Friday, February 10, 2006
Odd Inducements to Gain Knowledge
If you have been following my blog for a while, then you have no doubt noticed a fairly broad range of music passing through the "Listening" sidebar.
I went through a phase towards the end of my deployment in Iraq, and for a while after I came back where I listened to what I refer to as "comfort music".
It's music that either was the music that I listened to in high school, music by the artists I listened to then, or music of a similar character. Lot's of ZZ Top, Kansas, Styx, Yes, Steve Miller Band, etc.
One of my favorite bands from that time is Iron Maiden.
While I was downrange, I picked up a fairly recent album by Iron Maiden, "Dance of Death", copyright in 2003.
I had never heard any of it before. I just knew it was by one of my favorite metal bands.
Their primary songwriter is Steven Harris, their bassist. He is quite well read and culturally literate. His writing shows this.
He has written heavy metal adaptations of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Phantom of the Opera", the movie "Damien: Omen 2" ("The Number of the Beast"), and, my personal favorite, a 15 minute adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
Before I heard this album, Harris limited himself to literary or theatrical works.
There were two songs on this album I bought downrange that caught my ear, lyrically: "Montsegur" and "Paschendale". It turns out that Harris, of the three songwriters in the group, had a hand in writing both of them.
So, I did some online research.
Pachendale is about the Third Battle of Ypres in WWI. It is mainly told from the perspective of the Canadian troops who were on the wrong end of that battle.
Montsegur is about the final battle of the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th Century. A crusade by the Catholic Church against a splinter sect called the "Cathars". The crusade took place near the Provence area of France.
The Cathars, it turns out, are one of the crucial turning points in the medeival Grail legends that such things as the 3rd Gabriel Knight game, by Sierra Online, and The Da Vinci Code.
Legend has it that the wealth that the Knights Templar eventually acquired, making them the first Gentile "bankers" in Europe, was founded in the Cathar treasures.
I could go on ...
But, I won't.
All this from a little "head-banging" music.
Twelve bucks well spent.
I went through a phase towards the end of my deployment in Iraq, and for a while after I came back where I listened to what I refer to as "comfort music".
It's music that either was the music that I listened to in high school, music by the artists I listened to then, or music of a similar character. Lot's of ZZ Top, Kansas, Styx, Yes, Steve Miller Band, etc.
One of my favorite bands from that time is Iron Maiden.
While I was downrange, I picked up a fairly recent album by Iron Maiden, "Dance of Death", copyright in 2003.
I had never heard any of it before. I just knew it was by one of my favorite metal bands.
Their primary songwriter is Steven Harris, their bassist. He is quite well read and culturally literate. His writing shows this.
He has written heavy metal adaptations of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Phantom of the Opera", the movie "Damien: Omen 2" ("The Number of the Beast"), and, my personal favorite, a 15 minute adaptation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
Before I heard this album, Harris limited himself to literary or theatrical works.
There were two songs on this album I bought downrange that caught my ear, lyrically: "Montsegur" and "Paschendale". It turns out that Harris, of the three songwriters in the group, had a hand in writing both of them.
So, I did some online research.
Pachendale is about the Third Battle of Ypres in WWI. It is mainly told from the perspective of the Canadian troops who were on the wrong end of that battle.
Montsegur is about the final battle of the Albigensian Crusade in the 13th Century. A crusade by the Catholic Church against a splinter sect called the "Cathars". The crusade took place near the Provence area of France.
The Cathars, it turns out, are one of the crucial turning points in the medeival Grail legends that such things as the 3rd Gabriel Knight game, by Sierra Online, and The Da Vinci Code.
Legend has it that the wealth that the Knights Templar eventually acquired, making them the first Gentile "bankers" in Europe, was founded in the Cathar treasures.
I could go on ...
But, I won't.
All this from a little "head-banging" music.
Twelve bucks well spent.
