Crowley’s influence in rock and roll is perhaps due to his life of excess. Some individuals have admired the way in which he lived such a life of depravity. Earlier in English history the poets Byron and Shelley pursued the same goals. They embraced the many pleasures of life and turned a deaf ear to the demands of a puritan society. Each new adventure provided a thrill that thrust each man further along in the pursuit of still greater pleasure. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, like Crowley, became addicted to a prescribed medication, laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol), in childhood, and his excessive use of the medication cost him his wife and family as well as his friendship with Wordsworth. His poem “Kubla Khan” was written under a hallucinatory dream state. Just so, newly crowned rock stars have admired the constant pursuit of the senses and tragically been consumed by their own passions into untimely death. The apostle of LSD, Timothy Leary, was a follower of Crowley’s “Do What Thou Wilt” and interpreted the meaning as to “do your own thing.” In this case, Leary was convinced that to do your own thing actually meant to expand your consciousness with drugs. With this point Crowley would readily agree.
Rock star Daryl Hall, who owns a signed and numbered copy of Aleister Crowley’s The Book of Thoth (Thoth was the Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, and magic), reveals that “Around 1974, I graduated into the occult, and spent a solid six or seven years immersed in the cabala and the Chaldean, Celtic, and druidic traditions, [and] ancient techniques for focusing the inner flame, the will that can create unimagined things and truly transform your individual universe. I became fascinated with Aleister Crowley, the nineteenth-century British magician who shared those beliefs…. I was fascinated by him because his personality was the late-nineteenth-century equivalent of mine—a person brought up in a conventionally religious family who did everything he could to outrage the people around him as well as himself.”15 Hall went on to say, “I don’t believe in the dictionary concept of the occult because there’s no reason to make anything secret. Secrets were for oppressive societies where people had to go underground to literally keep their heads—which unfortunately may not be that far away from recurring. But at least in this point in time we can say whatever we want and share it and feel it … I’ve got a cousin who’s a pro-Sandinista Methodist minister, and, of course, he’s got me. We’re a rare bunch, but then, my great-great-grandfather had to be unique to be a witch, and dedicated, too.”16 (Ironically, Hall’s birth date is October 11. Crowley’s birth date [Crowleymas] is October 12.)
Ozzy Osbourne is one performer who constantly seems to bear the brunt of criticism for each crime said to be committed in the devil’s name. Album imagery, Gothic stage sets, and the illusion of the supernatural world are fixed symbols of an Ozzy Osbourne performance. The release of Blizzard of Ozz (1980) united Ozzy Osbourne and a young Randy Rhoads. Rhoads was to become not only the driving force behind Osbourne’s music, but one of the singer’s greatest friends. The Blizzard of Ozz LP contained not only the heavy-metal anthem “Crazy Train,” but also “Mr. Crowley,” a song dedicated to Aleister Crowley himself. Osbourne sings: “You fooled all the people with magic, you waited on Satan’s call.” Rhoads contributed the music, complete with a blazing guitar riff. With the release of Diary of a Madman (1981), the band was on the way to greater heights. The album jacket of Diary of a Madman contained many symbols that listeners took to be satanic, when actually they were just used as an “artistic” quality, for the standard Gothic heavy-metal effect.
During the tour for Diary of a Madman, on March 19, 1982, Randy Rhoads went for a short flight in Osbourne’s private plane. The pilot had made one previous flight and had convinced Rhoads and Ozzy’s female hairdresser to go up with him for a second adventure. It appeared that everything was going well when all at once the plane soared lower toward the band’s bus as if it were going to crash into the side. Some of the crew believed this to be a practical joke, others mention that the pilot had just ended a painful romantic relationship and had dipped the plane in the direction of his former lover. For whatever the reason, the tip of one of the plane’s wings hit the tour bus, forcing the plane to crash into a nearby house. All the plane’s passengers were killed. Strangely, the date of the plane crash fell upon March 19, the very eve of Aleister Crowley’s Equinox of the Gods and the start of a Thelemic New Year. In this case Rhoads’s death paralleled the lyric in “Mr. Crowley”: “Your lifestyle seemed so tragic with the thrill of it all.”
5 “SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL”
—The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil” Pleased to meet you. I hope you guess my name.
—The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter” Rape, murder … It’s just a shot away, it’s just a shot away!
