Faces in Toast – Fish Delusions (24) – 1968

1968

The movie Dr. Faustus opens in the US in January.

Then a few months later, Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby opens in the US. Beyond being a generic Satanist movie, the movie actually points back to 1966 as being the time of Rosemary’s pregnancy and references the Church of Satan’s “Year One” during the movie.

In fact, the timing of the baby’s delivery is pretty close to identical to the Beatles short lived unveiling of the Butcher cover in June of ’66. (You almost get the feeling like the “6/66” is sort of a tease of some type rather than the real thing, like we’re all getting played with somehow)

The Stones release Sympathy for the Devil; a song probably unlike any other in Rock. The song has it’s origins primarily in The Master and Margarita from the ’20’s which itself is based on Faust, and runs through a list of Satan’s potential escapades throughout history; it’s poignancy is underlined in that during the recording of the song, the line about the death of JFK is changed to “Kennedys” as RFK is assassinated during the week of the making of this song, (not to mention that the recording studio roof caught fire during the recording as well).

Oddly, the assassin waits for Robert Kennedy in the kitchen with a gun, but Kennedy wasn’t supposed to exit through the kitchen after finishing his speech in Los Angeles. He only went there because his planned exit was blocked with supporters.

The night before his death, he has dinner with Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski.

(Altamont on December 6th, 1969. After the stabbing which came a couple of songs later during Under My Thumb, the Stones didn’t do this song live again for another 7 years)

And, the Beatles release the White Album. The album, the fourth in a string of LP’s after Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper that for all-time place the Beatles above all musical competition (which will probably always be true; it’s hard to fathom anyone ever coming along that will surpass what the Beatles did during their 7 year run coupled with the importance of the era they did it in); is loaded with clues throughout a good portion of the songs on this double LP.

At the center of this is an avant-garde piece done by John Lennon that is certainly the “worst” song the Beatles ever wrote, and quite by design; the haunting and truly bizarre Revolution Number 9.

This song was so odd that it turned everyone on in a whole different way; it brought mystery into the mainstream. Songs like Glass Onion where John deliberately characterized Paul as the Walrus and McCartney’s Helter Skelter that Charles Manson takes, among other songs, to be a message directly to him and his group, take some of the focus off of the music itself and put it into a search for the messages contained in the music and artwork.

Now, there seemingly is no outright connection between Lennon who likes to build mystery into the Beatles music and artwork; Roman Polanski’s movie which is set at the Dakota in New York City; Sharon Tate who stars in this pagan movie known as 13; and Charles Manson or Mark David Chapman. There is nothing that links any of them (beyond Tate and Polanski being married).