Guest Post from Australia

Classic Rock & Mysticism

"While on the surface many music listeners may hear but simple words in songs by rock legends such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the ever eccentric Ozzy Osbourne the reality is that if you peer beneath the depths of the lyrics of this music, you will sometimes find golden pieces of wisdom of both a philosophical and literal nature…

What I find particularly interesting about the concept is that for the most part, this wisdom, these hidden meanings more often than not fall on complete deaf ears and this really makes one think back to that insightful quote “he who have an ear, let him hear”.

I don’t want to go into specific meanings and lyrical messages that are prominent throughout music, after all, most of it is subject to personal interpretation and if you were meant to have heard it, you would have by now wouldn’t you?

But while it is true, that most messages conveyed through lyrics are subject to personal interpretation, In some circumstances when we understand the background of the individual who has penned the lyrics and music, we can safely conclude they intended us to hear a specific thing…

For example, did you know that Jimmy Page, the world renowned guitarist of led zeppelin was a huge occult practitioner and regularly spent his time traveling about seeking out all sorts of eclectic texts and visiting “scared” locations, Perhaps you did, perhaps you didn’t, but riddle me this…

Those of you who have listened to led zeppelin extensively would know, that during improvisation page often projects an almost “mysterious” feel about his playing and is often seen in footage performing rather strange movements on stage, take for example his antics with the violin bow in dazed and confused.

Now, if you do your research on page, you quickly learn he was extremely interested in the works of Aleister Crowley, in fact for many years he actually owned one of his most used houses, and when you cross reference pages stage antics with Crowley’s writings we can perhaps draw insight into what was going through his mind at the time...

You see, Crowley considered himself a magician, while I won’t go into that specifically, it is worth pointing out that his teachings talk about using talismans, daggers and wands to perform certain alleged “magickal” acts…

Now call me crazy if you will, but if we know that jimmy page was a practicing occultist who followed the works of Crowley during the time that he composed the song dazed and confused, is it such a far stretch to speculate that perhaps in his mind, the violin bow was his “wand” and he was, at least from his point of view, conducting a ritual?

I think so, of course I do know a lot more on the subject, but I can’t be giving away all my secrets now can I? but as we conclude this article for today, it might interest you to know, that jimmy page once spent an entire week alone, conducting occult practices inside Aleister Crowley’s abbey in Scotland, when he returned, he had  written the song Kashmir…

Interesting don’t you think? Take a closer listen to some of your music, you will be surprised at what is there to be learned just beneath the surface."

Please let me know what you think of his insights, he may become a frequent guest here at Layla's.

Also, check out his website which you will also find listed in the sidebar:

Dub Turbo