The highlight of an AC/DC concert has always been the onstage antics of guitarist Angus Young. Young, dressed in his schoolboy uniform complete with short pants, struts across the stage as a demented Chuck Berry, and falls to the stage kicking and writhing as if caught in the throes of an epileptic seizure. The concept of the outfit is derived from Angus showing up for band practice immediately after school. He just practiced in his uniform. The short pants allowed the guitarist to keep cool as he was constantly in perpetual motion throughout a performance. Angus also hints of a strange transformation that takes place when he dons his stage clothes. “‘It’s the suit,’ insisted Angus. ‘I’m normally the laziest person you’d ever want to meet. But when I put on that school suit, it gets me full of beans. There’s something about it. I put it on, and it’s probably a bit schizophrenic, but it lets me become someone else for a couple of hours. It never fails to amaze me. When I put it on, I look in the mirror, and I’m afraid.’”6
A number of AC/DC’s songs seemed to hint at an alliance with the dark powers. The first major hit for the band was Highway to Hell. The album was released with Angus wearing his customary schoolboy uniform. On his head can be seen devil horns, and he holds a forked tail as he sneers directly into the camera. Though there is mention that the band has paid its dues, the meaning behind the song was given by Angus in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in which he discussed the rigors of the band’s early torturous years on the road: “It has nothing to do with devil worship. We toured four years at a stretch with no break. A guy asked how would you best describe our tours. We said, ‘A highway to hell.’ The phrase stuck with us. All we’d done is describe what it is like to be on the road for four years. When you’re sleeping with the singer’s socks two inches from your nose, believe me, that’s pretty close to hell.”7
The song “Highway to Hell” was also used as a “secret weapon” by the United States Armed Forces in their invasion of Panama in January of 1989. The U.S. troops played the AC/DC anthem at full volume to help hasten the surrender of Panamanian Manuel Noriega, who was in hiding at Panama’s Vatican Embassy. When told of the U.S. military strategy Angus Young replied, “They were trying to aggravate him so he couldn’t get a restful sleep. It was pretty funny for us. I figure if our music is good enough for the U.S. Army, it’s good enough for anybody, I guess.” Singer Brian Johnson answered, “When I heard that my first thought was, now we’ll never play for the pope.”8
Other songs by AC/DC were also said to contain Satanic allusions, such as “Rock ’n’ Roll Damnation,” “Hell’s Bells,” “C.O.D.” (Care of the Devil), and “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be.” In considering “Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be,” Angus Young stated, “That song is a joke. We’re saying if you’ve got a choice between heaven and hell, you might pick hell. In heaven you have harp music and in hell there’s a good rockin’ band and rocking songs. That’s what we’d choose. So hell ain’t a bad place to be. It’s all in fun.”9
There are incidents that AC/DC has faced that have not been all in fun. The first tragedy to strike the band occurred when lead singer Bon Scott died following an all-night drinking binge at a club called the Music Machine in London’s Camden Town. Scott was with his friend Alistair Kinnear and the pair left the club at approximately 3:00 A.M. According to eyewitnesses, Scott had consumed seven double whiskeys. Apparently, Bon Scott had managed this feat before on several other occasions and it was an ordinary night with a return to Scott’s flat. Kinnear was unable to wake Bon, who was now unconscious and sleeping soundly. Kinnear then drove to his own home but was still unable to awaken his passenger, so he wrapped some blankets around Scott and left him in the car to sleep it off. “After sleeping for about fifteen hours, Kinnear woke and checked Bon at about 7:45 on the evening of the twenty-first, and discovered that Scott was dead. The singer was pronounced dead on arrival at London’s King’s College Hospital … An initial report recorded the cause of death as acute alcohol poisoning, but it was determined that Scott had moved in his sleep, vomited and choked to death. At a coroner’s inquest, at which the singer’s bandmates offered testimony, the coroner reported that Scott’s stomach had contained the ‘equivalent of half a bottle of whisky’ when he died and officially designated Bon’s demise as death by misadventure.”10 Scott’s drinking ability was legendary. In 1979, following an Atlantic Records party, Bon Scott had to have his stomach pumped before he could appear on stage. He was yet another victim of his own excesses.