—The Daily Mail They look like boys whom any self-respecting mum would lock in the bathroom! But the Rolling Stones—five tough young London-based music makers with doorstep mouths, pallid cheeks, and unkempt hair—are not worried what mums think!
WHAT A CHANGE FROM THE BEATLES! When the British invasion began, the Beatles represented the boys next door. They were well groomed and polite, and their songs merely hinted at holding your daughter’s hand. The Stones, however, represented the rebellious side of rock. Not only did they not want to hold your daughter’s hand, they brazenly suggested that they should spend the night together! Most audiences were in complete shock as this seeming antithesis of the Beatles made their way across the pop charts and the flickering television screens of the America public. The irony in all of this was the fact that the Beatles were every bit as working class as the Stones. Their early performances came complete with black leather jackets and trousers. They were even promoted as “The Savage Young Beatles.” The smooth transformation into tailor-made suits was due to the public-relations genius of Brian Epstein. Though their outward appearance changed radically, the Beatles saw themselves as very much in the same mold as the Rolling Stones.
The Rolling Stones rank as one of rock and roll’s greatest and most prolific bands, with their music spanning four decades. Perhaps the longevity of the band is due in part to their ability to adapt to the changing styles of music and their experimentation with different instruments as well as varying themes in their songs. While they have consistently portrayed an image of badboy rock and rollers, there is a period in their music that is chilling in retrospect. The Rolling Stones were the creation of Brian Jones, a shaghaired blond guitarist with an angelic face. Jones was born in Cheltenham. His father was an aeronautical engineer and his mother was a piano teacher. In his early youth Brian Jones was a good student who participated in school sports, cricket and swimming. But his real love, even then, was music, as he excelled at the piano, clarinet, and saxophone. His parents became convinced that he would pursue a career in classical music. When Jones reached the age of thirteen he became rebellious. His school grades suffered and at this young age he stood at his own crossroads and sold his soul for American blues. He became a disciple of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, and Howlin’ Wolf, and became one of the first British guitarists to take up the slide guitar. After he was forced from his home by his parents (Brian’s father claimed that his son’s music gave him a migraine), Jones often hosted jam sessions in his small flat. His fellow musicians comprised a who’s who of devotees of American rhythm and blues, and the small voluntary contributions of his sparse audiences helped pay his rent until his music finally allowed him to support himself.
In 1960, Brian Jones was to meet the two essential musicians who would complete his musical dreams. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were performing together in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys. Their overpowering love of the blues led them to listen to Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, and they became enthralled by Jones’s slide guitar work in the group. When Brian placed an ad in the Jazz News for musicians to put together a new group, Jagger and Richards decided that they would schedule an audition. The resulting chemistry, with a few personnel changes, would give birth to what would later become one of the most prodigi
ous groups in rock and roll history. Brian Jones took the group’s name from an old Muddy Waters song, “Rolling Stone.” They managed an early appearance at the Crawdaddy Club and altogether split the grand total of £24. Little did the crowd of sixty-six people realize that they had witnessed the birth of a legend.
It wasn’t easy for the Stones to duplicate the success of the Beatles. They were not able to immediately sweep into America and win the hearts and loyalty of American fans. Decca Records released the Stones’ versions of Chuck Berry’s “Come On” and Willie Dixon’s “I Want to Be Loved.” Both tracks were lackluster, but Decca was now infamous as the label that had rejected the Beatles. They did not want to make the same mistake with another band that could help feed the public’s insatiable appetite for new rock and roll groups in the Beatles’ image.
