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Old 02-01-2018, 07:14 AM   #1
Funbags
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Red face Saint Patrick and the **** Machina Mystery.

I've gotta get this out of my system: Billy is obviously using a conceptual framework for the role of audience, celebrity, and God that he's been using to inform his lyrics since at least Machina. It's like, I *think* he's added a deeper layer of meaning to his work, but I can't quite get it.

I mean, check out this quote...

Quote:
"You see the brilliance of a Freddy Mercury, or a John Lennon at almost a higher level -a higher octave- of the way they brought people together. In the past you'd think 'Oh he's a good singer...writes good songs, we come together' ...no, no, no; they're like saints or shamans" - Billy in 2012 (source)
Now check out this Marilyn Manson quote from over a decade prior...

Quote:
"Christ was the blue-print for celebrity. He was the first celebrity, or rock star. I started to, in my weird drugged version of Hollywood, dream up a world where these dead stars are really saints." -
Marilyn Manson in 1999 (source)
Billy was helping Manson with the Mechanical Animals concept in early '98 and wrote the first Machina demos in late '98. They've obviously discussed the subject in depth together, so it's possible that Billy has been thinking of people like John Lennon as a form of Saint -a voice of God- since at least as long ago as Marilyn's quote.

ENTER THE RABBIT HOLE

I mean, maybe everything in GATMOG is true. Maybe Billy had an epiphany in his attic while listening to starz on the radio that changed his life. Maybe the sacred world is being channeled into the profane world through the radio, and...

Quote:
...only a warm heart and a knowing smile granting entrance to this mystery...for every age held it's oracles and truth tellers, it's false bell ringers of alarm, and of course the hollow spectres of complacency
WHAT GIVES.

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 07:15 AM   #2
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M E T A
M A C H I N A
M Y S T E R Y

(fucking censored title)

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 10:58 AM   #3
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What I'm getting from this is that **** is censored?

Last edited by DemonUnicorns : 02-01-2018 at 05:18 PM.

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 10:59 AM   #4
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Well damn would you look at that.

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 12:03 PM   #5
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that's because you touch yourself at night.

meta, meta, meta!

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 01:04 PM   #6
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Anaise! Anaise!

... meta!

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 04:32 PM   #7
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****...stase.

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 08:02 PM   #8
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TIN FOIL HATS ON

Billy's summary of the Glass and the Ghost Machines story (available here) lays out an explanation for the last 20 years of his career.

He literally says he was a big, empty celebrity named Zero who looked out into the crowd and saw 'a billion shattered souls'. He was listening to the radio wondering how the greats resonate with the world (maybe he heard himself among them), and realized it's the voice of God speaking through them. He also literally says that he was humbled to have been chosen by God to be a messenger.

Now check out this quote about what a Saint actually is:

Quote:
we see Christ through His saints, as we see a light through a stained glass window, but we also understand the saints only through Christ.
Now go back and read GATMOG...

Quote:
thumbtacked to ceilings all over the world lay his schemes and praton wishes, cold flung to white light, like scrapnel of a teenage atom bomb...the kids waited their turn for their piece, and the eyes watched you everywhere...amongst these ruins our hero dies zero and finds a dead station moving static code...thru the channels and medium still he spoke only to find out he wasn't speaking at all, just humming someone elses favourite song...the voice says you are one of many more to come...
Quote:
...this is our moment, our world, this is our church, our children, our dominion as yet undisclosed, as yet unclaimed...the universe is ours reduced to tiny portraiture...
Quote:
look to the I of the radio for all you seek the eye of the radio is everywhere, the maker of all that is real + all that is unseen. Be not afraid, for the I of the radio loves you and will always play your favourite songs.
What he's essentially saying is that every generation has it's messengers of God to serve the purpose of a Saint, and in his generation, it just happened to be in the symbol of a rock star. Not everyone who is chosen listens, apparently, but God finds a way to break through every time.

Pop star / what's our mission / Do we know / but never listen

Born of love and cast in light / don't you know we cannot die / we are stars

WELCOME TO THE META MYSTERY

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 08:07 PM   #9
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Am I president of Sad Machines yet?

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 08:28 PM   #10
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i thought it was 'poptart'

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 08:50 PM   #11
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Fuck!

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 10:44 PM   #12
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i like it better as pop star.

good mystery. A+

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 11:15 PM   #13
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go on

 
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Old 02-01-2018, 11:55 PM   #14
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Yes, more please, it is happy to read your mysterys

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 06:01 AM   #15
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TARANTULA AND THE META MYSTERY

Quote:
rain falls on everyone / the same old rain / and i'm just trying to walk with you / between the raindrops
Quote:
in radio static he waited for an order that may never come he never wanted to be outside in the direct sun (from GATMOG)
Quote:
...funny how this revolution was televised and everybody got bored and changed the channel to what? chattering mannequins on angel dust (from GATMOG)
cant stand the morning rain?
get out i'll take your place then

can't stand the blazing sun?
then close your eyes you'll see
the angel dust


Rain is code for the suffering that falls on everyone. It's also used in Speed Kills; "You were one of God's children / left to cry out in the rain / waiting to be saved again". This song mentions light too; "When I ride with you tonight / We can move at the speed of light" (i.e. with God).

Blank Page also mentions rain ("The rain falls / my friends call / leaking rain on the phone") -but I doubt he intended to make it a recurring theme at the time. The Beatles' song Rain uses rain as a metaphor for suffering (and they mention the sun too!).