Bon Scott was cremated and the funeral service was held at Fremantle, Australia, on March 1, 1980. In a bizarre twist of fate, shortly following his funeral, Bon Scott’s many friends started to receive Christmas cards addressed to them personally by the fallen singer. It appears that Bon had not placed the proper postage on the envelopes and this had resulted in their delay.
Replacing a singer of Bon Scott’s ability would be no easy feat, but after acquiring Brian Johnson, AC/DC was yet again on its thunderous way. The release of Back in Black in 1980 reestablished the band as rock superstars with their most successful album, but yet again many overzealous individuals saw what they took to be hidden offerings to Satan. The album title was merely a salute to the memory of Bon Scott, but to the new inquisitors it became easy to suggest that AC/DC had returned with the backing of the forces of darkness. The evidence offered to support this view was found in the melancholy sounds of the ringing bells found in the opening track of “Hell’s Bells.” The mention of “If you do evil you’re a friend of mine,” “If God’s on the left then I’m sticking to the right,” and “Got my bell I’m gonna drag you to hell” provided yet more ammunition to accuse the band of promoting the occult. Singer Brian Johnson retorted, “Those God-bothers mention the devil more than we do. They’re trying to scare people. The big idea with us isn’t Satanic messages. It’s trying to get one line to rhyme with the next.” Angus Young also joined in the discussion by stating, “We’re not black magic Satanists. I don’t drink blood. I may wear black underpants now and again, but that’s it.” In turn Johnson also attacked the bands’ detractors by mentioning their “designer churches.” Johnson exclaimed, “And I saw this other guy who openly said, ‘I saw God last night—He came to me in a dream, and He talked with me.’ That’s blasphemy! If God was gonna come down and talk to somebody, the last person He’d talk to is a guy with a fleet of Cadillacs, who claims to have had a runnin’ conversation with Him for the last fifteen years.”11 Unknown to the band, this would be the easiest accusation to overcome.
With the revelation of the “Night Stalker” murders in California, new emphasis was placed upon rock and roll’s occult influences. On August 31, 1985, Los Angeles police arrested Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker,” and placed him on trial for at least a dozen murders in a serial killing spree that had haunted the Los Angeles area. His victims ranged from a sixteen-year-old teenager to a seventy-nine-year-old grandmother. This bloody reign of terror produced references to Satanism, inverted pentagrams, and Ramirez’s personal meeting with Anton LaVey. LaVey denied any responsibility for the murders, saying that Ramirez appeared only to be a well-mannered young man. The Black Pope also commented that if any individual came to his church claiming to be sent by Satan that LaVey would personally give that individual the “bum’s rush.” Not only was evidence introduced concerning Ramirez’s Satanic practices, but it also became public knowledge that the “Night Stalker” was obsessed with what he believed to be Satanic symbols found on the Highway to Hell album jacket. He especially enjoyed the song “Night Prowler.” The lyrics to this song about a “peeping tom” may very well have resulted in Ramirez’s naming himself the “Night Stalker.” When this information was leaked to the public AC/DC became yet again the popular target of the zealots. Concerts were canceled. Other concerts were picketed by some churches, and AC/DC was yet again in the crosshairs of intolerance.
The Ramirez trial lasted fourteen months. During the trial one juror was murdered by her boyfriend
and yet another female juror sent Ramirez a Valentine’s Day cupcake that read “I Love You.” The “Night Stalker” was nevertheless convicted and sentenced to nineteen death sentences. He was also sentenced to over 198 years in prison on other charges. At the end of his trial Ramirez displayed an inverted pentagram on the palm of his hand and shouted “Hail, Satan” as he was being taken away. On October 3, 1996, Richard Ramirez was married in a fifteen-minute prison ceremony to a forty-one-year-old freelance magazine editor. He is awaiting an appeal to his sentence.