The American tour became even more frustrating when their “Little Red Rooster” single was actually banned from certain U.S. stations as being obscene. Even the group’s first performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 was such a failure that Sullivan himself remarked, “I promise you they’ll never be back on our show.”2 The Stones admired the great American black blues artists and managed to record at Chicago’s Chess Studios on their first American tour. To the young Englishmen this was rock and roll mecca. Keith Richards remembers the group’s first meeting with the artist who had supplied their inspiration. When the Stones arrived at Chess Studios they saw Muddy Waters for the first time. The blues guitarist was dressed in white overalls on top of a stepladder, painting. Someone said, “‘Well, meet Muddy Waters,’ and we look up and he’s standing on a stepladder painting the ceiling. And we’re all toppling over ourselves, bewildered, thinking, ‘What’s this? Is this a hobby of his?’ Can you imagine? And we’re recording in the same studio where he made his records! After that, you start to realize how tough the business can be. Here’s one of your gods painting the ceiling, and you’re making a record of some of his songs.”3
Of course, things changed drastically after the release of their first big hit singles, “The Last Time” and “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” It was now 1965, and the winter of the Stones’ discontent was now well over. Finally, America surrendered, and the Stones established themselves as the heirs apparent to Beatlemania. Hit singles one after another helped entrench the Rolling Stones at the same level as the Fab Four. The public was now split into two camps, each constantly arguing over which group was the best. Which of these groups would break from the mold and lead the listening audience into new unexplored dimensions of sound? The competition seemed to bring out the very best in both bands. New instruments like the sitar and the dulcimer found their way into Beatles and Stones recordings. Brian Jones had a special knack for picking up a new instrument and immediately mastering it in only a matter of minutes. With this the Stones more than matched the Beatles’ creative output. That was of course until 1967, the year that the Beatles unleashed Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It was now the “Summer of Love” and the strains of psychedelic music permeated the airwaves, much like the pungent smell of bittersweet incense. It was a new age and the Beatles had once again led the way with an innovative collection of songs that differed greatly from anything previously heard at this time. The Stones would have to venture into the unknown waters of psychedelia and away from their firmly planted blues roots, which had always supplied their musical foundation. Surely, the Stones would have to meet the Beatles’ challenge head on and produce an album equal to Sgt. Pepper’s. Newfound fame soon brought new relationships to the band. These new associates would provide novel avenues of escape for the frequently bored musicians who had now tasted the many pleasures of life. This is where the Rolling Stones began a flirtation with the dark side, and a fascination with witchcraft and magic. One of these newfound confederates was none other than American filmmaker Kenneth Anger.
Kenneth Anger was born in Hollywood, California, in 1930. He made his first film appearance when he was but four years old in Max Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Later in his career he danced with Shirley Temple and in 1947, at the age of seventeen, he completed his first, critically acclaimed film, Fireworks. This he accomplished using only his parents’ home movie camera. It was during his teenage years that Anger developed his interest in Aleister Crowley. He has stated that he intended for his films “to cast a spell, to be a magical invocation of his fusion of dreams, desire, myth, and vision.” This would be a way for the filmmaker to transform his mystical views to his audiences.
In 1960, Kenneth Anger published his best-selling book Hollywood Babylon, which reveled in the scandalous behavior of the beautiful people in the film capital of the world. Anger’s grandmother had once served as a studio wardrobe mistress and repeated to him all the sordid details of the scandals and gossip encompassing Hollywood royalty. This proved to be Kenneth Anger’s inspiration for his book. (Alternative rock group the Gin Blossoms took their name from a caption in Hollywood Babylon II for a photo of W. C. Fields’s bulbous red nose, his skin described as having a bad case of “gin blossoms” from his years of drinking heavily. Tragedy later followed the band. Founding member, lead guitarist, and main songwriter Doug Hopkins had recurring problems with alcohol abuse and depression—not the best of partnerships—and was fired by the band after the recording of New Miserable Experience. After the release, the band enjoyed its greatest success, but Hopkins committed suicide in December of 1993, when he became yet one more victim of his own personal demons.)
It was also during the late sixties that Anger, now the renegade avantgarde filmmaker, took up residence in Great Britain and became a social fixture in the many gatherings attended by rock’s superstars. Anger first met Mick Jagger at gallery owner Robert Fraser’s home in Mayfair. It seemed that Kenneth Anger was very enamored with the almost supernatural power that the Stones held over their audiences. He was also most impressed with Mick Jagger’s personal charisma. After this meeting, Anger provided lectures concerning the occult powers of Aleister Crowley and the concept of “Do what thou wilt.” Led Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page was so impressed by the Crowley legend that he actually purchased Crowley’s mansion at Boleskine, Scotland.
