As I explain in the video, this song was part of a concept album, in which I tried to pack every song with references to look up. If you're interested in all the references (which will be hard to hear in the video) here they all are :-)
* Thomas Arundel - A cleric, who prevented any changes to traditional religion (quite nasty) and disobedience/questioning of it (very nasty)
* The Beagle captain - The HMS Beagle Captain committed suicide (possibly after feelings of guilt for helping Charles Darwin to discover evolution, whilst on his ship.) The Mark Steele lecture on Charles Darwin has some great information about him...
* Adam from the NHM - The Natural History Museum in London originally had a statue of Adam (of Adam and Eve fame) on the roof. This fell off, which some critics took as a metaphor for science and religion falling out with each other
* Coulter - Anne Coulter: A hideously right wing American author
* Pat Condell - An anti-religious comedian on the You Tube website
* Esther and Hamman - In the Jewish Purim festival, people are advised to celebrate by drinking until they, "can't tell the difference between Mordecai and Hamman." Hamman is the bad guy in the Purim story and Mordecai and Esther and the heroes. I wanted to give some credit to the female character, as most religions seem to have a weird fear of women
* Alan Turing - Pioneer of the computer, who committed suicide after being persecuted for his homosexuality
* Sutekh - An ancient Egyptian God, who was sometimes depicted as the source of all evil. He also featured in the Doctor Who Episode, Pyramids of Mars (my favourite episode)
* Glycon - An ancient Roman snake god, worshiped by the author Alan Moore
*Elphias Levi - Satanist author
* Brown eyed, handsome man - A Chuck Berry song about the sexual appeal of black men! It made me think about the story of Robert Johnson, a blues guitarist who supposedly sold his soul to the devil. In the story, the devil appears as a tall dark man who is strangely alluring
* "Walking up to the cross roads" - In American folklore you meet the devil at a cross roads
* Big D - Big D was rumoured to be the title of a new Cardiacs song in 2008 (which I stole for this song's title!) It was also the nickname of a vampire character in a cartoon (which I have very vague memories of from childhood)
* I'll never be anti-life - A reference to Nietzsche's idea that religions focus on the after life, at the expense of real, natural emotions and embracing the moment. I agree with him on this one
* "First do no harm" - The first rule of medicine, according to Ancient Roman medic Hippocrates
* "I'm leaving this diary, so everyone can see what love can do to a gentleman" - A quote from the Jack the Ripper diary (which seems likely to be a fake, as it has so many quotable lines!) Another man tormented by his fixed views of life!
* George Lusk - Chief of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, who Jack the Ripper supposedly wrote a letter to.
* "One day you'll say that I gave birth, to the 20th century" - Another line stolen from the Jack the Ripper diary. (His case coincided with the first mass produced newspapers, so his murders were the first nationwide news story in England.)
* Lord Rich of Leighs - A nasty, Tudor nobleman who kept changing his politics to become rich. He regularly denounced other religions and supported torture of heretics, but then changed sides as it suited him. In Essex (until fairly recently) it used to be said, "Better a poor man at ease than Lord Rich of Leighs."
Loading...
9:32Guitar Lesson: John Fogerty Styleby Hoodrio54,314 views
It's a Danelectro Pro. They're really cheap, but look and sound nice. It has a bit of a short neck, so can't really be played much above the 12th fret unfortunately, but it's really light and good to take to rehearsals
snavenai 3 years ago