASSOCIATIVE | THE LAST DAY ON EARTH | CRUCIFICTION IN SPACE | THE GOLDEN AGE OF GROTESQUE | RUNNING TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD | WE ARE CHAOS
John Lennon
A lot of my inspiration comes from the work John Lennon has done later in his career, after the Beatles. However all his contributions to the Beatles were some of my favorite songs because of his lyrics. He is from a generation before mine, murdered for being a deeply influential figure, but his presence and his work will impact every generation to come after him like a ripple across space-time. An artist who can impact everyone in the world like this achieves immortality, in the sense that in his death, his work will live on forever.
“Who am I?
Nobody knows but me
Nobody knows but me
Who am I?
Nobody else can see”
— Look at Me by John Lennon
9. Look At Me – Plastic Ono Band
This is a song that resonated with me as a teenager, and still does to this day. It’s not a very popular song, but to me it addressed all of the serious questions I had: ‘Who Am I?’, ‘What Am I Supposed To Be?’, ‘What Am I Supposed To Do?’, ‘What Can I Do For You?’. All of these questions are followed by the simplest answers in the song, and still I remember what that song has taught me. It taught me that only we know who we are, and that in Love we feel best serving others and ultimately do right by ourselves.
FYI: I don’t mean to bombard you with my flattery over these artists by the way. The reason I’m pointing out these distinct characteristics is to show you how you can adapt their style to your own work or to describe what makes them unique.
Track 5. I Don’t Wanna Be A Solider Mama – Imagine
Well, I don’t wanna be a rich man mama, I don’t wanna cry
Well, I don’t wanna be a poor man mama, I don’t wanna fly
Well, I don’t wanna be a lawyer mama, I don’t wanna lie
Well, I don’t wanna be a soldier mama, I don’t wanna die
I don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama – John Lennon
In contrast to ‘Look At Me’, the song ‘I Don’t Wanna Be A Solider Mama‘ paints a picture of not knowing what you want to be when you grow up, the growing pains of leaving your mom, and the realization childhood is over.
It’s hard to choose just two songs to highlight for Lennon, so here’s another:
Track 5. Isolation – Plastic Ono Band
I don’t expect you to understand,
after you’ve caused so much pain.
But then again, you’re not to blame.
You’re just a human, a victim of the insane.
Isolation – John Lennon
In ‘Isolation’ Lennon tells us what it’s like for him trying to change the world and the fear of being criticized for the pursuit, then just empathizes with everyone criticizing him and Yoko. You’re just a human, a victim of the insane.
Kurt Cobain – Nirvana
A man of the 90’s, Kurt Cobain handled fame differently then you would imagine. He despised being the lead singer of a big famous band and how quickly they rose to fame, with that being said, nearly every song Kurt wrote was brilliant. His lyrics were true and honest and spoke to everyone in his generation which is why MTV capitalized on them. Nirvana is the perfect mixture of a great sounding singer, with excellent lyrics and powerful music. He was gone too soon, and I would’ve loved seeing him grow as an artist through the years, but as another immortal artist, his work will resonate with people forever.
“Come on, people, now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now”
— Territorial Pissings by Kurt Cobain
Track 7. Territorial Pissings – Nevermind
I love how this song begins by mocking the summer of love ethos and just turns into a heavy song screaming, “there’s gotta be a better way”
“When I was an alien, cultures weren’t opinions“
If you ever need anything, please don’t
Hesitate to ask someone else first
I’m too busy acting like I’m not naive
I’ve seen it all, I was here first
Very Ape by Kurt Cobain
We’ve all been here before, whether you have the ability to access your long lineage of life or not. Do you have distinct memories of being an ape man walking amongst 12ft tall mushrooms? Probably not through your waking life. Very Ape reminds me of the primate I am.