BTW, the line before the bridge in Tarantula is: "freeze-frame the pouring rain". Which brings us to...

Quote:
i'll claim my prize / i don't exist / i am divine / a ghost with eyes (from Lucky 13)
Quote:
I used to be a little boy so old in my shoes...for every face slap that imprinted itself as tattoo under my skin,...every indignity that scarred itself upon my broken heart, walks with me as ghost and conscience...a boy, a zero, a hero, a goat, a ghost frozen glass (from GATMOG)
Quote:
All were sung to the ghost children, the synthetic flesh flash of ideal and glitter gash in their dreams they saw him surreal, but he was as real as they needed him to be. (from GATMOG)
we are the real, as real as any ghost
so easy now
we are the real in every living soul
oh don't they know?

And again in the chorus...

we are the real, if real ever was
and just because
we are the ruin of every living soul
we are surreal
'cause someone gave us up

Ghost is code for a lost spirit, a "shattered soul", one of God's Children. Hence Glass and the Ghost Children. The "skulls of every cog" mentioned in the Everlasting Gaze means "Child of God". Billy also mentions this in GATMOG: "GLASS has aligned himself with god...a messenger he shall be, but is he just a c.o.g. within another c.o.g. within another machine?".

A star is a ghost chosen by God, made surreal in the Everlasting Gaze of the audience. I'd need to dig further, but Billy seems to be alluding to the real magic happening when the star aligns with god and the audience at the same time.

Run 2 me / where the sun never leaves!

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 06:08 AM   #16
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Flat Earth confirmed

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 06:13 AM   #17
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Lover, you're strange 2 me.

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 09:13 AM   #18
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rain and suffering as a commonality that everyone experiences has been literary theme for CENTURIES.

people that make it/succeed the level they were in the 90's obviously feel a certain 'god speaking through me' moments of doubt. It's an obvious progression. once you know you've got millions of people listening to you, it'll 100% affect what you want to choose to communicate to them. wanna call that influence 'god'? eh. Personally i'm chaotic negative, but I could see how that position could change someone. And personal change is something that's hard to fully grasp when its' thrust upon you the way it is with fame. Sure, call it 'real magic'.

the only thing that's met*a about this is how billy didn't really have anything to say once he got there, so he just talked about being there. like famous rappers rapping about all their gold and wealth once they've gotten it. Sorry dude, us plebs down here don't got those riches and don't get what you're on about.

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 01:11 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by T&T View Post
rain and suffering as a commonality that everyone experiences..
What about beavers? Otters? Muskrats!?

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 02:20 PM   #20
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Here's something to add to the mystery. Siamese Dream album cover star is also the ZERO star. SD and MCIS are his biggest albums.

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 03:27 PM   #21
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Platypuses?

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 07:19 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by T&T View Post
rain and suffering as a commonality that everyone experiences has been literary theme for CENTURIES.

people that make it/succeed the level they were in the 90's obviously feel a certain 'god speaking through me' moments of doubt. It's an obvious progression. once you know you've got millions of people listening to you, it'll 100% affect what you want to choose to communicate to them. wanna call that influence 'god'? eh. Personally i'm chaotic negative, but I could see how that position could change someone. And personal change is something that's hard to fully grasp when its' thrust upon you the way it is with fame. Sure, call it 'real magic'.

the only thing that's met*a about this is how billy didn't really have anything to say once he got there, so he just talked about being there. like famous rappers rapping about all their gold and wealth once they've gotten it. Sorry dude, us plebs down here don't got those riches and don't get what you're on about.
That's true about rain. Billy is consciously aware of symbolism in rock and is maintaining a consistent symbolic language across his work as part of a bigger picture. And you're right about Billy realizing he had nothing to say when he reached the top. That was his crisis in the attic. He didn't sing about being rich and famous either, he sung about the trappings of fame shattering Glass.

As for God...
  • "They asked 'What's the future of Rock?' and I said 'God'"
  • "I think God is the great unexplored territory in rock and roll music"
  • "Bono and Co. created the template for modern Christian Rock, and I'd like to think Jesus would want us all to evolve"


 
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Old 02-02-2018, 07:22 PM   #23
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Acid burnout.

 
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Old 02-02-2018, 09:19 PM   #24
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My man got bullet points

 
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Old 02-03-2018, 08:25 PM   #25
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I got bullet points all day!

Last edited by Funbags : 02-03-2018 at 08:33 PM.

 
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Old 02-03-2018, 08:37 PM   #26
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The Machina mystery is just so very deep and intellectual. A very stable genius must have come up with it.

 
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Old 02-03-2018, 09:12 PM   #27
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I believe crazier things are possible in SPLand.

1999:

Billy: "I've been thinking. We should come together as a group. Like, live in a house together for a month and reconnect with each other as people. Also, you will now refer to me as Glass at all times. Jimmy, your name is now "Thunder Jack", D'Arcy, you are "Namel" and James, you shall henceforth be referred to as "Snaky Tooth".

"Uh, Bill, I think you-"

"Shut the fuck up, Snaky Tooth."

"Well, fuck this. *Leaves*

 
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Old 02-03-2018, 09:56 PM   #28
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I'm listening to Heavy Metal Machine from the 2007 AOL Sessions...

Not so fast
You didn't think I'd look back
But sometimes you just need some Glass
So sit back and relax


...and the heavy metal chant?

Heavy metal / resurrection machine

 
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Old 02-03-2018, 10:24 PM   #29
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It's about meth, dude.

 
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Old 02-03-2018, 10:39 PM   #30
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There are so many layers...

 
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