by Brett Stevens on October 12, 2015

Steven Tyler of heavy rock band Aerosmith is in the news today after demanding that Donald Trump stop using one of the band’s songs during Trump campaign rallies. While some might think that news, the underlying truth is that Tyler wants to assert his rights to license the song and allowing anyone to use it for free threatens that. The more interesting story is that Tyler is a Republican who has socialized with Trump in the past.

What kind of man can be both an androgynous glam rocker and a Republican? Probably there is a common root to both: he dislikes our society as it is, and thinks it needs a wake-up call from brutal realism. Let us look at some Aerosmith lyrics, particularly the song “Nobody’s Fault”:

Lord I must be dreamin’

What else could this be

Everybody’s screamin’

Runnin’ for the sea Holy lands are sinkin’

Birds take to the sky

The prophets all are stinkin’ drunk

I know the reason why Eyes are full of desire

Mind is so ill at ease

Everything is on fire

Shit piled up to the knees Out of rhyme or reason

Everyone’s to blame

Children of the season

Don’t be lame Sorry

You’re so sorry

Don’t be sorry Man has known

And now he’s blown it

Upside down

And hell’s the only sound

We did an awful job

And now they say

It’s nobody’s fault Old San Andreas

Seven years ago

Shove it up their Richters

Red lines stop and go Noblemen of courage

Listen with their ears

Spoke but how discouragin’

When no one really hears One of these days you’ll be sorry

Too many houses on the stilt

Three million years or just a story

Four on the floor up to the hilt Out of rhyme or reason

Everyone’s to blame

Children of the season

Don’t be lame Sorry

You’re so sorry

Don’t be sorry Man has known

And now he’s blown it

Upside down

And hell’s the only sound

We did an awful job

And now we’re just a little too late Eyes are full of desire

Mind is so ill at ease

Everything is on fire

Shit piled up in debris California showtime

Five o’clock’s the news

Said everybody’s concubine

Was prone to take a snooze Sorry

You’re so sorry

Don’t be sorry Man has known

And now he’s blown it

Upside down

And hell’s the only sound

We did an awful job

And now we’re just a little too late

Rock ‘n’ roll has a few of these songs that we might call apocalyptic. They describe a situation beyond repair: mass insanity, rule by the corrupt, environmental collapse, ignoring of the wise, and all of it fueled by the desperate need to be self-important by the herd.

“Nobody’s Fault” in particular is useful in that regard. It describes a situation that is no one’s fault, but is everyone’s responsibility. A more Republican doctrine would be hard to find. It also refers to “Noblemen” being ignored by the crowd in its rush for self-importance and pretense.

While the wise among us caution against reading too much into rock lyrics, which are mostly gibberish chosen for its ability to rhyme and match a beat by near-schizophrenic drama cases, occasionally the more thoughtful bands will slip in a bit of actual opinion if only to see if they can sneak it past their dope-addled, drama-crazed and self-deluding fans.

Contrast this to the Ragnarok-theme mythic apocalypse song from Bathory, “Twilight of the Gods”:

There is a serpent in every Eden

Slick as grease and cold as ice

There is a lie in every meaning

Rest assured to fool you twice In this age of utter madness

We maintain we are in control

And ending life before deliverance

While countries are both bought and sold Holy writtings hokus-pokus

Blaze of glory and crucifix

Prepried costly credit salvations

TV-preachers and dirty tricks Don’t trust nobody

It will cost you much too much

Beware of the dagger

It caress you at first touch

O, all small creatures

It is the twilight if the gods When the foundations to our existence

Begins to crumble one by one

And legislations protects its breakers

And he who was wrong but paid the most won Even the gods of countless religions

Holds no powers against this tide

Of degeneration because we have now found

That there is no thrones up there in the sky Run from this fire

It will burn your very soul

Its flames reaching higher

Comed this far there is no hold

O, all small creatures

It is the twilight if the gods (Twilight of the gods

Twilight of the gods

Twilight of the gods

Twilight of the gods)

The same elements are here: mass insanity through pretense of individualism, denial of ancient and prevalent wisdom, corrupt leaders and a population that has become corrupt and wants to be misled.

Slayer gives us another example, with “South of Heaven”:

An unforeseen future nestled somewhere in time.

Unsuspecting victims no warnings, no signs.

Judgment day the second coming arrives.

Before you see the light you must die. Forgotten children, conform a new faith,

Avidity and lust controlled by hate.

The never-ending search for your shattered sanity,

Souls of damnation in their own reality. Chaos rampant,

An age of distrust.

Confrontations.

Impulsive habitat. Bastard sons begat your cunting daughters,

Promiscuous mothers with your incestuous fathers.

Ingrate souls condemned for all eternity,

Obtained by immoral observance a domineering deity. Chaos rampant,

An age of distrust.

Confrontations.

Impulsive sabbath. On and on, south of heaven

On and on, south of heaven

On and on, south of heaven

On and on, south of heaven The root of all evil is the heart of a black soul.

A force that has lived all eternity.

The never ending search for a truth never told.

The loss of all hope and your dignity. Chaos rampant,

An age of distrust.

Confrontations.

Impulsive habitat. On and on, south of heaven

Souls of damnation… in their own reality? No clearer diagnosis of the apocalypse can be found that this: individuals, damning themselves by denial of common sense reality, exist in their own reality — a human substitute for understanding life itself, including nature and any gods or demons that may lurk at its periphery.

All of these apocalypse songs tell us the same thing. The force that propels rock and roll, which is mass populism or public opinion, is also the source of our doom. Without guidance, human individuals withdraw into their own reality consisting of greed and pretentious dreams, and then society sinks into corruption because no one is paying attention to the consequences of our actions. No one is accountable; no one takes the reins to steer us toward sanity. It is nobody’s fault, but together we will burn.

Tags: apocalypse, bathory, mythos, rock 'n' roll, slayer, steven tyler

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