Tragedy struck AC/DC a third time at a concert on January 18, 1991, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three teenage fans were crushed to death as fellow fans rushed toward the stage. This was eerily like an earlier Who concert in which several of their fans were crushed and trampled by the surging mob as they fought to get the best positions near the stage. With such tragedy many cities placed bans upon so-called festival seating appearances. In fairness to performing bands, it is impossible to see into an audience with thousands of watts of lighting shining in your eyes. It is also impossible to hear what is going on with the thunderous roar of the sound systems that numb the sense of hearing into complete submission.
With the resurgence of heavy metal in the late 1980s, new metal bands took upon themselves the challenge of shocking their audiences with actual hymns to Satan and a complete acceptance of the left-hand path. For instance, metal groups including Venom, Possessed, Sad Iron, Manowar, Morbid Angel, and Slayer flashed a constant motif of Satanic themes. This was accomplished openly throughout their lyrics. The group Acheron in their album titled The Rites of the Black Mass actually included the reading of the Black Mass by Peter Gilmore of the Church of Satan.
Undoubtedly, the current leader in the field of shock rock is Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, states that not only is he a card-carrying member of the Church of Satan but that he has also been ordained as a Satanic priest. Manson once told Seconds magazine, “Dr. Anton Szandor LaVey expressed that he felt Marilyn Manson was one of the more Satanic bands to come along in our time.” Anyone can argue that membership in the Church of Satan can be obtained by simply paying a one-time $100 initiation fee. The member then receives a subscription to the church newsletter The Cloven Hoof as well as a membership card, suitable for framing. Of course, if an individual is only slightly curious he or she could pay a nominal fee and attend a gathering at one of the grottoes. LaVey even charges members of the media the same fee if they should wish to observe the rituals. In the December issue of Details magazine Marilyn Manson told interviewer Brantley Bardin that “the story of Lucifer, the fallen angel, is my favorite story of all time. Maybe with the new record Anti-Christ Superstar, I can show people that the character isn’t such a bad guy—it’s just that history is written by winners. In the Bible’s case, the winner is God.”
Ironically, Marilyn Manson was educated in a Christian school, and he once told MTV News (The Week in Rock, January 17, 1997) about “being a thirteen-year-old kid, and having someone tell you on a daily basis that this is the final hour and that the Antichrist was coming and it was going to be the end of the world. You know, I would stay up every night and have nightmares about this and then finally 1984 passed, and all those years that they said was going to be the end, I developed a real hard shell, you know, that really became what Marilyn Manson is, it was resentment.” In a Rolling Stone interview Manson continued, “My mother used to tell me, ‘If you curse at nighttime the devil’s going to come to you when you’re sleeping.’ I was never afraid of what was under the bed. I wanted it. And I never got it, I just became it.”
The paradox of Manson’s early Christian education and his rebellion from the same principles is evident in his chosen name Marilyn Manson. He took the first name Marilyn from Marilyn Monroe, the beautiful sex goddess whose life ended in suicide—far from the happy ending she so desperately wanted—and of course his last name Manson from Charles Manson, the leader of the notorious family who murdered Sharon Tate and a few other helpless victims. Following this formula, each of Marilyn Manson’s fellow group members adopted the same strange pairing of names. The first name was from a famous actress or model while the last name would be taken from a convicted serial killer. The names were not taken lightly. Not only did the last name have to be that of a killer, but that killer also had to be associated with the Satanic movement, or a convicted child murderer. Group members adopted names that included: Daisy Berkowitz, Twiggy Ramirez, Madonna Wayne Gacy, Sara Lee Lucas. (Guitarist Zim Zum does not fit the mold; however, some followers believe the secret to his name is found in the mystical Cabalistic teachings. Possibly, the name is derived from tzimtzum—this is interpreted as the mystical place that God willed his presence to help make room for the creation of the universe and of man.) The pairing of the names seems to suggest the Eastern philosophy of Yin-Yang, that there is evil in good and good in evil. Of course, this becomes the everyday struggle that confronts man.