With their newfound interest in the occult to serve as a guide, the Stones were determined to match the Beatles’ success with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. This became more of a compulsion with Jagger and also served as a major power play to cast Brian Jones from the band. Jones was a rhythm and blues purist. He was convinced that an uncharted journey into psychedelic sounds would only serve as a terrible mistake. The Stones would simply be Beatle imitators and could go so far as to alienate their fans. As Jones told friend Tony Sanchez, “If he [Jagger] insists on recording this kind of crap, the Stones are dead.” Jagger replied, “It’s psychedelic, man, pretty soon everything is going to be psychedelic, and if we aren’t in there on our next album, we will be left behind. No one is going to want to listen to rhythm and blues anymore.” Mick Jagger easily won Keith Richards over and work began on Their Satanic Majesties Request. During the recording Brian Jones did little to contribute to the swirling psychedelic cacophony. At times cruel jokes were played upon him such as having him attempt the overdubbing of guitar lines with the tape recorders off. The mantle of leadership had now fallen from Brian Jones’s shoulders and he had lost control of his very creation. The Satanic Majesties Request album cover was designed by Michael Cooper (who had also photographed the Sgt. Pepper’s cover). The cover art portrayed the Stones dressed as wizards and magicians complete with a pointed wizard hat: “Jagger purchased books at the Indica Shop. Among his favorite references were The Secret of the Golden Flower, The Golden Bough, and Morning of the Magicians—each was filled with cryptic allusions—green suns and celestial travelers.”4 A special camera had been flown in from Japan to shoot a 3-D image for the cover. If you look closely you can see the images of the four Beatles in the shrubbery. This was done by the Rolling Stones to
repay the plug the Beatles had given them on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover (on the Sgt. Pepper’s front cover there is a stuffed doll wearing a “Welcome the Rolling Stones” sweatshirt). The Satanic Majesties Request album title was given as a sarcastic parody of the Queen. Unfortunately, the Stones managed only to parody themselves.
Their Satanic Majesties Request became a critical failure for the band. Brian Jones was right. Critics claimed that this album was merely released to cash in on the success of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Stones would return to their musical roots but for now it seemed as if the die had been cast. Brian Jones would not be a Stone much longer and he was being stalked by the shadowy essence of death. When production began on Beggars Banquet, the Rolling Stones were now much deeper into their studies of black magic. Kenneth Anger continued his influence and was said to have suggested the creating of a rock anthem to Satan, “Sympathy for the Devil.” In 1970 Mick Jagger starred in the lead role of the cult film Performance, in which he played the role of Turner, a rock star who dressed in makeup and feminine clothing. Jagger’s character also studied the occult and was obsessed with black magic. This role obviously shaped Mick Jagger’s persona in the years that followed, as if he had assimilated the fictional character into his own being. In this case, life did imitate art! The occult props from the movie set constantly disappeared. It seemed that Anita Pallenberg had them taken so that she could become the high priestess in the Stones’ newfound beliefs. Pallenberg was a beautiful blonde who was originally Brian Jones’s lover. At this time she had left Jones and was now living with Keith Richards.
The concept for the “Sympathy for the Devil” was based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, a book that dealt with satanic fantasy. During this time period Kenneth Anger developed a concept for his salute to Satan. He intended to create a film that he would entitle Lucifer Rising. Anger was later to state, “I was going to film a version of Lucifer Rising with the Stones. All the roles were to be carefully cast, with Mick being Lucifer and Keith as Beelzebub. Beelzebub is really the Lord of the Flies and is like the crown prince next to the king in the complicated hierarchy of demons. Beelzebub is like a henchman for Lucifer….” Mick Jagger had agreed to compose a musical score to be used as the sound track for Anger’s Lucifer Rising. After Jagger dropped out of the film role, Anger used Chris Jagger, Mick’s brother, as Lucifer and Marianne Faithfull as Lilith. Anger dropped Chris Jagger after one day of filming, and his search for Lucifer was to continue. Mick Jagger helped with the production of the film, which was shot in exotic places, using Egypt as the main focal point (perhaps since it was here that Aleister Crowley received the inspiration for The Book of the Law). In Marianne Faithfull’s book Faithfull: An Autobiography, she recalls the creation of Lucifer Rising: “One day, into my cheerless routine came a flamboyant figure out of my past. Kenneth Anger, underground filmmaker and soidisant magician. Having misread Mick’s pantomime Satanism, he must have assumed that I believed in black magic (and was ripe to be his apprentice).” Anger wanted Faithfull to portray the role of Lilith in Lucifer Rising. She didn’t believe that Anger possessed psychic or magical powers, but she did believe in his powers as a filmmaker: “Lilith is obviously one of the great female archetypes, another form of the Great Mother like Ishtar and Astarte, Diana, Aphrodite and Demeter. From the point of view of the patriarchy, of course, she is the pure incantation of evil. Lilith did not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, so she never knew right from wrong.”
Take a Walk on the Dark Side Page 8