Track 11. On A Plain – Nevermind
Love myself
On a Plain by Kurt Cobain
Better than you
I know it’s wrong
So what should I do?The finest day
That I ever had
Was when I learned
To cry on command
This song appears on ‘Nevermind’ an album that took Nirvana from a good punk rock band, to the most known grunge band in the world. That being said, there are a lot of great songs on this record, but ‘On A Plain’ sticks out after all those years because of how I relate to those lyrics, “I love myself better than you…”
If your mother dies every night, maybe from being a terrible drunk, you can do your best to fill that emptiness with the love you give yourself by exploring your creative mind.
Here are some of my favorite Nirvana songs, and in hindsight after writing this, I feel like ‘Something in the Way’ is one that really needs a listen.
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd is Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. I’d like to write about them individually, but that’d be too extensive for this purpose. All the members of the band had contributed lyrically to most of the albums, except The Wall.
Roger is the mind behind Pink Floyd’s The Wall. To me, themed albums were originated by Roger Waters. Pink Floyd is one of those bands that perfected their sound, telling you a story with the band alone, but what they did lyrically along with that, made them one of the greatest bands of all time, and Roger had a big role to play in that.
“Day after day, love turns grey
like the skin of a dying man.
And night after night, we pretend its all right”
— One of My Turns by Pink Floyd
Track 10. One of My Turns – The Wall
One of My Turns is about the moment you realize how loveless the world around you is and how angry it makes you. “This is just a passing phase, one of my bad days”, we’ve all had them. The world feels it’s leveraged against you and you just want to snap, well he did.
The Dark Side of the Moon
Not many artists can create an entire album where each song needs the previous song, and still each song can stand alone. The word masterpiece comes to mind, but I don’t think that does it justice for new listeners, it sounds bias. That being said, this album deserves your full attention because it’s a gift to the human spirit.
Track 10. Eclipse – Dark Side of the Moon
All that you touch
Eclipse by Roger Waters
And all that you see
All that you taste
All you feel
And all that you love
And all that you hate
All you distrust
All you save
And all that you give
And all that you deal
And all that you buy
Beg, borrow or steal
And all you create
And all you destroy
And all that you do
And all that you say
And all that you eat
And everyone you meet (everyone you meet)
And all that you slight
And everyone you fight
And all that is now
And all that is gone
And all that’s to come
And everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon
This is the last track on The Dark Side of the Moon, which encapsulates the entirety of the album with an epic poem about everything that is done under the sun and how it’s eclipsed by the moon. Obviously right? It’s so striking when you’re actually feeling it, it’s like a revelation almost, but to me it’s practically saying, we’re all in the same boat. Remember we’re all together here.
Track 7. Us and Them – The Dark Side of the Moon
God only knows
Us and Them by Pink Floyd
It’s not what we would choose to do
Forward he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
And the general sat
And the lines on the map
Moved from side to side
This part of Us and Them really paints the picture of war, and I often over looked what was being sung until I read the lyrics, and of course it makes the song that much more profound.
There are a lot of early songs when Syd Barrett was their lead singer that are amazing too, and if you’re interested check out these in the song list below.
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is the lead singer of Soft Cell, an 80’s new wave band that had one hit: Tainted Love. I looked into more of their music and got obsessed because of his ability to take the frustrations of modern life and turn it into something you can dance to.
“Entertain me
— Entertain Me by Marc Almond
I’m as blank as can be
And I’ve seen it before
And I’ve done it before
And I think that I like it
But no I don’t like it
It just goes on over and over
And over and over and over again”
I won’t go on and on about Marc. He’s made an excellent album with Non Stop Erotic Cabaret, and if you’re in the mood to dance it’s the perfect album.
Track 7. Persuasion – Non Stop Erotic Cabaret Disc 2.
Someone passes by
Persuasion by Soft Cell
We near collide
She’s silent but she’s frantic
Can’t figure out why she’s bought so many useless items
(checkout 5, will the manager please go to checkout 5)
I can’t figure out why I’ve bought so many useless items
(there is a problem at checkout 5)
I only wanted cigarettes
(will you investigate please)
I push my trolley further
(will you investigate please)
I glide around the frozen goods
Lost in here forever
Lost in here forever
Lost in here forever
Lost in here forever
More to follow…