As far as teachings go, Manson stated, “I go by the attitude ‘do what you will’ that is the whole of the law (Crowley, The Book of the Law). And I will do exactly that. Satanism is not about a devil. It’s about realizing, much like Nietzsche said, that you are your own god. I guess a word for it is ‘meism,’ because it’s a very selfish philosophy.”12 Manson also says he suffers from “the delusion of the self.” As he told Details, “It’s when you feel that everything is related and all circumstances have something to do with one another. I just think of it as a higher plane of awareness.” Already urban folklore has produced many Marilyn Manson legends. Did he really have three ribs removed? Does he throw live puppies into the audience to be killed before each of his concerts begins? Are he and his band planning on committing suicide in front of their audience on their 666th performance? Or will he commit suicide on a Halloween performance? Is he actually an actor who once was featured in a starring role in The Wonder Years? These rumors continue to add to the band’s Gothic mystique.
It is interesting to note that Marilyn Manson, like other so-called Satanic heavy-metal bands, thrives on publicity. They rejoice in having churches protest their concerts since this only brings about more publicity, and of course publicity equals greater record sales. I have always thought that parental warnings on recordings serve as a double-edged sword. They do purport to keep “offensive” recordings out of the hands of children, but in actuality they only attract more attention to a questionable recording. It is only human nature, and that old vice curiosity, that makes each of us wonder what is it that they (record companies, governmental bodies, etc.) do not want us to see or hear. I would like to see some numbers on the sales of albums both before they were stamped with a parental warning and afterward. My guess is the sales were much higher after the warnings were added, but we always have that age-old excuse, “The devil made me buy it.”
Apparently, there will always be a number of individuals who take things too seriously. The success of role-playing games such as Goth may make it hard for some of its followers to separate fact from fantasy. There are reported crimes linked to over-zealous believers in the occult. In Knoxville, Tennessee, a Job Corps student was brutally tortured and murdered. A pentagram was carved into her chest and her skull was crushed with a block of asphalt. Her killer allegedly carried away a small piece of her skull both as a souvenir and in the belief that the victim’s spirit would always be forced to remain trapped within her lifeless body. Other teenage murderers include cults of role-playing Goths who actually play the role of real-life vampires and in some extreme cases commit terrible murders that grab the evening news headlines.
It is important to note that regardless of sensational television programming, the FBI claims that there is absolutely no direct evidence of a national or international Satanic underground that produces sacrifices to Satan. There may well be too much credit given to the small number of hard rock acts who adopt strange stage personas in order to help sell records and not enough attention to
the eroding of the basic family unit that unfortunately preaches the same commandment of “do what thou wilt.” If Satan were good business for rock and roll each of the so-called Satanic metal bands would be with major labels, bringing in millions of dollars of revenue each year. The radio airwaves do not electrify their listeners with a daily playlist of black metal. The simple but undeniable facts are that the outrageous heavy metal bands are not generating mass income for the record companies. Most of these bands perform on obscure labels with very limited distribution, and the only way to increase sales is through any publicity that calls attention to the band. In this case, the more outrageous the act, the better. It seems that recently Marilyn Manson has come under attack by some of his fellow Satanists in that Manson seems to not fit the description of Anton LaVey’s concept of “one part outrage, nine parts social respectability.” To most listeners, death metal is only an orchestrated fad that will simply be replaced by the next one, another in a series of acts thrown upon the trash heap of the continuous but inevitable cycle of rock and roll history.
8 The Backward Mask and Other Hidden Messages
—Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3.2 Do you see yonder cloud that?s almost in shape of a camel?
—Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven” And you know sometimes words have two meanings—Aleister Crowley If a man wishes to practice magick he must train himself to think backward by external means, as set forth here following, let him learn to write backward, let him learn to walk backward, let him constantly watch, if convenient, films and listen to records reversed.
Take a Walk on the Dark Side Page 16
